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Working with China's Generation Y

Population demographics make it essential to understand the priorities of Chinese employees born in the 1980s: They make up about 50% of the country's current working-age population. Although local and foreign organizations in China must learn to manage Gen Ys effectively to remain successful, they are struggling. In a previous article, Reckoning with Chinese Generation Y, we introduced our research showing that urban Chinese Gen Y members are smart and well-educated. While they hold on to many traditional values, they are beginning to challenge the preeminence of hierarchy.

In urban China, Gen Y is a group of exceptionally talented people. No other generation in Chinese history has received such high-quality education for so many people. Chinese Gen Ys are single children born under China's one-child policy. According to studies such as those by Posten and Falbo of the Guttmacher Institute, China's solo children perform significantly better academically than peers with siblings. These single children have grown up in traditional extended families (including four grandparents and two parents), under pressure since kindergarten to pass entrance exams. This means that the child's educational performance has been a top priority for six adults.

Chinese culture has always emphasized academic excellence as the source of family pride and achievement. Cross-cultural IQ studies indicate that culture impacts even IQ: Memorizing some 2500 Chinese characters at an early age stimulates the brain and Chinese show higher IQ scores on average. This means Gen Ys have been generously stimulated throughout childhood and now have more advanced and complex brains than many other people. So a large number of Chinese Gen Ys are gifted.

Gifted people are often hypersensitive. Psychologists call it over-excitability (OE). Because of their constitution and their upbringing, many Gen Ys suffer from unhealthy perfectionism, meaning that any work that is less-than-perfect is unacceptable and merits criticism. This creates self-doubt, performance anxiety, and ultimately, procrastination. Being exceptionally bright does not necessarily mean being successful: For instance, most members of the Mensa society for people with high IQs remain unexceptional.

generation gap with management

In our interviews with business leaders, they experience Gen Y members as ambitious and demanding, hypersensitive, and almost allergic to criticism. They are puzzled by the amount of "emotion" Gen Y employees add to the workplace. The combination of high intelligence and overexcitability explains many of the difficulties managers have with their Gen Y staff.

While they take for granted that hierarchy exists, Gen Y does not comply with hierarchic rules as the previous generation—the generation of their managers—does. This creates friction between young staffers and supervisors.

Many multinational companies in China have a layer of Gen X middle managers who tend to be less assertive than their Gen Y staff. These managers may rarely voice opinions in meetings, yet are now managing a group of young people with good English skills, full of confidence in speaking up and interacting with foreigners. The young want to take initiative and share ideas but lack experience. Their immediate bosses at the middle level feel squeezed, not respected, and unable to deal with their young subordinates.

Even in the service sector, where the middle managers are considered quite modern, friction persists between the generations. For example, a typical 40-year-old manager lives easily with the idea that organizations have written rules that are not always implemented. This manager trusts his superior to treat him correctly. Gen Y is drawing a line between personal and professional contexts and does not bear this trust outside personal relationships. Gen Y has grown up with grandparents, parents, and teachers all telling them what to do. "We don't want to be talked at anymore," they say.

Regions : Asia

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