Age Climate : age stereotypes in organizations and older workers

Abstract

Age climate describes how favorably older employees are perceived within a given organization. It integrates research on organizational (and psychological) climates and research on age stereotypes in the workplace. The main goals of this dissertation were (1) to develop the construct of age climate and present an instrument for its measurement, (2) to investigate relationships of individual (psychological) age climate perceptions with work-related outcomes at the individual level, including interindividual differences in these relationships, and (3) to assess the consensual validity of the developed scale as well as to explore relationships of the shared organizational age climate perceptions with organizational level outcomes. Study 1 demonstrates the usefulness of the Psychological Age Climate Scale (PACS). In a sample of 302 older employees (age 40+) from 8 companies, the PACS showed a high reliability and clear single factor structure. A fixed-effects approach to clustering revealed significant associations between psychological age climate (PAC) and older employees’ organizational commitment. In Study 2, analysis of a sample of 273 older workers (age 40-63) from different occupations revealed that the perception of a less favorable age climate was related to lower work ability. This relationship was stronger at higher ages. At higher ages Selection, Optimization, and Compensation strategy use buffered the detrimental effect of an unfavorable PAC on work ability. Study 3 introduces the concept of organizational age climate (OAC), defined as employees’ shared perceptions of how favorable older workers are perceived within their organization. Analysis of data from n = 204 employees age 45+ from 8 companies confirmed the consensual validity of OAC. Moreover, companies have significantly different OACs. Analysis of a sub-sample of three companies provides first evidence that companies’ OAC is related to their personnel, knowledge, and health management practices.

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