INVESTIGATING INTERGENERATION WORKING RELATIONSHIPS: AN EVIDENCE FROM HIGHER EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS (HEIS) OF PAKISTAN AND CHINA

,


Introduction
Companies are focused on improving intergenerational diversity in the workplace by making the organizational environment more inclusive (Sobrino-De Toro, Labrador-Fernández, & De Nicolás, 2019).Not only does intergenerational diversity improve organizational competitiveness (Ropes, 2014) but also it benefits the employees as they can learn from each other's varied experiences and styles (Gerpott, Lehmann-Willenbrock, & Voelpel, 2017).However, as it is with managing The presence of intergenerational conflicts can occur because of the changes in assumptions and expectations of old and young employees.Communication plays a critical role in resolving problems and conflicts (Spaho, 2013).However, the perceived differences in the attitudes of the two generations make it hard for them to communicate effectively with each other.The young employees who are hesitant to cooperate and integrate with older counterparts have fewer chances to learn and grow in their future endeavors.

Problem Statement
There is a need to study different aspects of intergenerational diversity due to the growth of its significance in the contemporary workplace.Studies have shown that an intergenerational workforce can provide improve the competitiveness of organizations if managed effectively.Organizations are continuously striving to adjust and adapt their HR policies and strategies to engage and integrate the workforce belonging to different age groups.
However, integrating the different generations within an organization can prove to be extremely challenging because young and old generations have a different life perspective and value system which is often conflicting.The differences in the working style, value systems, and communication patterns create tensions among the two generations and hurt workplace productivity.Hence, investigating the intergenerational workplace relationships can provide insights in understanding the intergenerational diversity issues and finding solutions.
Traditional societies, like Pakistan and China, place great importance on respecting older generations.In such societies, even after the progress in the organizational work practices, the element of respecting and honoring elders is considered an integral part of its cultural values.In Chinese and Pakistani universities, the academic hierarchy is still based on the seniority of its teachers.According to the statistics released by Chinese universities, more than 80% of retired teachers will be recruited by universities, and elders occupy almost all important positions in university management.Hence, investigating the perception of employees, of Pakistani and Chinese Universities, on intergenerational working relationships will provide better insights into the intergenerational workplace diversity issues.ISSN (Print): 2788-4821 ISSN (Online): 2788-483X Volume 2, Issue 1, Page 79-99, June 30, 2021

Significance of the Study
This investigation will help to build an in-depth understanding of intergenerational working relationships.Also, this investigation will be useful for employees in tackling work environment problems.All over the world organizations faced challenges regarding the parameters of working relationships.This study is very beneficial for top management and employees to devise HR policies and procedures.

Research Objective
The following are the research objectives of the study:  To examine the satisfaction level of intergenerational working relationships of employees in HEIs. To examine the differences in satisfaction levels of intergenerational working relationships of young and old employees in HEIs.

Research Question
 What is the satisfaction level of intergenerational working relationships of employees in HEIs?  Why are the satisfaction levels of intergenerational working relationships different for old and young employees in HEIs?

Generation
The term "Generation" has been defined in the HR literature differently.According to Westerman & Yamamura (2007), generation can be defined as a group with similar experiences, preferences, and interests.Individuals from the same age group have collectively shared experiences, values, and ideas.There are three generational cohorts, Baby boomers who were born during 1946-1964, Generation X born from 1965-1980, and Millennials born during 1981-2000.The latest generation cohort, Generation Z has not yet entered the job market.This research aims to investigate the intergenerational working relationship of old (Generation X) and young (Millennials).
The initial studies, about intergenerational diversity, were more focused on studying the generational identity and conceptualizing the differences between the generations (Henkin & Kingson, 1998;Kilduff, Angelmar, & Mehra, 2000;Mor Barak, 2000;Santos & Cox, 2000).After establishing the differences and importance of generational identity, the researchers focused their attention on the consequences of intergenerational diversity in the workplace.Twenge & Campbell (2008) showed that Millenials had higher levels of narcissism, anxiety, and self-esteem in comparison to Generation X.On the contrary, there have been other studies (Haynes, 2011;Kapoor & Solomon, 2011;Lyons & Kuron, 2014), that showed no differences between the two generations or not significant differences when comparing the two generations in the workplace.

