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Gentelligence
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Gentelligence

The Revolutionary Approach to Leading an Intergenerational Workforce

Megan Gerhardt, Josephine Nachemson-Ekwall and Brandon Fogel
Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc., 2021
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Age-related stereotypes and misunderstandings in the workplace often create barriers instead of opportunities. In this practical guide, Megan Gerhardt, Josephine Nachemson-Ekwall, and Brandon Fogel reframe age differences as strengths rather than liabilities, and offer strategies for building intergenerational trust and collaboration. Gerhardt, Nachemson-Ekwall, and Fogel explain how to nurture a more resilient, innovative workforce by gaining insight into generational conflict, helping workers uncover shared values, and why leaders who rethink outdated views on authority fuel long-term success.

Summary

Generational diversity strengthens organizations.

Many companies overlook age diversity in their diversity and inclusion initiatives, leaving employees without frameworks for navigating age-related differences. This absence of support leads to the scapegoating of generational cohorts for social or workplace challenges. Media headlines, such as “Gen X Needs to Save America from the Millennials,” feed hostility and reinforce the idea that one generation must “win” at the expense of another. Such attitudes create distrust rather than collaboration, weakening engagement, knowledge transfer, and leadership pipelines.

Age bias remains a tolerated form of discrimination. For example, Google fired engineer Brian Reid, telling him he was “too old to matter.” His discrimination, which reached the California Supreme Court, highlights how even casual remarks can reflect systemic bias. Stereotypes cut both ways, with people labeling younger workers as entitled or lazy, and older workers as too rigid or technologically inept. Complicating matters, US law protects only employees over 40, leaving younger generations without formal protections...

About the Authors

Megan Gerhardt, PhD, is Robert D. Johnson Co-­ Director of the Isaac and Oxley Center for Business Leadership at the Farmer School of Business at Miami University, Josephine Nachemson-­Ekwall is an associate director of financial crime prevention policy at UBS. Brandon Fogel is a senior consultant at Ernst & Young LLC.

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