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How Job Requirements Affect the Recruitment Likelihood of Older Workers: The Indirect Role of Age Stereotypes
Abstract
This article analyses the role of age stereotypes in the employability of older people. Unlike in extant studies, we shift emphasis from stereotypes to job requirements during recruitment. Using five waves of a large-scale, representative employers' survey from Poland, we analyse how the likelihood of recruiting people who are over 50 years old depends on the skill requirements defined by employers for vacancies offered. This study uses a real-life framework, with real employers and real vacancies that reflect labour demands at the scale of an entire national labour market. Results suggest that some job requirements lead to age bias during recruitment, and the chances of an older candidate being hired are especially hindered by high requirements regarding computer and training skills. By illustrating an indirect link between age stereotypes and age discrimination, this study contributes to understanding the mechanism that affects low employability of older people.
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Stereotypies of older workers and their productive value are believed to contrast with their actual potential. Still, these stereotypes among employers persist. This article examines whether managers have changed their views on older workers and if so what the driving forces are of these changes. Using panel data we examine the changes in attitudes among Dutch managers about the productive skills of older workers (50 years and older) between 2010 and 2013. Managers have adjusted their view of older workers in a significant manner, especially about their so-called soft skills, like reliability and loyalty. Hard skills or qualities - like physical stamina, new tech skills and willingness to train - have not changed. Important drivers behind these changes are the age of the manager – the older the manager the more positive he or she is about older workers – and the experience with older workers in the past two years. Increase in the occurrence of problems with older workers tends to depress their assessment of soft and hard skills. Firm characteristics add little explanatory power. Attitudes are not easily susceptible to change but this study shows that the biggest effects are to be expected from the process of aging itself: older managers tend to have a more positive assessment of the hard and soft skills of older workers.
Understanding and promoting age diversity in the workplace are both particularly important considerations for the design and implementation of organisation entry processes, such as recruitment and personnel selection (e.g., Loretto and White 2006; Brooke 2003). For the most part, recruitment and selection represent the primary means of gaining entry into an organisation, and both processes serve multiple roles in structuring applicant and new-hire experiences (e.g., Smither et al. 1993). For example, recruitment and selection serve important socialisation functions to the extent that participation in these processes convey norms, expectations, values, and company culture and climate to job applicants (Cooper-Thomas and Anderson 2006; Rousseau 1990). As core personnel and human resources management (HRM) practices, recruitment and selection can be characterised and defined in numerous ways (e.g., from strategic or organisation perspectives). One way of understanding recruitment and selection that is particularly germane to a discussion of promoting age diversity is to consider various judgement and decision points that characterise each process.
Organizational hiring practices have been charged for unfair treatment on the grounds of age. Drawing on theories of planned behavior and core self-evaluations, this research investigated the impact of negative attitudes toward older workers on hiring decisions and examined the moderating role of decision-makers’ core self-evaluations. We tested our hypotheses based on a structured online questionnaire and a vignette study using a sample of 102 participants working in human resource management across different industries. As predicted, negative attitudes toward older workers were positively related to avoidance of hiring older people, which in turn was negatively related to the likelihood to select the oldest candidate. Because hiring decisions are not only about the hiring subject but also about the decision-maker, we tested the moderating role of decision-makers’ core self-evaluations. Results showed that core self-evaluations buffered the relationship between negative attitudes toward older workers and avoidance of hiring older people. Theoretical implications of the findings with regard to hiring decisions about older people and practical recommendations to improve diversity management strategies and age-balanced hiring practices in organizations are discussed.
Increasing awareness of the productive potential of soft skills has sparked a discussion of their systematic and purposeful development. However, education systems pay only limited attention to this topic in most countries and remain focused on the development of hard skills. Is this approach rational or inadequate? This article provides new evidence on different aspects of the wage returns to soft skills (as an approximation of their productivity), and thereby contributes significantly to the discussion of the role of educational institutions in their development. It provides evidence that soft skills are as productive as hard skills. Moreover, it suggests that the productivity of hard skills stems from their combination with soft skills. These conclusions do not correspond to the fact that the value of education is intermediated mainly by hard skills, resulting in unequal development of soft and hard skills in schools. While concluding that education systems should pay more attention to soft skills development, the analysis recognises that this attention should be differentiated according to employers’ needs, owing to substantial differences in the value of soft skills across economic sectors. It is also noteworthy that while significant gender differences in returns to hard skills were identified, wage returns to soft skills appear gender neutral.
