An age difference between workers and managers can affect productivity, according to research from the London School of Economics and Political Science done in collaboration with Protiviti, a division of Robert Half Inc. (NYSE: RHI).

The research found employees in the US and UK who are much younger than their managers report lower productivity because of a lack of collaboration between different generations, the report found. In particular, the report said employees with managers more than 12 years their senior are nearly 1.5 times as likely to report low productivity.

“I am not surprised that we discovered a ‘productivity manager age gap,’” the report’s co-author Grace Lordan, founder and director of The Inclusion Initiative at the London School of Economics and Political Science, said in a press release. “There is good evidence that across generations individuals have different tastes and preferences. So why do we expect them to work easily together?”

There are now five generations in the workplace and the skills required to manage these dynamics are not usually being taught by firms, Lordan said.

The research also noted that productivity was higher in younger generations at firms that used intergenerationally inclusive work practices. These include enabling colleagues of every generation to have similar levels of voice when collaborating and advancing employees based on merit regardless of age. Under these circumstances, the proportion of Gen Z employees reporting low productivity drops to 18% from 37%. In addition, the proportion of millennials reporting low productivity drops to 13% from 30%.

Moreover, the research found 87% of employees reported high work productivity at firms with intergenerationally-inclusive work practices.

The research is based on a survey of 1,450 employees in finance, technology and professional services in the US and UK.