East Tennessee State University Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University Electronic Theses and Dissertations Student Works 5-2011 Four Generations Working Together in the Workforce and in Higher Education. Lisa Anne Speer East Tennessee State University Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.etsu.edu/etd Part of the Educational Sociology Commons Recommended Citation Speer, Lisa Anne, "Four Generations Working Together in the Workforce and in Higher Education." (2011). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1244. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1244 This Dissertation - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Works at Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Four Generations Working Together in the Workforce and in Higher Education __________________ A dissertation presented to the faculty of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis East Tennessee State University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Education __________________ by Lisa Hemmert Speer May 2011 __________________ Dr. Catherine Glascock, Chair Dr. Cecil Blankenship Dr. Louise Mackay Dr. Terrence Tollefson Keywords: baby boomers, diversity, generation X, generation Y, lifelong learning, traditionalists, qualitative research ABSTRACT Four Generations Working Together in the Workforce and in Higher Education by Lisa Hemmert Speer The purpose of this study was to help the reader hear and begin to understand each of the 4 generations, resulting in an awareness of how each generation perceived the world in general, and specifically its perception of work in an academic setting.