The published version is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnw076 Abstract Purpose of the Study: Top managers guide organizational strategy and practices, but their role in the employment of older workers is understudied. We study the effects that age-related workplace norms of top managers have on organizations' recruitment and retention practices regarding older workers.We investigate two types of age-related workplace norms, namely age equality norms (whether younger and older workers should be treated equally) and retirement age norms (when older workers are expected to retire), while controlling for organizational and national contexts. Data and Methods:We use data collected among top managers of 1088 organizations from six European countries. We run logistic regression models to estimate the effects of age-related workplace norms on four different organizational outcomes: (1) recruiting older workers; (2) encouraging working until normal retirement age; (3) encouraging working beyond normal retirement age; and (4) rehiring retired former employees.2

With a vignette experiment among Dutch managers we examine employers' considerations in the decision to rehire employees after mandatory retirement. We specifically focus on the effects of the employee's downward wage flexibility (i.e., the willingness to accept a lower wage) and contract flexibility (i.e., preference for a contract which allows flexible hours or employment). 2The results show that employers are strongly affected by employees who offer to work for a significant lower wage, but not by the employees' preference for a particular labor contract.Employers are overall quite disinclined to rehire employees after mandatory retirement, although large differences exist between employees. Part of these differences can be explained by managers having higher retirement age norms (i.e., the maximum age at which employers consider employees suited for work in their organization).

Purpose Social norms about the timing of retirement and stereotypes about qualities of younger and older workers are pervasive, but it is unclear how they relate to employers’ ageist preferences. The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of employers’ retirement age norms and age-related stereotypes on their preferences for younger or older workers in three types of employment practices: hiring a new employee; offering training; and offering a permanent contract. Design/methodology/approach Survey data from 960 Dutch employers from 2017 are analysed to study employers’ preferences for younger or older workers. Effects of organisations’ and managers’ characteristics, retirement age norms and stereotypes are estimated with multinomial logistic regression analyses. Findings Many employers have a strong preference for younger workers, especially when hiring a new employee, while preferences for older workers are highly uncommon. Higher retirement age norms of employers are related to a lower preference for younger workers in all employment decisions. When employers are more positive about older workers’ soft qualities (such as reliability and social skills), but not about their hard qualities (such as their physical capacity and willingness to learn), they rate older workers relatively more favourable for hiring and offering training, but not for providing a permanent contract. Originality/value This is one of the first studies to estimate the effects of retirement age norms and age-related stereotypes on ageist preferences for a diverse set of employment practices.