Eva Platteau

Intergenerational Conflict in Organizations: The Case of Local Governments in Flanders (Belgium)

In this paper, the meaning and prevalence of intergenerational conflicts in organizations is explored. The paper has two objectives. First, it wants to contribute to a better theoretical understanding of intergenerational conflict in organizations. This is done by drawing upon De Dreu and Gelfand’s (2008) framework for analysing conflicts in organizations. The multiple sources and multiple levels of analysis of conflict within organizations that these authors suggest, are being used to gain a more comprehensive conceptualization of intergenerational conflicts in organizations. Moreover, the concept of generation is connected to the faultline theory. It is argued that the concept of generations within the context of organizations can be understood as aligning multiple attributes such as age, gender, educational level, skills, work styles and values. This means that existing faultlines within organizations can be explained for by making reference to the concept of generations. This insight advocates the relevancy of taking a generational perspective on organizational conflicts. The second objective of the paper is to show how this conceptualisation of intergenerational conflict is applicable to the context of a specific case of organizations: namely local governments in Flanders. Based on a demographic analysis of the workforce and an analysis of the institutional context of these organizations, several faultlines that potentially give rise to intergenerational conflict were hypothesised. Furthermore, the salience of these faultlines were examined through focus groups among civil servants in two local governments. The result of these focus groups suggest that people do experience intergenerational tensions in these organizations.