7th Equality, Diversity and Inclusion International Conference, 8-10 June, 2014

Please register and submit online without exception:

Dealing with Age Discrimination and Age Stereotypes at the Workplace
Individual, Firm-level and Policy Perspectives

Stream Proposal for the 7th Equality, Diversity and Inclusion International Conference
”Organizing Inclusion: Beyond Privileges and Discrimination”

8-10 June 2014, TU München, Munich, Germany

Stream Chairs

Prof. Dr. Dirk Hofäcker, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany

Moritz Heß, University of Mannheim, Germany

Contact Details

Moritz Heß (Email , Phone:+49-621-181-2804)

Mannheim Centre for European Social Research

University Mannheim

Mannheim, Germany

Stream Outline

With increasing life expectancies and decreasing fertility rates, pension and health care systems in most European countries have come under financial pressure: Policy makers therefore increasingly have been trying to prolong work life. Yet, these attempts have often been counteracted by a still persistent ‘early exit culture’, arising from decades-long tradition of allowing for exit well before standard official retirement ages. Against this background, the challenge arises how to integrate older workers into companies and how to manage an age-diverse labor force.

One crucial question in this respect is how to deal with discrimination because of old age (often referred to as ‘ageism’) and stereotypes related to old age at the workplace. Ageism can occur in the work process itself as well as in the hiring process, in which younger applicants are preferred to older. Age discrimination and negative stereotypes can lead to a lower work satisfaction of older employees and cause conflicts between different age groups of workers, and, thereby, negatively impact on a company’s overall performance.

Human resource managers, employers, trade unions and policy makers alike are confronted with the need to develop concepts and measures to reduce ageism at the workplace and fight negative age stereotypes. In this endeavor, understanding the processes behind age discrimination and age stereotypes, and the consequence of both for older workers and companies is crucial.

Against this background, the stream aims at bringing together researchers investigating the occurrence and consequences of ageism and age stereotypes in the society at large and in particular at the workplace. It invites papers on various topics and from different analytical levels (individual, company, sector and country), like for example:

  • Individual’s perception of ageism and age stereotypes at the workplace and the hiring process.
  • Human resources mangers’, employers’ and co-workers’ attitudes towards older employees.
  • Connections between ageism and other forms of discrimination at the workplace
  • Consequences of ageism at the workplace for the discriminated older workers and the company.
  • Public policies and ageism.

Potential research questions might be:

  • To which degree do older workers experience expressions of ageism? What types of negative, but also positive stereotypes about older employees do exist? How does this experience affect older employees’ work productivity, health and quality of life and retirement transitions?
  • From which age on are workers perceived as “old” by their employers, co-workers and themselves? How can leadership and human resource measures support older workers, which are facing ageism?
  • Can policies support older workers, which are facing ageism and age stereotypes? And if yes: how?