Comparing Current Students to a Pre-Millennial Generation: Are They Really Different?

The Millennial generation, also known as Generation Y, has garnered much attention in the print and broadcast media and at academic conferences because of the challenges that they pose to universities and corporations. Aggregate characteristics and preferences of the Millennial generation and of Generation X, their immediate predecessors, have been frequently described in the business literature and press. This article identifies the dynamics of the Millennial generation, briefly compares them to Generation Y, and explores the perceptions of the Millennial generation and Gen Xers in an experiential learning environment, a senior-level management simulation class. It is hypothesized that these cohorts, with different generational values and traits, will perceive some aspects of the simulation experience differently. Using a time-lag approach, the results of a survey given to each generation are presented and discussed.