Investigating
Intergeneration Working Relationships: An Evidence from Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) of Pakistan and China Wok & Hashim (2013) conducted a study to explore the perception of young employees toward senior employees on the satisfaction of working relationships about Communicative Teamwork, Mutual Learning, Participative Decision Making, and Communicating Feedback.The study was conducted in higher learning institutions in Malaysia.575 employees of higher educational learning institutes of Kalang Valley were targeted.Results depicted that young employees have positive working relations with their older counterparts.Young employees learned from their older employees by sharing experiences in decision making.Simultaneously, young employees get positive feedback from older employees.They examine trainability, performance, and influence of competence on older workers.They analyze that older workers are how much effective and efficient while performing their responsibilities and duties.It was found that older employees are well skilled in contrast to young employees.Umair et al. (2019) researched to find out the perception of young employees toward senior workers concerning Teamwork, Mutual Learning, and Participative Decision Making at the workplace with older employees.For this study, empirical data was collected from different private and public limited banks in Pakistan through a survey research design.Data was collected from 324 employees working in targeted banks.Findings of the study depicted that young employees are satisfied with their older counterparts in terms of working experience, working relationships, mutual learning, participative decision making, receiving feedback, communication, mutual learning, collaborative decision making, and feedback.The findings of the study helped to understand the intergenerational differences in the workplace.Moreover, current research is beneficial for employers for resolving the workplace problems related to relational diversity and to manage a diversified workforce more constructively.The authors concluded that all variables have a positive impact on the fulfillment level of young workers.This investigation has also implications in understanding intergenerational differences in the workplace.The generational differences in the workplace have been explored by many researchers in different contexts.However, the area of intergenerational diversity is identified as lacking in-depth investigation and empirical testing.

Social Identity Theory
The conflicts occur, according to Social Identity Theory (SIT), between the different generations because an individuals' sense of identity is based on group membership.Tajfel (1979) indicated that groups including family, social class, age, community, are an important source of self-esteem and pride.Individuals get a sense of belonging in the social world (Islam, 2014).When individuals interact with their close contacts, personal identity acts as a guiding behavior but when interacting with colleagues, supervisors, co-workers, and others in a professional setting, social identity gains more importance.
SIT also explains that not only group membership is incorporated into an individual's self-concept but also it affects an individual's views of members and nonmembers of similar and rival groups (Bryant & Vorderer, 2013).SIT has been used extensively to study discrimination and favoritism of various groups but has received minimal attention when it comes to age-related groups.Harwood, Giles, & Ryan (1995) used SIT to address the issue of communication concerns of different age ISSN (Print): 2788-4821 ISSN (Online): 2788-483X Volume 2, Issue 1, Page 79-99, June 30, 2021 groups.They found that miscommunication and misunderstanding emerged from the different self-concept of age groups which has an impact on the relationships in the workplace.
Research on SIT indicates that stereotyping is more likely to occur when the social identities are salient (Ford & Tonander, 1998).From a stereotypical lens, older employees are viewed as less productive and uncooperative employees (Dalen, Henkens, & Schippers, 2010) while the young employees as labeled as less committed and focused (Rožman, Treven, & Čančer, 2017).To work with each other, these stereotypes need to be downplayed.
Workforce diversity has gained importance in the last two decades, organizations have been making diverse teams in which young and old employees are grouped (Yadav & Lenka, 2020).The whole idea of having a diverse team is to make the best use of the diversified skills that employees from different backgrounds, experiences, ethnicities, and ages.However, as the SIT theory suggests, the difference in the social identities and stereotyping of the team members make it difficult for members to work as a team.Due to the differences, they display biasness in terms of support behavior, knowledge dissemination, and resource allocation at the workplace.Therefore, the satisfaction of co-workers plays in terms of working relationships with different age group members play a great role in the effectiveness of the team performance.

Symbolic Interactionism
Symbolic Interactionist Theory describes how individuals understand each other by focusing on the environmental context rather than the mental process (Blumer, 1986) The theory states that human psychology is understood through interactive relations.Symbolic interactionists study the relationships of the individuals within the society.The theory suggests that effective teamwork depends on how well members of the team understand each other through various networking and work activities (Denzin, 2016).
The literature suggests that conflicts among the team members can occur due to several factors.Communication has been identified as one of the major factors which result in misunderstandings between the team members.Individuals are also inclined to enjoy working with each other when they learn from one another.Often conflicts occur when the team members do not perceive getting a chance to participate in the decision-making.Communication conflicts are a natural occurrence, but feedback helps in mitigating the chances of misunderstandings and building stronger bonds.

