Generation, descent, conflict of generations. Concepts that are considered in different words in our language, in fact, have a single meaning… We should use the word “generation”. We should briefly define this as a community formed by people born in close proximity to each other, experiencing the same social, cultural, historical, political, etc. experiences, whose personality traits are shaped according to the timeline they live in.
Generation gap, intergenerational conflict, difficulty in understanding each other, each generation criticizing the previous or next generation with disfavour…
Generations are generally defined by birth as follows:
- 1927-1945: Silent Generation
- 1946-1964: Baby Boomers
- 1965-1979: Generation X
- 1980-1999: Generation Y
- 2000-2013: Generation Z
- Alpha Generation is defined for those born after 2013.
Awareness about the study of generational differences was understood in the 1970s. Since then, studies are carried out in the world, especially in the USA, from an academic point of view, accompanied by research.
Generational studies are extremely important and valuable. We need to understand the generations who don’t think like us, where our ways of doing businesses are different, and also analyse them well in order to reach them. I think the first step to this will be to eliminate our existing prejudices and be able to look at the behavior and lives of these generations with their current realities.
Although there are differences between each other, Generations Y and Z are questioning, picky, extremely competent in the digital world, never afraid to express their ideas freely, sensitive to the environment, people and differences, brave about change, extremely aware of their rights, and express their demands openly. They have common characteristics as people who can easily change their workplace when their demands are not met. As LinkedIn said in a survey, their goal isn’t just to take on new and powerful roles. They definitely want to provide service for a good price. With these characteristics, they are quite different from Generation X, who respects authority, has a high sense of belonging to the company they work for, has made their job the center of their life, and prioritizes feelings of loyalty.
Deloitte also has a very good survey conducted with 6,000 young people from different cultures. According to this study which they called “Welcome to Generation Z”, young people:
- Want their workplace’s values to meet their own values.
- Say that diversity should be ensured in the workplace on issues such as race, language, religion and so on.
- Have demands from employers to provide them good material and moral opportunities and to behave well.
- Looking for sense and prefer to work in effective workplaces.
As an X generation physician who provides consultancy to the leading companies in the health sector regarding their future strategy processes, I hold various meetings with the Y and Z generations. And also I work with many Y and Z generations at the hospital where I work and the university where I give academic education. Based on my observations and research in this field, I would like to convey my comments and predictions about the perspectives and expectations of the Y and Z generations in the health sector:
Generations Y and Z adopt more egalitarian working environments where merit is at the forefront, where they are appreciated, where different, creative ideas are valued, not othering and non-discriminatory in the health sector, as in many other sectors and they are extremely insistent on these.
If we cannot create suitable working environments for these generations, we can think that the brain drain in health will increase. As a matter of fact; I observe that a new generation of qualified and equipped physicians are preparing for exams abroad. They are in the tendency of leaving Turkey with goals such as working in an egalitarian workplace where they can balance work and private life in strong financial conditions.
To keep and train these people in university environments is very valuable for our country. Physicians and allied health personnel, who take on the vast majority of the heavy workload in health, are very unhappy with receiving very low wages in return for their work, not being appreciated enough, and despite this, their employers have high expectations. On the other hand, they also complain that the fact that a lot of new universities have been opened in Turkey in the last decade has reduced the quality of education and that many hospitals can easily gain a place in health tourism.
Today’s Generation X physicians and medical personnel who constitute the main pillar of health as result of the scientifically sound and extremely high-quality training they have received; will completely leave their place to generations Y and Z after a while.
In order for the quality of health services in our country not to decrease, it is an inevitable fact that everyone who is in a management position in the health sector should gain new generations by acquiring flexible perspectives and changing and developing human resources policies in this direction and ensuring their integration with the system as soon as possible.
Prof. Halil Coskun, M.D.