Is age an issue? Psychosocial differences in perceived older workers’ work (un)adaptability, effectiveness, and workplace age discrimination

Abstract

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.

Ageism directed at older nurses in their workplace: A systematic review

“…The global report on ageism (WHO, 2021) recommends combating ageism through policies and laws, educational activities and intergenerational interventions. Although there is limited research on organisational support aimed at addressing ageism in older nurses' practice settings, studies in other disciplines show the importance of organisational policies and practices that promote age diversity and inclusivity as well as the provision of training and development opportunities for older workers (Franz, 2023; Marcaletti et al., 2023; Nedeljko et al., 2023; von Humboldt et al., 2023 et al., 2023). For example, Marcaletti et al.…”

“…Nonetheless, the age threshold that defines an older nurse is not clearly established in the literature. Some studies define older nurses as those over the age of 50 years (Vickerstaff, 2010;Wargo-Sugleris et al, 2018), whereas others may use thresholds of 55 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012) or 60 years (Denton et al, 2023;Walker et al, 2018). The definition of older nurses may vary across different cultural or national contexts, and the reasons for this variation are not always clear.…”

The Adaptability of Women Workers in the Higher Education Environment of Samarinda City to WFH Patterns during the Covid-19 Pandemic

“…Because this adaptation occurs in a very short time and is immediately practiced in real-life or real-time, because the pandemic situation is one of the emergency or incidental situations. So adoptive adaptation in the Covid-19 pandemic situation is not an easy thing (von Humboldt et al, 2022). (Oktarina & Abdullah, 2017) stated based on the science of organizational communication that adoption is the decision to fully use a new idea as the best way of acting.…”

Assessing age discrimination in workplaces: psychometric exploration of the Workplace Age Discrimination Scale (WADS-G)

“…Aligned with the in-group-out-group perspective articulated by Marchiondo et al (2016) , the WADS focuses on the meso-level of ageism, delving into interpersonal and intergroup-specific experiences of workplace age discrimination (see Table 1 ). Recent empirical studies have used the scale primarily to better understand age discrimination against older people in the workplace, for example to investigate the consequences of age discrimination and mediating mechanisms ( McConatha et al, 2022 ; Dong et al, 2023 ; Peng et al, 2023 ) and antecedents of age discrimination ( Reeves et al, 2021 ; Lagacé et al, 2023 ; Von Humboldt et al, 2023 ). But also, to develop new scales ( Wilckens et al, 2021 ) or to validate newly developed scales ( Reeves et al, 2021 ).…”