The American workforce is becoming more and more diverse with an increasing proportion of women, persons of color, and older employees. Trends in Canada and the European Union are similar. Besides more diversity, two especially important and contradictory workforce characteristics are (1) the impact of generation X or "Gold-Collar" workers (those born between 1965 and 1977), and (2) the impact of poor educational preparation of some high school graduates. In fact, U.S. test scores were the lowest in one comparison of 16 industrialized countries. Both characteristics present a current OB challenge but in very different ways