Empirical evidence suggests that all groups develop social systems that specify the roles and statuses acceptable at different ages. Age-related expectations form the clock against which people measure their lives. Are they on-time or off-time with what is seen as normal progress? In a work organization, where most middle managers are 32, a middle manager who is 40 may feel """"""""over the hill."""""""" This process of comparison appears to exert a powerful effect on behavior. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between career outcomes and perceived and actual age discrepancies with career timetables in work organizations. I am interested in the impact of being on-time, ahead of time, or behind time on managers and engineers, and plan to study these related occupations in two to ten organizations. Outcomes such as job satisfaction, career success, performance, and work/family accommodation will be studied. This project is an extension of earlier work, but includes additional organizations, a refined questionnaire, interviews, and a longitudinal focus. The eventual aim is to include ten to twenty organizations and to collect longitudinal data from selected organizations and individuals five years after the initial study. In order to increase generalizability, utilities and R and D organizations will be targeted for participation. Questionnaire data will be analyzed using structural equations, a method which is particularly appropriate for longitudinal data. Significant social and demographic changes in this country are influencing the composition of the work force. An increased variety of working patterns for men and women has affected the social definition of age in work organizations. Changes in birth rates have resulted in an increasing proportion of older individuals in the population. This is of particular concern because work organizations equate an aging work force with large groups of employees assumed to be less productive, less able, and less up-to-date than their younger counterparts. Understanding how social expectations of age are constructed, how they influence behavior, and how they change over time may make it possible to manage demographic patterns of employment to insure a productive social climate for employees of all ages.
| Lawrence, B S (1996) Organizational age norms: why is it so hard to know one when you see one? Gerontologist 36:209-20 |