Research Design
The study is aimed to examine the intergenerational working relationships which require an in-depth understanding of the issue.The purpose of the study is exploratory as not much is known about the intergenerational working relationships in the workplace.The past literature has determined that the problem of intergenerational diversity in the workplace is not well-established.The studies of the past on the issue have been unable to find conclusive findings and qualitative research will provide a more realistic understanding of the experiences than a statistical analysis due to the flexibility in the interpretation and analysis of the data.The qualitative descriptive research involved describing the experience of humans relating to a phenomenon from the respondent's point of view (Bickman & Rog, 1998).Van Maanen (1979) fortified researchers for using qualitative research methodology as a source of in-depth understanding of organizational phenomena.Qualitative methodology is used in social sciences, such as business studies (Bluhm, Harman, Lee, & Mitchell, 2011).
This study is based on phenomenological research design as the researchers focus their attention on understanding the meaning of lived experiences of young and old employees (Gill, 2014).The experience of their working relationships with the other generation is the focus of the study.By adopting this design, the study has explored the perception of young and old employees working in HEIs of Pakistan and China.
An inductive reasoning approach is used for the study in which observations are analyzed and interpreted to find and develop conclusions.The researchers' interference was kept at a minimum level; therefore, the study was conducted in a non-contrived setting.The unit of analysis for the study is a group because the study is examining the working relationships of young and old employees.

Research Method
Qualitative research was conducted through semi-structured personal interviews.Sem-structured interviews are used to explore individuals' experiences and understand the phenomenon.The semi-structured interviews allowed the researcher to focus on some of the main themes emerging from the literature review and theories.According to (Bryman & Bell, 2015), semi-structured interviews help interviewers to not follow specific and set of the order of questions.The study was focused on collecting deeper information from the interviewers.This method also helps the respondents to get an explanation of questions for better understanding.The relationship between interviewee and interviewer becomes better so the interviewer share more information and he/she discuss those things which were not asked and eventually contribute to research positively.Cross-sectional data were obtained for the research.For the current research, two sets of interviews were developed, one for old employees and the other for young employees.Because the main aim of the study was to explore the perception of young employees toward old and vice versa.There were two separate sets of semi-structured interview questions: one for old employees and the second for young employees.The first part of the first semi-structured interview comprised questions about the satisfaction, second about teamwork, the third part was about mutual learning, the fourth was about participative decision-making and the last was communicating feedback of old employees toward young (see Appendix I).The same set of questions were used for interviewing young employees (see Appendix II).

Data Collection Method
Interviews were conducted through telephone calls and Zoom meetings due to COVID-19 and all calls and meetings were recorded with the consent of the interviewers.After the interview, the whole interview was written down and transcribed.After that, all interviews were analyzed by all authors to make general sense.Authors went line by line of interviews and come up with main themes.Themes were adjusted and analyzed by using MS-Word.Ose (2016) has described a structured approach to handle data on Microsoft Word which is used to analyze data.

Interview Questions
The data collection technique for the current study was a semi-structured interview.We used the interview questions for the collection of responses required to answer the research question.We used two sets of questions: one for old employees and one for young employees.The interview questions are given in Appendix I and Appendix II for old employees and young employees respectively.Interview questions were adapted from the work of Wok and Hashim.2013 with some minor adjustments taking guidance from the Social Identity Theory.

Population and Sampling
The age of employees was the main part to select the population for the research, so that they may be categorized as old employees and young employees.In previous studies, some categorized older employees between the ages of 40-70, while some considered older employees to be more than 55 years old.Similarly, young employees by some were categorized under the age of 35 while some considered ages less than 35.For this study, we have divided the two generations, young (millennials) as below the age of 35 while over 40 age are considered as old (Generation X).All individuals participating in the current research were faculty members working in HEIs of Pakistan and China.
A purposive sampling technique was used to select the respondents to achieve the study objective.For an in-depth understanding of the research objective, we opted sample size of a minimum of 20 respondents.There is no concrete justification about sample size for qualitative studies (Marshall, Cardon, Poddar, & Fontenot, 2013).These studies aim to achieve objectives and reach saturation.Achieving saturation happens when the researcher review answers and after reviewing no new theme or concept appeared in subsequent interviews (Trotter, 2012).
Semi-structured interviews were planned from twenty university faculty members, ten from China and ten from Pakistan.Each set comprised of five young and five old faculty members resulting in two focus groups (one in China and one in Investigating Intergeneration Working Relationships: An Evidence from Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) of Pakistan and China Pakistan).Actual interview conducted was lasted for twenty to thirty minutes and detail of respondents to whom interviews were conducted is given in Table 1: Interviews were conducted and recording was done.After every interview, the recording was transcribed, and all authors analyzed the script.After that data was analyzed by using MS-word.

Analysis and Discussion
This part is dedicated to the findings of the interviews and leads to discussion.Each main theme is discussed separately from the perspective of old and young employees and after that concluding summary has been presented.

