Transcripts

"Commentary"-Bridging the Computer Generation Gap

SUZANNE PRATT: Tonight's commentator says, when choosing computer systems and technologies, companies need to balance the needs of both younger and older workers. He's Robert Morison, executive vice president and director of research at Ngenera Corporation.

ROBERT MORISON, EXEC. VP & DIR OF RESEARCH, NGENERA CORP.: We've done a lot of research on the young generation entering the workforce and how their abilities, attitudes and behaviors challenge the status quo in most corporations. Case in point is how they use technology. Young employees like up-to-date, multi-purpose, stylish devices like the iPhone. They expect to connect with people, find information and do their computing anytime and anyplace. They rely on instant messaging and facebook and believe you can collaborate without benefit of meetings. They judge prospective employers by their computing practices and they use technology to bounce back and forth between work and play. Now look at corporate computing. The company issues you the year before last technology, configured to permit you to do what the company thinks you should be doing. Access to information is limited to those with a predetermined need to know. IM and facebook are at best tolerated, more often banned. Collaboration has to be planned and work and play don't mix. Let's face it, the corporate computing experience is inferior to what people have at home and many of its restrictions are obsolete and unproductive. What's a corporation to do? It cannot ignore or beat back the preferences of the next wave of employees. It also cannot ignore the fact that many young people are naive about the basics of information management, intellectual property and corporate exposure. Employers have little choice but to revamp their approaches to employee computing, embrace the technologies of collaboration and simultaneously accommodate and educate their young employees. I'm Robert Morison.