JEL Codes: J24, J31, J71
We design and implement a large-scale field experiment on age discrimination to address limitations of past research that may bias their results. One limitation is the practice of giving older and younger applicants similar experience in the job to which they are applying, to make them "otherwise comparable." The second limitation is ignoring the likelihood of greater variation in unobserved differences among older workers owing to human capital investment. Based on evidence from over 40,000 job applications, we find robust evidence of age discrimination in hiring against older women, but considerably less evidence of age discrimination against older men.
Pracodawcy odgrywają podstawową rolę w definiowaniu warunków kontynuowania lub opuszczenia pracy w wieku emerytalnym. W artykule został zaprezentowany zarys teoretyczny relacji pomiędzy pracodawcą i pracownikiem. Wiek pracownika ma znaczenie: chociaż nie determinuje on tej relacji, to jest jednym ze wskaźników dla oceny dopasowania i określania oczekiwanej wartości pracownika. Analizie zostały poddane uwarunkowania preferencji wiekowych polskich pracodawców wobec pracowników. Zaprezentowano je w formie zestawu modeli regresji logistycznych dla akceptacji kandydatów w wieku od 20 do 65 lat. Dane pochodzą z największych polskich badań pracodawców Bilans Kapitału Ludzkiego 2010–2013. Wyniki wskazują na powszechne występowania typizacji wiekowej w procesie rekrutacji. Wśród uwarunkowań preferencji wiekowych istotna była między innymi strategia inwestycji w nowego pracownika, zawód, do jakiego poszukiwany był kandydat, wymagania wobec doświadczenia, wykształcenia i kompetencji kandydata. Wyniki wskazują także na związek typizacji wiekowej z typizacją płciową.
http://www.studiasocjologiczne.pl/n,5,studia-socjologiczne-2-2015.html
Despite widespread popular concern about what it means to be over 40 and unemployed, little attention has been paid in the literature to clarifying the role of age within the job seeking experience. Extending theory, we propose mechanisms by which chronological age affects job search and reemployment outcomes after job loss. Through a meta-analysis and examination of 2 supplemental datasets, we examine 5 questions: (a) How strong is the relationship between age and reemployment speed? (b) Does age disadvantage individuals with respect to other reemployment outcomes? (c) Is the relationship between age and reemployment outcomes mediated by job search activities? (d) Are these relationships generalizable? and (e) Are these relationships linear or curvilinear? Our findings provide evidence for a negative relationship between age and reemployment status and speed across job search decade, world region, and unemployment rate, with the strength of the negative relationship becoming stronger over age 50. Job search self-efficacy and job search intensity partially mediate the relationship between age and both reemployment status and speed. (PsycINFO Database Record
(c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).
Featured in Forbes http://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2015/08/05/the-3-strikes-against-older-job-hunters/
Featured in Psychology Today https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/media-spotlight/201507/finding-new-job-after-40
Featured in Discovery at Carlson http://carlsonschool.umn.edu/news/those-over-50-finding-job-can-get-old-0
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). The results show that employers are strongly affected by employees who offer to work for a significantly 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 employers having higher retirement age norms (i.e., the maximum age at which employers consider employees suited for work in their organization).
Purpose ‐ This study aims to investigate the role of managers in the re-employment of early retirees and focuses on the effect of managers' age norms and stereotypes on managers' employment decisions. Design/methodology/approach ‐ A combination of a factorial study and a survey was conducted. First, information on the age norms and stereotypes was collected. Secondly, profiles of hypothetical retired job applicants were presented to the employers, who were asked to make a specific hiring decision. The information collected during both studies was combined in the analysis and multilevel models were estimated. Findings ‐ The results indicate that higher age norms (defined as age at which somebody is believed to be unable to work for 20 hours a week or more) result in a higher propensity to hire an early retiree. Stereotypes, by contrast, do not influence managers' decisions. Early retirees' chances for re-employment are also related to their own circumstances (physical appearance and relevant experience) and organisational forces, as they are hired when organisations face labour force shortages. Research limitations/implications ‐ With the use of vignettes study the authors deal with a hypothetical hiring situation. Originality/value ‐ Although the effect of attitudes has been often suggested, not much empirical evidence has been presented to support this notion. This study estimates the effect of age norms and stereotypes on hiring decision.
