Intergenerational and Peer Communication in the Workplace: An Analysis of Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction

Abstract

This research used an on-line survey to examine intergenerational communication in the workplace. Respondents were 165 young, middle-aged, and older working adults randomly assigned to report on workplace communication with either peer or intergenerational co-workers. All completed a questionnaire assessing satisfaction with communication with coworkers in the target group, and 134 respondents also provided descriptions of a satisfactory and a dissatisfactory work conversation with a member of the target group, following Williams and Giles (1996). Young and older respondents reported greater satisfaction with peer than intergenerational coworker communication on the questionnaire as predicted, but middle-aged respondents indicated equivalent satisfaction with peer and older coworker communication. Emergent theme analysis of the conversational descriptions revealed that, consistent with communication accommodation theory (Giles, Coupland, & Coupland, 1991), satisfactory conversations were characterized by accommodative communication behaviors, positive feelings, and goal accomplishment, whereas dissatisfactory conversations were associated with underaccommodative communication behaviors, negative feelings, and goal non-accomplishment. Although the forms of accommodation and underaccommodation varied in emphasis across age groups and descriptions of peer and intergenerational conversations, more similarities than differences were noted. The ways in which the work context shapes conceptions of age were also identified. Together, these results provide evidence that the work context may foster a shared identity that serves to reduce the salience of age in workplace interactions, consistent with the common ingroup identity model (Dovidio & Gaertner, 2000), but that shared identity at the interpersonal level does not necessarily lead to general communication satisfaction with intergenerational coworkers.