Level of satisfaction
Most of the old employees are satisfied working with junior employees and one employee stated that: "highly satisfied by the support given by the young employees" Old employees feel pleasure while working with junior employees.They think that junior employees make a valuable contribution toward the institution and community as well and they come up with new unique ideas for performing tasks in a better way.
"I am at a higher level of satisfaction by looking at their contribution towards the institution and community especially their role as teachers, researchers and administration they(they're) role is admirable" While there are some old employees who feel that young employees provide little input and they just follow the instructions given to them for performing tasks.ISSN (Print): 2788-4821 ISSN (Online): 2788-483X Volume 2, Issue 1, Page 79-99, June 30, 2021 "I often have to spell everything out for them and follow-up with them to get things in order" Teamwork Some old employees think the working comfort with young employees is high as they found them obedient and respectful.
"No doubt the comfort level working with the young employees is high" "The young employees always obedient and while as team member they keep in mind a token of respect for seniors."They think they share knowledge freely and float ideas and give suggestions.But at the same time, some old employees think they are less responsible while working in teams and they roll on responsibilities to others."It's difficult to work with people who don't take responsibility for their actions" "The lack of focus is what makes it hard to form good teamwork" "It's not comfortable to work with young employees.Younger employees pay more attention to their ideas and don't put the team first" According to old employees, young ones are not good listeners.
"You have to tell them one thing a thousand times" "If they don't want to listen to advice, they just don't"

Mutual Learning
According to the young employees helped them to learn computer skills, new gadgets handling and operating new online methods of teaching.They found young helpful and they think everyone has different traits and qualities.
"During my different assignments, I learned a lot from young employees.Because nature has endowed many different qualities to every person and each person is like an academy so by ignoring their degree and experience, I learned many things.""I couldn't even use MS Excel and Powerpoint but Mr. (Confidential) helped me in everything during online classes" However, some considered the young employees as not competent enough to teach the old employees much.
"Young employees lack skills and knowledge, like to take shortcuts, and do not pay attention to the continuous accumulation of knowledge" "I am disappointed with the quality of the knowledge they produce these days" Investigating Intergeneration Working Relationships: An Evidence from Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) of Pakistan and China "It's their time to learn, I learned so much from the previous, they don't seem to have the same desire or level of competency"

Participative Decision-Making Style
When it comes to decision making, old employees think young provide ideas, and give suggestions for achieving team objectives.But at the same time, old employees think that young employees have less patience and less hardworking and they seek short-cut to accomplish tasks and assignments.
"Young employees (some) adopt shortcuts so they are less helping in prioritizing the alternatives.""For taking tough decisions you need a certain degree of experience" "Younger workers are inexperienced, unable to provide good decisions and are not good at considering multiple possibilities to prepare alternatives" Some also suggested that the decision-making styles of young employees were different from them.
"In our board meeting, youngsters are often invited but they don't understand that decision cannot be made in just one meeting.They want instant results"

Feedback
Old employees responded that they receive feedback and inputs from young employees.One employee responded that they use the feedback of juniors as a tool to assess their performance.
"The young employees who have responsible behavior do feedback and the feedback is a tool to judge my performance.""They do like to share their opinions, sometimes even uncalled for, but I do like their perspective on how well I am doing" "Young employees are willing to express feedback, and senior employees can receive timely praise from young employees, which makes senior employees feel a sense of achievement" "I never used to question my seniors but they are so confident and selfassured that they can do give feedback frequently, positive, negative, both" Old employees also think that young employees not only provide feedback but positive feedback.They think that young is good at opinion and they appreciate their feedback with the feeling of pleasure.

Level of Satisfaction
When asked from young employees they replied that most old employees do not provide guidance particularly regarding rules and regulations of the institute unless they are approached.Relevant knowledge sharing is less however according to young respondent's cultural knowledge sharing is provided.That is why they feel less satisfied working with them.They appreciate the efforts made by old employees regarding the development of department and institute as one of the respondents replied that: "senior employees have given enormous efforts to establish the department and given efforts and contributions for the betterment of this department which cannot be denied" "It's such an honor to work with such great life and professional experiences" "They make me feel very satisfied" "Just the presence of such experienced academicians, it's amazing to work with them" Regarding guidance for performance improvement, the young employee thought that old employees give less input.Overall results derived that young employees are less satisfied working with sold employees as least guidance is provided by them.
"The online classes was a harsh reality check for old employees, they just couldn't perform when it mattered the most" "It's good to have them on board but sometimes I feel they drag the team behind"