Purpose - The purpose of this empirical paper is to investigate the employers' perception of productivity of older workers in Poland with comparison to the younger ones. The paper examines whether various factors including employee's skills and company policies play a role. The findings were compared with situation in the Netherlands, discussing the differences. Design/methodology/approach - Data come from 2009 representative survey (CATI) of 1,037 Polish companies. Supervisor' rating method was used for assessment of workers skills and productivity Primary analysis are linear regression models with employer's assessment of productivity of older and younger workers as dependent variables. Findings - In case of older workers, higher assessment of soft skills is the most influential factor for explaining the assessment of productivity, while hard skills play smaller, yet not minor, role. In case of younger workers the relation is reversed. Age management aiming at improvement of older workers' job performance correlates with higher rating of their productivity Research limitations/implications - Cross-sectional researches in the case of age-group comparison may be biased by the cohort effect. Practical implications - The paper brings forth important implications for policy makers and employers who will have to deal with the challenge of an aging and shrinking workforce. They refer to lifelong learning, system of public health, age management. The most important conclusion concerns the negative influence of age-related stereotypes for the labor market situation of older workers. Originality/value - The paper presents data from the first research aimed at employers' views of older workers in Poland. The paper extends the knowledge about relation of employers' opinions, their actions and situation of older workers.
This article presents the findings of a field experiment carried out in Madrid which aims to analyse gender and age discrimination in hiring in the labour market of Madrid. A set of five pairs of fictitious man–woman curricula was sent in response to 1062 job offers in six occupations which were advertised on Internet over an eight-month period. It was quantified subsequently the extent to which the different firms contacted more or less the candidates of different sex, age and marital status. No discrimination is detected against women in terms of access to job interviews; however, discriminatory conduct is seen regarding the phenomenon of occupational gender segregation, in the sense that there is a continuance among employers of stereotyped views on the greater suitability of women for certain tasks. No evidence is found to indicate firms showing relative discrimination against married women with children in the first phase of hiring process. And a clear evidence of discrimination is obtained on the basis of age: firms show a substantial fall in interest over interviewing 38-year-old candidates (compared to those aged 24 or 28). This would imply that the tendency to discriminate against older workers may be high, and, what is more, it may start at a surprisingly young age.
The authors identify, analyze, and summarize prior research from 117 research articles and books that deal with age stereotypes in the workplace. They discover and report the most prevalent and well-supported findings that have implications for human resource management. These findings are described in terms of prevalent age stereotypes that occur in work settings, evidence refuting age stereotypes, and moderators of age stereotypes. The authors provide recommendations for practice and future research.
The aim of this research was to examine attitudinal barriers to the managerial intention to hire older workers (aged 60 and above). Structured questionnaires were used to collect data from a sample of managers with hiring power (N = 305). We found that (a) positive attitudes towards older people in general, perceived subjective norm, personal experiences with older people, and traditional Chinese cultural values were all related to stronger intentions to hire older workers; (b) among competing structural models, the expanded model adding personal experiences to the theory of reasoned action emerged to be the best one accounting for hiring intention. The associations of positive attitudes and subjective norm with intention were found after controlling for demographics, organizational characteristics, cultural values, and personal contact experiences with older people. Our results highlight the importance and urgency of more concerted research to inform public and organizational policies to better promote and manage the careers of older workers in an ageing developing society.
Replicated W. K. Kirchner and M. D. Dunnette's (see record
1955-03161-001) study on attitudes toward older workers with 71 male and 5 female hourly employees (aged 18–61 yrs) and 22 male supervisors (aged 27–63 yrs) of a nonunion manufacturing plant. Ss completed a questionnaire that was nearly identical to the one administered in the Kirchner and Dunnette study. Results are similar to those obtained in the earlier study: Hourly workers held more positive attitudes toward older employees than did supervisors, and attitude score correlated strongly with the age of hourly workers but not with the age of supervisors. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Retirement is characterised as a dynamic process that has several different outcomes, from early retirement to re-entry to the labour force. Recent studies of the Dutch population show that a substantial number of early retirees re-enter the workforce after early retirement, but others do not succeed even though they want to return to paid work. An often-named reason for their failures is bias in the selection process. This raises the questions as to what restrictions do early retirees face in the labour market and what are the characteristics that enhance or limit their hiring chances? The aim of this study was to identify the individual and organisational characteristics that influence managers' hiring decisions, and for the purpose a vignette study among Dutch managers and business students was conducted. Profiles of hypothetical early retirees were presented to the respondents who were then asked to make decisions whether of not to employ the individual. The results show that hiring early retirees is of low priority to both managers and students, and depends to a large extent on organisational factors (such as personnel shortages) and the age of the retiree. The findings suggest that despite equal opportunities policies, age discrimination is still present on the Dutch labour market and that managers generally hinder the re-employment of workers approaching the retirement age.
