In This Article
(Click the links below to move easily to sections of this article)Understanding the Baby Boomer Personality and their Core Values
What Events Shaped the Baby Boomer Personality
Video: Understanding and Managing Baby Boomers
Quiz: Understanding Baby Boomers
Scholarly Citation for this Article
Generations in the Workplace Article Series
Member Content
- Motivation Word Cloud: Generation X Workplace Values
- Motivation Word Cloud: Generation Y Workplace Values
- Motivation Word Cloud: Generation Z Workplace Values
- Motivation Word Cloud: Baby Boomer Workplace Values
- Leadership Infographic: 5 Ways Insightful Leaders Engage Generation X
- Leadership Infographic: 5 Ways Insightful Leaders Engage Generation Y (Millennials)
- Leadership Infographic: 5 Ways Insightful Leaders Engage Generation Z
- Leadership Infographic: 5 Ways Insightful Leaders Engage Baby Boomers
Understanding the Baby Boomer Personality and their Core Values
Generational personality comes from events that a generation of people experience as they are growing up in a certain point in time in American history. These events shape the values of that generation which they later bring to the workplace.
Baby Boomers (also known as Boomers) were born around 1943 through 1960. They are a post-war generation who came into being during a period of economic and population growth, advances in medicine, and industrial expansion beyond agriculture.
Those parents who could often indulged and protected their Baby Boomer children. This attention has given Boomers an optimistic and self-focused attitude.
The core values of Baby Boomers include optimism, team orientation, personal gratification, health and wellness, personal growth, youthfulness, work, and involvement. When a workplace environment supports their values Baby Boomers are more satisfied with their jobs. When these and other values important to them are missing, Baby Boomers are less engaged.
Baby Boomers are restless souls who see themselves as the Stars of the Show. Click To TweetWhat Events Shaped the Baby Boomer Personality
One can understand the restless nature of Baby Boomers when we look back at some of the influential events that shaped them as they were growing up. Here’s a list of 15 of those events:
- 1954 – Army-McCarthy hearings begin
- 1955 – Rosa Parks refuses to move to the back of the bus
- 1957 – First nuclear power plant
- 1960 – Kennedy elected President
- 1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis
- 1963 – Martin Luther King leads march on Washington DC
- 1963 – President John Kennedy assassinated
- 1964 – Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed
- 1965 – United States sends ground troops to Vietnam
- 1966 – National Organization for Women founded
- 1967 – American Indian Movement Founded
- 1968 – Martin Luther King assassinated
- 1968 – Robert Kennedy assassinated
- 1969 – First moon landing
- 1970 – Kent State University Shootings
Video: Understanding and Managing the Baby Boomer Generation
Quiz: Understanding Baby Boomers
Scholarly Citation for this Article
This article has been cited in the following scholarly research article:
- Journal of Organizational Psychology: Employee Engagement: Generational Differences in the Workforce | McMurry University (Patricia A. Lapoint and Ann Liprie-Spence)
Generations in the Workplace Article Series
Reference: Generations at Work. AMACOM
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This article is accurate to the best of the author’s knowledge.
Content is for informational or educational purposes only and does not substitute for professional advice in business, management, legal, or human resource matters.
