Organizational effectiveness is closely tied with an organization’s ability to create alignment in members of the organization regardless of department, salary, or responsibility level (Limani et al., 2015, p. 52). Without consensus among leaders and employees on what is important throughout the organization, training will not achieve the positive measurable results desired; this makes organizational alignment a critical variable for success (Conner, 2006, p. 148). The challenge to creating alignment throughout an organization is each individual’s operation out of their own personal intrinsic motivations stemming from their own values, beliefs, and attitudes (Eden and Ackermann, 2012). If an organizational desires to grow and be successful, leaders must find a way to appeal to the intrinsic values held by individuals, and bring them together to buy-in to the organization’s goals and purposes.
For most organizations, finding employee alignment despite personal intrinsic values is not the only challenge to be faced. Several external factors of environment create obstacles that must be overcome. For example, as the workforce begins to welcome in the Millennial Generation, or Generation Y, organizational leaders have to account for the worldview of Generation Y and their perspective on organizational alignment. Having been raised in a post-911 world where terrorism, corporate scandals, and market crashes are considered normal, Millennials have a natural distrust for the world around them (Bolser & Gosciej, 2015). They desire greater flexibility and have an external focus (Limani et al., 2015, p. 54) in an endeavor to create a better world rather than fit into an existing broken world (Bolser & Gosciej, 2015). Organizational leaders need to create strategy that provides flexibility, discovery, as well as avenues for collaboration in order to get buy-in, and loyalty, from this incoming generation.
What obstacles hinder organizational strategy to account for Millennials in the workforce?
References
Bolser, K., & Gosciej, R. (2015). Millennials: Multi-Generational Leaders Staying Connected. Journal of Practical Consulting, vol. 5(iss. 2), pp. 1–9.
Connor, K. T. (2006). Assessing organizational ethics: measuring the gaps. Industrial and Commercial Training, 38(3), 148–155. http://doi.org/10.1108/00197850610659418
Eden, C., & Ackermann, F. (2011). Making Strategy: Mapping Out Strategic Success (Second Edition edition). London: SAGE Publications Ltd.
Limani, A., Tomovska-Misoska, A., & Bojadjiev, M. (2015). Organizational Alignment as a Model of Sustainable Development in the Public Sector in the Republic of Macedonia. Journal of Sustainable Development (1857-8519), 5(12), 51–68.