This study compared age stereotypes among 567 respondents sampled in the UK and Hong Kong and examined how these stereotypes were related to discriminatory attitudes at work. Compared to the Hong Kong sample, UK respondents saw older workers as more effective at work, but less adaptable to change. As expected, respondents' own age was predictive of positive age stereotypes, although for supervisors this relationship was moderated in the case of perceptions of work effectiveness. Stereotypical beliefs were found to significantly affect respon-dents' attitudes towards the training, promotion and retention of older workers, their willingness to work with older workers, and their support for positive discrimination. Findings also suggest that anti-age discrimination policies in the respondent's organization had a positive impact on beliefs about the adapta-bility of older workers and possibly also on attitudes towards providing them with training. Implications of the findings were discussed in light of the existing socio-political environment in the UK and Hong Kong.
Drawing on theories of stereotype content and role congruity, this research investigated the role of stereotypes for employment discrimination against older candidates. Study 1 investigated the content of stereotypes about older workers, focusing on warmth and competence as the two core dimensions in social judgement. As predicted, older workers were perceived as less competent but warmer than younger workers. Studies 2 and 3 investigated how these stereotypes interact with job requirements to predict age bias in an experimental setting. Further, they tested if warmth- and competence-related stereotypical inferences mediate the relation between candidate age and selection bias. Results showed that age bias was robust. Older candidates were discriminated against, even if the job primarily required warmth-related qualities, and independently of evaluators' own age or professional experience in human resources. Moreover, age bias was mediated by competence-related stereotypical inferences. Age bias was also mediated by inferences related to warmth but those inferences were opposite to the high-warmth older worker stereotype identified in Study 1. Implications of the findings for theoretical approaches to age discrimination and for organizational practice designed to combat age discrimination are discussed.
The employment situation of older workers in Germany used to be poor. However, in recent years it has improved considerably. Germany has shifted its policies to strengthen the labor market performance of older workers. Policy has focused on less early exits of older workers and far-reaching institutional changes concerning public pension schemes and unemployment benefit systems. A better overall development of the labor market and an increased labor force participation of women contributed to the more favorable employment situation of older workers. Nevertheless, we still observe severe problems for certain groups of older workers. The older workers are and the lower their skill level is the weaker is their labor market integration. If older persons are already unemployed they will experience severe difficulties to (re-)enter the labor market. In order to become actually a country for old workers the issue of employability needs much more attention. Such a strategy relies on continuous skill improvement as well as a healthy environment and does not only address older workers but also younger workers facing a prolonged working life.
We examine the idea that an individual’s employability subsumes a host of person-centered constructs needed to deal effectively with the career-related changes occurring in today’s economy. We argue that employability represents a form of work specific (pro)active adaptability that consists of three dimensions—career identity, personal adaptability, and social and human capital. Reciprocal relationships among these dimensions are also discussed. The impact of employability on organizational behavior is illustrated through applications to the research literatures on job loss and job search.
This article addresses employers’ attitudes and actions regarding the position of older
workers. A comparative survey among employers from four European countries – Greece, Spain, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom – is used to examine their expectations with respect to the ageing of the workforce, the productivity of older workers and their recruitment and retention behaviour regarding this cohort. The results show that in spite of the perceived challenges ahead (including the ageing workforce), employers take no substantial measures to retain and recruit older workers or improve their productivity. Only employers in the United Kingdom seem to recognize older workers as a valuable source of labour supply and act accordingly.
The research on which this article is based examined the relationship between
attitudes towards older workers held by personnel managers and directors in
large organisations (500 or more employees) across virtually the whole range
of industrial sectors (excluding agriculture), and their employment practices.
The aims of the research were to explore the operation of workplace social
closure and the social construction of age in organisations, and to provide
practical information to better inform policy making towards older workers.
Analysis indicated that attitudes associated with recruitment, training and
promotion practices were: perceived trainability, creativity, cautiousness,
physical capabilities, the likelihood of having an accident, and ability to
work with younger workers. Attitudes which showed no relationship with
employment practices were: perceived productivity, reliability, ability to
adapt to new technology, interest in technological change and flexibility. It is
argued that these findings stress the need to target stereotypical attitudes
towards older workers if age barriers in employment are to be removed.
However, it is also argued that educational campaigns alone are likely to exert
only limited influence against a background of a long-term decline in
economic activity rates among older workers. The research also indicates that
future research studies need to take greater account of potential differences
between different groups of older workers.
