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The topic of the Millennial Generation in the workplace drives much business conversation, as members of this generation form a growing percentage of the employee base. Both popular media and scholarly literature have painted the population of younger workers in an uncharitable light. The goals of this article are to contextualize the results of a large, empirical study in a more charitable light and to suggest that embracing generational differences provides an opportunity as well as a challenge. This article examines traits of the different generations, in addition to the relationship between organizational commitment and workplace culture. We present findings that show millennials (also known as Generation Y, or Gen Y) as the only generational group that does not conceptually link organizational commitment with workplace culture. This group also thinks of work differently than members of the other generations, yet these differences can be understood through a managerial lens focusing on qualities such as duty, drive, and reward. We argue that by changing performance evaluation metrics to encompass a greater variety of measures, managers can provide a more detailed picture of the employee's work, and thus impact the worker's sense of duty. Additionally, by providing a more transparent workplace, employers can increase the employee's drive and clearly demonstrate the reward that workers will receive. Finally, changes that help newer employees adjust to the workplace can also allow the organization to operate more efficiently, benefiting employees of all generations.

Organizations typically depend upon performance evaluation measures to provide feedback to managers regarding the achievement of strategic objectives. However, performance evaluation is often focused on negative aspects of performance, suggesting that managers may not be receiving enough reinforcement of the positive elements of their decisions. When applied effectively, performance measures not only create desirable motivation, but also encourage communication and the exchange of information among managers. Under this scenario, individual managers achieve their personal goals, while the organization satisfies its strategic objectives. The application of positive organizational scholarship principles to performance evaluation metrics can help make the evaluation process more effective. Using performance measures framed in a positive manner can help generate more creativity, more problem-solving ability, and greater communication among managers, leading to progress toward organizational objectives. We illustrate this approach with the application of positive metrics to the balanced scorecard for mid-level managers in implementing business strategy.

Employees and corporate reputation are unique resources that generate positive financial performance and ultimately create sustainable competitive advantage. Corporate reputation is vital to an organization and employees are the key link to managing it. By recognizing the synergistic role that employees can play in the overall positioning of corporate reputation, management can help satisfy corporate strategic objectives. Examine initiatives essential to gain employee commitment to corporate reputation as well as the use of the Balanced Scorecard to integrate corporate reputation metrics into the incentive system.

In companies in which a brand is the key source of competitive advantage, it is essential to collect and evaluate data as a part of brand management. To do this, managers need information from a variety of functional areas throughout the firm. One of the ways accountants can provide useful information for marketers is by conducting periodic brand valuations, assigning financial value to the equity created by the name or image of a brand such a NIKE or Intel. Doing this aids management decisions regarding short-term expenditures and long-term benefits. We describe here how brands can be valued and how this information can be used for decision-making. Methods of brand valuation include cost-based approaches, market-based approaches, income-based approaches, and formulary approaches (which use multiple criteria in arriving at brand value, as practiced by the consulting firm Interbrand and Financial World magazine). Advantages and disadvantages of these approaches are noted. The measure of brand value may include subjective elements, but the lack of a financial measure means that the importance of intangible assets might be overlooked. Brand valuation, as a bridge among different functions and disciplines, appears to be the most promising technique capable of illustrating the importance of the brand to managers.