These attributes, combined with Net-geners ease with digital tools, spell trouble for the traditional enterprise and the traditional manager. Many modern management concepts, such as teamwork, collaboration, knowledge sharing, organizational learning and networked structures have been hard to implement because of cultural legacies. IS organizations in particular grew up during the heyday of the organization man. Host-based, hierarchical, internally focused computer systems and networks corresponded to the traditional corporate structures and style. N-Gen culture is the antithesis of all that.
Irresistible force meets immovable object.
Call it generational displacement for a layer of traditional hidebound managers IS and otherwise. Moreover, the N-Gen has been told it will be hard for them to find good jobs, so they have developed great determination. A larger proportion will seek to be entrepreneurs. Corporations that hire them should be prepared to have their windows and walls shaken. Don Tapscott Tapscott is chairman of the Alliance for Converging Technologies and an authority on the impact of the digital media on the economy.