Purpose - Although policymakers have put great efforts into the promotion of older workers’ labour force participation, quantitative empirical knowledge about employers’ views towards extension of working lives is limited. The purpose of this paper is to improve the understanding of employers’ attitudes and actions towards extension of working lives, by examining recruitment and retention behaviour towards older workers, employers’ views on the consequences of an ageing workforce, organisational policies, and what governments can do to extend working lives. Design/methodology/approach - The authors analyse surveys administered to employers in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and the UK in 2009. Findings - It is found that a minority of employers have applied measures to recruit or retain older workers, and employers rather retain than hire older workers. A considerable share of employers, albeit to different degrees per country, associate the ageing of their staff with a growing gap between labour costs and productivity. Employers expecting a larger gap do not apply more organisational measures to either increase productivity or adjust the cost-productivity balance. Employers may think the cost-productivity issue is partly for governments to solve; employers expecting a larger cost-productivity gap consider wage subsidies to be an effective measure to extend working lives. Originality/value - The paper addresses the employers’ perspective, one that is often neglected compared to attitudes and behaviour of older workers themselves and research on institutional arrangements. This paper is also among the first to report on employers’ policies and practices from a cross-national perspective.
Older job applicants are vulnerable to stereotype-related bias in the recruitment process. In the current study, we examined how managers' job interview invitation decisions regarding older job applicants are influenced by applicants' human capital-related characteristics, general economic conditions and managers' perceptions of changes in organisational job demands. Data were collected in two waves of a vignette experiment, three years apart, among a sample of 211 Dutch managers from various organisations. Multilevel analysis showed that managers were more likely to invite older job applicants who had matching qualifications, were employed at the time of application, and came with recommendations. In addition, managers' propensity to invite older job applicants was higher in better economic conditions. The effects of recommendations were moderated by the general economic conditions and changes in organisational job demands, such that a recommendation from another employer was especially influential in bad economic conditions, while a recommendation from an internal employee was especially influential when job demands had increased. The results emphasize the importance of considering the organisational and economic context in understanding the recruitment of older workers. The findings also suggest that older workers, employers, and policy makers should invest in older workers' human capital to protect their employability.
In recent years increasing attention has been paid to the problems faced by older workers in the UK labour market. In this paper we examine the issue of older workers' participation in vocational training and education, drawing upon data from the Labour Force Survey. Our initial analysis identifies how rates of participation in workrelated education and training differ between age groups. Further exploratory analysis attempts to identify possible reasons for this, analysing the type of training undertaken by various age groups as well as the incidence of self-financed training. We then estimate an ordered-probit model for males and females separately, in an attempt to isolate the extent to which this lower incidence among older workers is due to employer or employee decision making. We find that, when compared to a reference group of prime aged individuals, those aged between 40 and 49 and 50 and 59/64 are less likely to undergo training and, also, less likely to be offered training. We conclude that the lower incidence of training among older workers can be mainly attributed to employer decision making. Finally, we discuss the implications of these findings for public policy.
Encouraged by the European Employment Strategy, the German government, like many other European governments, promotes individual employability as an instrument to improve the persistently low employment prospects of older job-seekers in the labour market. However, ageing is only rarely discussed in contemporary employability approaches. This article includes various employability approaches and empirically tests the commonly used dimensions of employability in actual labour market prospects with respect to older job-seekers (>50 years of age). Many dimensions of employability are found to vary by age, and older job-seekers can be described as disadvantaged with regard to certain dimensions. However, disadvantages in “classical” employability factors cannot fully explain the comparatively poor labour market prospects of older job-seekers. This article shows that older job-seekers in Germany are less likely to transit from unemployment to employment, even after controlling for employability factors.
We propose that organizational factors (structure, values, and technology) influence raters' decision making processes which, in turn, can result in age discrimination in employment-related decisions. Specifically, organizational factors may influence (a) the extent to which jobs become age-typed, (b) the extent to which a worker's age is salient and activates age-associated job stereotypes and (c) the extent to which raters are able to base their employment-related decisions on the perceived match between job and worker information. The practical and theoretical implications of our approach are discussed and directions for future research are offered.
The core research questions addressed in this paper are: What factors influence human resource (HR) professionals in deciding whether to approve training proposals for older workers? What kind of training are they more likely to recommend for older employees and in which organizational contexts? We administered three factorial surveys to 66 HR professionals in Italy. Participants made specific training decisions based on profiles of hypothetical older workers. Multilevel analyses indicated that access to training decreases strongly with age, while highly skilled older employees with low absenteeism rates are more likely to enjoy training opportunities. In addition, older workers displaying positive performance are more likely to receive training than older workers who perform poorly, suggesting that training late in working life may serve as a reward for good performance rather than as a means of enhancing productivity. The older the HR professional evaluating training proposals, the higher the probability that older workers will be recommended for training.
