74
Marketing News
Sept. 15, 2005
Association News
Verbatim:
‘What constitutes acceptable behavior is
definitely a matter of age and experience.’
News about AMA and its members
Acceptable office behavior
varies depending upon age
What people expect of
co-workers’ behavior
changes over time. What
is considered rude or
unacceptable today may
be perfectly OK next
year. The reason for the
By Marilyn change is part politics
part etiquette. For
Moats and
example, remember
Kennedy ubiquitous—and
mandatory—collections
for everything from the Crusade of
Mercy to Lulu’s wedding shower gift?
Or when bowling or softball league participation was a must? How about face
time, staying late so the boss would see
everyone still there when he left? And
expectations didn’t always end at 5
p.m. In some organizations, community involvement was expected.
Most boomer-age bosses have given
up on getting the young involved and
confine the pressure on their charges to
producing results. However, the need
for etiquette police has not diminished.
The old expectations may have gone
the way of the hatted accountant, but
there are new faux pas. Commit too
many of them and your career with a
particular organization may be at risk.
Further, you may be pegged as a dissident within your industry. Here are
some issues to consider:
Participation and consensus
What constitutes acceptable behavior
is definitely a matter of age and experience. For example, most fortysomethings think rudeness means leaving
the coffee or lunch table without an
excuse during someone’s lengthy story,
explanation or diatribe. The boomer
generation fervently believes in the value of participation and inclusion. After
all, what is so terrible about listening
to—and commenting on—something
MARKETING
CAREERS
that doesn’t interest or concern you and
isn’t part of your job description?
People younger than 40, however,
feel no such obligation to feign interest.
Why must everyone offer gratuitous
advice? Younger workers see only one
valid expectation: Get the result within
an eight-hour day. If the results
demand more than that, they will
change jobs at the first opportunity.
In matters that are directly related to
work, most bosses believe you’re not on
the team if you don’t eagerly offer ideas
and opinions in meetings. Younger
workers do not believe in throwing out
ideas just because they might stimulate
others. If they have what they think is a
good idea, they’ll e-mail it to the boss—
maybe.
Office etiquette
Likewise, consensus—part of the
teaming theory so beloved by top management—is unimportant to younger
workers. When a boss says, “Then we’re
all agreed,” and the troops don’t at least
nod, they’re not meeting the boss’s
need for consensus. This is the rule of
“ecstatic submission.” And the rule
states, “I want you to want to do what I
want you to do. If you don’t want to, at
least pretend.” A Gen-Xer would ask,
why must everyone agree? It’s because
the mostly boomer-age bosses sometimes care more about attitude than
results. That may not be good management, but for now, they’re still in
charge.
To older workers, inclusion also
means participation in the grapevine.
All office politics is based on the
assumption that every employee is a
stakeholder in what goes on in the
workplace. The refusal to listen to gossip and speculation means you don’t
consider yourself a stakeholder and are
willingly violating the rules of participation and inclusion. The worst incivility is aggressive noncaring. The fact that
Sharon’s husband ran off with a tango
enthusiast should interest you if you
care about Sharon. The fact that you
think Sharon’s husband was lucky to
get away is best kept to yourself.
According to boomer mores, civility dictates at least the appearance of empathy.
Nonpersonal gossip is equally important if you are a stakeholder in the company. For example, if a layoff is
rumored, it will be in the grapevine.
Twentysomethings rarely care about
such news as job instability is just part
of earning a living. However, letting
their elders know they’re not interested
is a crime.
The lack of sociability is another trait
boomers don’t understand. Many older
workers make friends and find support
at work. For younger ones, friends are
only an e-mail away; their dance cards
are full. They’d just as soon squeeze all
sociability out of the office to the dismay of boomers who are affronted by
younger workers’ dismissal of their
social needs.
Perceived lack of dedication
Nothing excites the wars between
older and young workers of any profession than attitudinal differences. Older
physicians think their younger colleagues are not as devoted to medicine
as they are. They cringe when a young
See KENNEDY / Page 72
Conference calendar
AMA international
and divisional
conferences
([email protected]). For fees and more information go to www.marketingpower.com/research.
SEPTEMBER 25-28—BOSTON
Training Series:
Building Marketing
Dashboards for Better ROI
26th Annual
Marketing Research
Conference
Sponsored by the AMA Marketing Research Division at the Marriott Copley Plaza. Chair: Joan
Treistman, M/A/R/C Research. AMA contact:
Nicole Morris (312) 542-9075
SEPTEMBER 26-27—NEW YORK
Sponsored by the AMA. Instructor: Pat LaPointe,
MarketingNPV. AMA contact: Stephanie Crain
(312) 542-9044 ([email protected]). For fees and
more information go to www.marketingpower.
com/tsroidash.
SEPTEMBER 30—ATLANTA
AMA Hot Topic Series:
Blogs: Marketing Beyond
the Web Site
Sponsored by AMA at the Georgia Tech Global
Learning Conference Center. Chair: Toby
Bloomberg, Bloomberg Marketing. AMA contact:
Clara Nelson (312) 542-9074 (cnelson@
ama.org). For fees and more information go to
www.marketingpower.com/ amaevents.
See CALENDAR / Page 67
Foundation
awards two
scholarships
T
he American Marketing Association Foundation recently
announced the winners of
two important scholarship
programs that exemplify the Foundation’s commitment to providing the
marketing profession with a way to
make a difference through marketing.
As a champion supporting excellence in marketing and diversity,
through the AMA Foundation’s Valuing Diversity Ph.D. Scholarships, Maura Scott of Arizona State University in
Tempe and Keith Wilcox of City University of New York will each receive a
scholarship recognizing their achievements and commitment to the field of
marketing.
The Valuing Diversity Ph.D. Scholarship program was established in
2003 to widen the opportunities to
allow underrepresented populations
to attend marketing doctoral programs. The Foundation was able to
provide a second scholarship this year
through generous gifts from the Foundation trustees to honor Thomas C.
Kinnear’s outstanding service as the
Foundation’s Board Chair.
Consistent with the Foundation’s
mission to be an essential resource to
nonprofits, helping them achieve
greater success through effective marketing, the Foundation also recently
awarded five Robert J. Lavidge Marketing Research Scholarships, a program that enables leaders in nonprofit marketing to attend marketing
research conferences and courses.
Joining the 19 recipients from previous years, the following individuals
have been selected as this year’s scholarship recipients:
◆ Mark Abdella, Area Cooperative
Educational Services, North Haven,
Conn.
◆ Shaun Frecska, Unified Health
Solutions, Dayton, Ohio
◆ Maria Gomez Bahena, Institute of
Real Estate Management, Chicago
◆ Stacey Mattison, The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, N.Y.
◆ Karen Naik, InCharge Education
Foundation, Orlando, Fla. If you are interested in making a contribution to support the Valuing Diversity
Ph.D. Scholarship program or the
Robert J. Lavidge Marketing Research
Scholarship program, or if you would
like additional information about these
and other programs offered by the AMA
Foundation, please visit our Web site at
www.the marketingfoundation.org or
call the AMA Foundation at 843/2161962.