Teamwork
Most of the young employees feel comfortable while working with old employees in the teams.They are helped by old employees in achieving common goals as they give priority to goals of the teamwork.Young employees stated that old employees provide less knowledge sharing.
"They have so much to offer in the team" "I always look up to my seniors when I need any kind of support in the team" "They have seen it all and we can work together" "They can resolve team-conflicts in a far better manner" "In difficult situations, their experience is much needed" Investigating Intergeneration Working Relationships: An Evidence from Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) of Pakistan and China Some issues also emerged as lack of guidance and less knowledge sharing.
"It would be easier to work with them if they did not hide information from everyone" "I believe they can offer a lot, but to be honest, they haven't, (pause), maybe deliberately" "It's hard to get them working sometimes" They, like the old employees, feel old employees are not good listeners "Not always, sometimes they give strict no when you try to give idea, you can say they sometimes listen you" "It's hard to make them understand our point of view" "They can get stubborn with their ideas"

Mutual Learning
According to young employees, when they work with old employees in teams then they learn a lot from them.They learn management, handling stress, handling difficult students, completion of tasks well in time.They feel when comfortable when old employees are around."I feel comfortable, yes when they are around, in exam duty, in arranging workshops, handling students' issues"."In academia, the experience is everything, I learn from experiences of Mr. (Confidential) and Dr. (Confidential), and so many more" "I lack the depth of knowledge, which they have in abundance" "I have learned so much from them" "I would never be able to pay the debt that I owe to them as they have guided me right from day one"

Participative Decision-Making Style:
According to respondents of the interview, old employees make most decisions as they have long and varied experiences.One respondent stated that old employees work on different posts, in administration, and academics so they are enough capable to make a decision.
"Our Director served in Exam, Administration and now he is head of our departments, with having experience of so many years, he is good at decision making and quickly takes a decision" Some had shared their grievances of not getting a chance to speak in ISSN (Print): 2788-4821 ISSN (Online): 2788-483X Volume 2, Issue 1, Page 79-99, June 30, 2021 meetings and other affairs."I don't even get a chance to voice my opinion when my seniors are there" "They still don't understand that times have changed now and seniority does not mean that you are right"

Feedback
Young employees feel they do receive feedback for improving their performance.Old employees provide feedback on how they can better perform in class, handling students, development of course contents help in improving the performance.
"We meet at end of each semester, our seniors share their experience, they suggest, they motivate, they point out the mistake, which I think are helpful to perform better in next semester" "Their feedback is quite valuable" "I take their opinion quite seriously" Some young employees also shared that they did not like the exchange of feedback.
"Feedback (sarcastic), I have had my fair share of feedback, more than I should have (laughs)" "The standards that they want me to live on is far higher than they have practiced"

Conclusion
Although both sets of employees had shown high levels of satisfaction, in terms of the intergenerational working relationships but the old employees were more vocal in terms of how they had to adjust while working with the young employees.On the other hand, young employees were more appreciative of the senior employees and acknowledged their contribution more.
In terms of teamwork, young and old employees, both, shared that they don't consider the other generation to be good listeners.However, they did acknowledge that the other group had a lot to offer in the team which shows the advantages of having a diverse team, in context of having people from different age groups.
Learning was one aspect in which old and young employees were quite appreciative of the other groups.On one hand, the old employees took technological assistance, and on the other, the young employees learned from the experiences of their seniors.
The main area of conflict came while discussing the participative decisionmaking.In academia, most of the decision-making is done by the senior employees who are likely to be categorized as old employees.Therefore, the young employees did not feel as involved in the decision-making.The old employees also considered Investigating Intergeneration Working Relationships: An Evidence from Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) of Pakistan and China young employees as being immature and inexperienced to be part of the key decisions.
Feedback from the old employees was valued and welcomed by the young employees.However, there were some hints that old employees did not like what advice they receive from the young employees.Additionally, some young employees felt that the feedback they were getting from the old employees was harsh, critical, and excessive.
The interviews reveal that old employees' satisfaction with young employees is lower than that of young employees.At the same time, it was observed that old employees pay more attention to teamwork and feedback, while young employees pay more attention to productivity and participation.

Limitations and Future Research
The findings of the study should be viewed with some limitations of the research design.The qualitative research design was adopted to attain an in-depth understanding of the issue; however, it needs to be tested empirically on the basis of statistical data to further validate the findings of the study.The study used only one form of data collection through semi-structured interviews, future studies can use focus groups and other quantitative methods, as well, to study the research issue.
The study was conducted in China and Pakistan, the findings cannot be generalized; therefore, future studies can include a diverse group of nationalities to assess if the same findings hold true in different contexts.Similarly, the study was conducted in the academic sector, future studies can be conducted in different industries.A comparative study can also provide contrasting effect of intergenerational challenges depending on the nature of the industry.