This article reports on a recent survey of employer attitudes and policies towards older workers in Australia at a time of sustained economic growth and ongoing concerns about labour shortages. Findings from a survey of 590 employers with more than 50 employees in the State of Queensland point to an unusually strong orientation towards the recruitment of older workers among respondents, although the retraining of older workers is not prioritised by the majority. The issue of workforce ageing is viewed as being of medium-term importance by the majority of respondents, although for a substantial number the issue is of immediate concern. Both sector and organisation size are predictive of the application of a broad range of policies targeting older workers, with public-sector and larger organisations more likely to be active. Concerns about workforce ageing and labour supply are predictive of employer behaviours regarding older workers, suggesting that sustained policy making may be emerging in response to population ageing over and above more immediate concerns about labour shortages and that this broad thrust of organisational policy making may be immune to the point in the economic cycle. This study found no evidence that the flexible firm will not countenance an ageing workforce.
This paper elaborates on the categorization – dichotomization – between “hard” and “soft” in project management research. This categorization is becoming more increasingly used in project management research for example by stating that some projects are “hard”, while other projects are “soft”, that some project skills are “hard”, while other project skills are “soft” etc. The aim is to discuss this dichotomization as an example of hierarchization – a power struggle between opposites – within project management research and literature and acknowledge the effects for project management research and practice of unreflective upholding of this dichotomy. We provide a critical review and discussion of stage-gate models as an example of “hard” project management approaches, and agile methods as an example of “soft” approaches to project management and acknowledge that in project management practice, it seems as if “hard” and “soft” approaches are most often combined. Hence, this dichotomy seems to be upheld by the research community while practitioners show a more holistic perspective to project management.
One particularly persistent and prevalent negative age stereotype is that older workers experience more health problems. This study examines whether this negative age stereotype is evidence-based or not. In a meta-analysis of previous studies on the relationship between age and health, we found that older employees suffered no declines in either mental health or self-reported physical health problems, but did experience modest declines on clinical indices of physical health (e.g., blood pressure, cholesterol level, and body mass index). The article concludes with directions for future research on the role of health in the age–performance relationship and its implications for management practice.
There is an ongoing sociological debate regarding which work activities can be considered ‘skilled’. In recent years, this debate has become increasingly controversial due to the growing prominence of so-called ‘soft skills’, especially when used in interactive service work. This article seeks to strengthen the conceptualization of soft skills, through case study investigation, to determine whether or not they are worthy of the ‘skilled’ label. An expanded notion of skill is supported, recognizing that in service contexts displaying employer-facilitated worker discretion and requirements for contextual knowledge in the use of soft skills, the term can indeed have real meaning.
This article reports the results of a national postal survey of employers' attitudes and policies towards older workers supported by the ESRC. The survey's key findings are discussed in the context of the declining labour force participation of older people over the last twenty years and the recent turnaround in official and some employer attitudes towards this group. Findings of particular importance are those relating to the sectoral differences in employers' orientations towards older workers, such as the larger proportion of those in the production and construction than in the service sectors who were using early retirement schemes and the differences in strategic responses to the ageing workforce, with the service sector leading production, construction and manufacturing; the impact of employers' perceptions of older workers' lack of appropriate skills which, when coupled with figures illustrating the lack of access of older people to both official and employer training programmes, suggests a self-fulfilling prophecy; and the surprising support given by employers for anti-age discrimination legislation. Data from the survey are also used to test the model put forward by Atkinson (1989) suggesting that employers' policies develop incrementally. The article concludes by arguing that the educative approach favoured by the government is not likely to have a significant impact on the employment prospects of older workers. Therefore this group is likely to be increasingly confined to a choice between low-skill/low-wage jobs in the service sector or non-employment.
This article examines the concept of employability as applied to older workers. It argues that much of the lack of success experienced by older job seekers in securing employment may be based on the mismatch between what older job seekers believe employers want and what employers are seeking. It reports data from a small sample of older South Australians who were interviewed concerning their perceived employment choices, now and in the past, their self assessed skill currency, their judgements as to their employability, and their explanation for success or failure in seeking employment. Overwhelmingly interviewees believed themselves employable and their skills current, yet these optimistic beliefs are seldom confirmed by labour market success. Those who were successful seemed distinguished in two ways – either they had been able to tap into opportunities through personal networks or they had developed a new skill where the competition was less intense and this enabled them to command an income. Taking charge of their lives, analysing their situation in a strategic way, initiating actions where the likelihood of a successful outcome was higher, creating demand for what they could offer were all strategies that led to employment. However, such behaviours may not be typical of this age group. Interview data clearly showed that it was the more resilient individuals who coped more effectively and that these individuals were more successful in securing reemployment.
While employee continuous learning is increasing in importance and labor markets are tightening, the average age of workers is also increasing. But older workers may not participate in learning and development activities as much as younger workers. This paper explores an important and under-recognized factor that may contribute to this age effect: a decline in self-confidence (or self-efficacy) for career-relevant learning and skill development with age. The review explores various factors in an organizational setting which might lead to reduced self-confidence for learning, and subsequently, lower participation in learning/development activities. Suggestions for managing older workers and for research on this topic are offered.
