New measures of stereotypical beliefs about older workers' ability and desire for development

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce new measures of stereotypical beliefs about older workers' ability and desire for learning and development and test relationships with key antecedents and outcomes. Design/methodology/approach – In a sample of workers over 40 years of age from across the US workforce, a two‐wave survey study was unique in that it examined stereotypes held by aging workers themselves in relation to their own behavior. Findings – The psychometric qualities of the scales were positive and findings tied the stereotype measures to important outcome constructs involving retirement, interest in development, and self‐efficacy/concept for development. Relationships of the stereotype measures also existed with antecedent variables, including experience with the stereotyped behavior and general beliefs about changes with aging. Research limitations/implications – These are critical constructs for managerial psychology in the coming decades, and the findings and measures presented here can contribute to future research, not only on older workers themselves but also on younger workers' stereotypes and behavior toward older workers, which were not addressed here. Practical implications – The measures can be used as diagnostic tools and the findings offer potential ideas for organizational policy or interventions to target stereotypes. Originality/value – Because employee development is increasingly important and the workforce is rapidly aging, there is a need to understand development behavior by aging workers. While stereotypes can be a problem in this area, there is a lack of measures of these stereotypes and there is no research on the stereotypes by aging workers themselves.

Older workers: stereotypes and occupational self-efficacy

“…First, as reported by previous studies (Chiu et al, 2001;Maurer et al, 2008;Posthuma and Campion, 2009), our findings confirm that the stereotypes toward older workers are both positive and negative.…”

“…Studying the older workers' self-efficacy for development and improvement of career-relevant skills, Maurer (2001) suggested that the stereotypical representation of older workers as less receptive to new ideas, less capable of learning and less adaptable than younger workers may affect the older employees' self-efficacy for development. This assumption was confirmed by Maurer et al (2008), who found that stereotypical STEREOTYPES TOWARD OLDER WORKERS beliefs about older workers' ability to develop were related to the senior employees' self-efficacy for development.…”

“…The present study fills an important gap in the literature because traditionally age-stereotype research has focused on the STEREOTYPES TOWARD OLDER WORKERS employers rather than the employees (Maurer et al, 2008), while we chose to analyse the point of view of the latter, comparing younger and older workers. Specifically, given that stereotypes can have a vicarious role in determining self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977), we investigated how age stereotypes may model occupational self-efficacy considering the moderating role of age group.…”

Hiring retirees: impact of age norms and stereotypes

“…Firstly, our findings stress the need for awareness campaigns that will demonstrate the impact of age norms in employment process. Research has shown that executives agree that older workers are discriminated against but they did not believe that this occurred in their own organisations (Maurer et al, 2007). Secondly, training of recruiters towards more age awareness in selection procedures is necessary and can, in the long run, benefit both organisations and older workers by selecting better candidates and create diversity in teams.…”

Improving Knowledge and Professional Skills ‒ Intergenerational Differences

“…Powszechnym stereotypem jest np. przekonanie, że starsi pracownicy są mniej zainteresowani rozwojem własnej kariery i niechętnie uczestniczą w szkoleniach (Maurer, Barbeite, Weiss, Lippstreu, 2008). Stereotyp ten wynika z przekonania, że starsi pracownicy mają obniżoną zdolność przyswajania nowego materiału i trudniej jest się im uczyć (Fritzsche, DeRouin, Salas, 2009).…”