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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
The aging population in the developed world has implied increasing age
diversity in the workforce of organizations. Consequently, mutual perceptions about one’s coworkers and age discrimination are becoming increasingly important. This study aims to explore how perceptions about older
workers’ work (un)adaptability, work effectiveness, and workplace age discrimination vary according to participants’ psychosocial factors, such as age
group, gender, education level, and work sector. This study included
a sample of 453 workers in Portugal, diverse in terms of age, gender, education level, and work sector. Four different instruments were used: (a)
a sociodemographic questionnaire; (b) an older workers’ Work Adaptability
scale; (c) an older workers’ Work Effectiveness Scale and; (d) the Workplace
Age Discrimination Scale (WADS). Results: Middle-aged and older participants perceive older workers as more adaptable than younger participants.
The oldest group of participants perceives older workers to be more workeffective and experience the highest levels of age discrimination in the
workplace, when compared to the other age groups. Also, participants with
lower levels of education tend to perceive higher levels of workplace age
discrimination, when compared to participants with high school and higher
education. Conclusions: Generational perceptions in the workplace are perceived by workers differently, hence organizations should implement age
management strategies to address age discrimination, particularly due to the
increasing proportion of older workers.
Description
Keywords
Aadult ageism Article controlled study Demography Education Educational status Female Gender Groups by age High school Human Human experiment Male Middle aged Organization Perception Portugal Questionnaire Tertiary education Worker Workplace
Citation
von Humboldt, S., Miguel, I., Valentim, J. P., Costa, A., Low, G., & Leal, I. (2022). Is age an issue? Psychosocial differences in perceived older workers’ work (un)adaptability, effectiveness, and workplace age discrimination. Educational Gerontology, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/03601277.2022.2156657
Publisher
Routledge