The influence of age management policies on older employee work relationships with their company

Abstract

The negative consequences of age-related discrimination are now well documented. Employee relationships have become looser both with their work and their workplace. On the other hand, there is far less research analyzing how employees cope when confronted with negative stereotypes associated with human resource management (HRM) measures of discrimination. The field remains imprisoned in a passive vision of the individual faced with stigmatization. This research analyses how and with what resources senior employees manage the discrimination they are subjected to. Far from being homogeneous, this work shows that individual reactions are marked by a diversity of adaptation tactics, which go from accepting the constraint passively to putting its burden into perspective. We suggest a typology, which is an invitation to re-read the effects of discrimination by integrating the role of work and of the company in the development of the individual.

Keywords:

• age-related discrimination
• coping
• human resource management

Notes

1. Like Redman and Snape (2006), borrowing from the literature on other forms of discrimination does not mean that strict parallelism between situations is postulated. This simply appeared to carry openings susceptible of casting fruitful light on the subject.

2. There were some refusals, in particular in site C, which however, did not affect the theoretical representativeness of the sample.

3. In France, managerial promotions in the public sector are often linked to results in such examinations.