This article presents the findings of the first field experiment on age discrimination in the Swedish labour market. Pairs of matched applications, one from a fictitious 31-year-old male applicant and one from a fictitious 46-year-old male applicant, were sent to employers with job openings for restaurant workers and sales assistants. Employers' responses to the applicants were then recorded. The experimental data provide clear and strong evidence of significant ageism in the Swedish labour market. On average, the younger applicant received over 3 times more responses from employers looking to hire a restaurant worker and over 4 times more responses from employers looking to hire a sales assistant than the older applicant. Therefore, the older applicant received significantly fewer invitations for interviews and job offers than the younger applicant in both occupations examined.
Most research and conceptualizing of training transfer assumes that the content of the training is irrelevant in whether or not or to what extent transfer is successful. The singular perspective that all training is the same when it comes to issues of training transfer is misguided. This is especially true for the types of training that have been traditionally referred to as hard-skills (technical) and soft-skills (intrapersonal and interpersonal) training. It is hypothesized that this singular perspective of making no differentiation between hard and soft skills can actually hinder training transfer. It is the contention of this article that this perspective masks significant differences between these two forms of training and the extent to which each transfers to the job. Anecdotal evidence has emphasized that soft-skills training is significantly less likely to transfer from training to the job than hard-skills training. Soft-skills training, rather than hard-skills training, has primarily been discussed in the HRD literature. This is easily reflected in reviews of the training-transfer literature. Consequently, from this perspective, the work on training transfer has almost been exclusively based upon soft-skills training. This focus on soft skills may be warranted by the specific difficulty in transferring soft skills (intrapersonal and interpersonal) rather than hard skills (technical). This lack of soft-skill transfer results in an extremely costly waste of time, energy, and money. This article discusses differences that are hypothesized to exist between hard- (technical) and soft- (intrapersonal and interpersonal) skills training that we believe impact the degree of training transfer achieved. It is our belief that differentiating between hard and soft skills may add greatly to our understanding of training transfer and additional ways of its facilitation. This article also contends that development of a more robust and comprehensive model of training transfer must consider training content.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which graduate students subscribe to the commonly held beliefs about older workers. A questionnaire of 51 statements was administered to 147 graduate students (92 men and 55 women) enrolled in a course on the psychology of the adult at Teachers College. The data showed that there is considerable acceptance of erroneous ideas about older workers. The study indicates there is a need for more data to prove or disprove the prejudices and misconceptions about the skills, abilities and personality characteristics of the older worker.
Objectives: To investigate the willingness of employers to hire older adults. Method: Measures of actual age discrimination were obtained through the use of correspondence testing. Unsolicited fictitious resumes were simultaneously mailed to 452 companies across industries in Western Australia. Resumes were similar in all job relevant information except the applicant's age that was either 32 or 57 and gender. Measures of discrimination were obtained through comparisons of the time for receipt, and the number of positive and negative responses across age and gender.
Results: Responses for 202 resumes were received from 154 companies. A significant three-way interaction between age, gender, and mailing condition was found for time for receipt of negative responses. The interaction showed that both younger males and older females were significantly faster to receive negative responses compared with either older males or younger females. Overall, younger applicants received a greater number of positive and a smaller number of negative responses compared with the older applicants.
Conclusions: The current study found evidence of actual age discrimination in hiring practices against older adults in Western Australia, with older women the most discriminated against. These trends of discrimination were different and of lower magnitude to those found in the US. Correspondence testing with unsolicited applications was shown to be a valid and sensitive tool for measuring actual discrimination in Western Australia.
Despite policy emphasis on the importance of older workers (i.e. those aged 50 and above) to current and future labour markets, relatively little is known about the ways in which employers' attitudes, policies and practices influence their recruitment and retention. Drawing upon previous work by Taylor and Walker, this article reports qualitative research among employers across Scotland, which sought to investigate further the relationships between employers' policies, practices and attitudes towards older workers. The findings indicate a complex set of relationships, and challenge the simplistic causal link between attitudes and practice. The conclusions discuss the implications of these findings for the future employment of older workers, and assess the extent to which the forthcoming age discrimination legislation in the UK is likely to tackle discriminatory attitudes, practices and policies.
We present an empirical analysis of job reallocation and labor mobility using matched worker-firm data for the Netherlands. Our data cover the period 1993–2002. We find that cyclical adjustments of the workforce occur mainly through fluctuations in worker entry for young and prime-age workers while for old workers they occur mainly through fluctuations in separations. Moreover, we find that employment dynamics of young workers are affected especially by national and sectoral employment fluctuations whereas employment of old workers varies especially with firm-specific employment changes.
Concerns expressed in the mid-1990s about the lack of research on late career are no longer valid. There is a growing body of research; however, it is scattered across a range of disciplines. In an effort to gather current thinking on late career, this review draws upon work addressing chronological aging, labor economics, sociology and social psychology, retirement research, human resource management, and career theory. Several cross-disciplinary observations were made: (1) Cognitive declines with age are not sufficient to impact work performance; (2) Current economic models assume declining productivity among older workers, but this reflects perceptions rather than reality; (3) Aging may be better understood as a series of discrete transformations rather than as a continuous process of decline; (4) A productive use of older workers recognizes individuals' specific strengths and the increasingly distinctive individual differences among older workers.
As the populations of most of the world’s developed nations experience an increase in average age, a similar trend is being observed in the population of computer and Internet users. In many cases, older adults are the fastest growing computer and Internet user group in both personal and workplace contexts. However, the needs and concerns of older adults as computer users differ from those of younger users as a result of the natural changes associated with the aging process. Much research has been conducted in a variety of fields in order to understand how these changes experienced by older adults impact their use of computers and the Internet. This article reviews this existing research and provides a holistic view of the field. Since the study of computer use by older adults is a multi-disciplinary topic by nature, we provide a synthesis of the findings across these many disciplines, and attempt to highlight any gaps that exist. We use Social Cognitive Theory as a lens to view and organize the literature, as well as illustrate means through which computer use by this user group can be encouraged. Finally, suggestions for future research are proposed, and implications for research and practice are discussed.
Objective:
This article presents an updated meta-analysis of field and laboratory studies that examine the influence of age on a number of evaluative workplace outcomes (advancement, selection, general evaluations, interpersonal skills, and reliability). Method. A random effects meta-analytic procedure was used.
Results:
In line with the perspective that perceptions of older workers are multidimensional, the observed meta-analytic correlations indicate that age has medium-sized negative effects on majority of the outcomes investigated (r(advancement) = -.21, r(selection) = -.30, r(general evaluations) = -.24, and r(interpersonal skills) = -.23, and a medium-sized positive effect on perceptions of reliability (r(reliability) = .31). Additionally, evidence of moderation by study design for the selection outcome is presented, such that within-subjects designs elicit stronger effects of age than between-subjects designs. Discussion. The present study demonstrates that it is likely that older workers are not viewed entirely negatively or entirely positively in the workplace; rather, the perceptions of older workers are more are varied, and even positive in some cases.
Different policies are being promoted to increase the labour supply in ageing labour markets. This article presents the results of a large-scale survey carried out among Dutch employers into their management of the constraints presented by a tight labour market. Organizations take different measures in response to staff shortages, which can in fact be distinguished as four strategies. The first relates to the recruitment of new groups of workers: groups that traditionally were perhaps not a preferred choice. The principal measures in this strategy are the recruitment of women and ethnic workers, and to a lesser extent the elderly. The second strategy focused on increasing the labour supply of existing workers. Overtime, encouraging part-timers to work extra hours and a structural increase in the length of the working week were part of this strategy. The measures constituting the third strategy were of a different type. Generally, these measures were adopted in order to cope with temporary peaks. Work was outsourced, a recruitment agency used, and higher wages offered to try to fill a vacancy. The fourth strategy focused on substituting technology/capital for labour. Regression analyses is carried out to explain which strategies organizations use to deal with shortages.
What determines the perceived productivity of the older worker and how does this perception compare to the perception of the productivity of the younger worker? In this study we present evidence based on data from Dutch employers and employees. Productivity perceptions are affected by one's age and one's position in the hierarchy. The young favor the young, the old favor the old, and employers value the productivity of workers less than employees do. However, there are also remarkable similarities across employers and employees. By distinguishing the various dimensions that underlie the productivity of younger and older workers, we tested whether soft qualities and abilities-e.g., reliability and commitment-are just as important as hard qualities-cognitive and physically based skills-in the eyes of both employers and employees. It appears that both employers and employees, young and old, view hard skills as far more important than soft skills.
This paper offers an explanation of the use of mandatory-retirement clauses in labor contracts. It argues that the date of mandatory retirement is chosen to correspond to the date of voluntary retirement, but the nature of the optimal wage profile results in a discrepancy between spot wage and spot VMP (value of the worker's marginal product). This is because it is preferable to pay workers less than VMP when young and more than VMP when old. By doing so, the "agency" problem is solved, so the contract with mandatory retirement is Pareto efficient. A theory of agency is presented and empirical evidence which supports the hypothesis is provided.