Ambivalent Bias at Work: Managers’ Perceptions of Older Workers across Organizational Contexts

Hila Axelrad, Alexandra Kalev and Noah Lewin-Epstein
Additional contact information
Hila Axelrad: Reichman University, Israel
Alexandra Kalev: Tel Aviv University, Israel
Noah Lewin-Epstein: Tel Aviv University, Israel

Work, Employment & Society, 2024, vol. 38, issue 4, 1148-1171

Abstract: Managerial bias is a major source of workplace inequality and a central target of employer diversity efforts, yet we know little about the content of stereotypes and where they prevail. Stereotypes can be ambivalent, mixing negative and positive dimensions. Ambivalent stereotypes can rationalize discriminatory decision-making but they may also be more amenable to change. This article examines the prevalence of wholly negative and ambivalent age-based stereotypes across organizational contexts. Data on 551 managers reveals, first, that the modal manager holds ambivalent stereotypes about older workers, with positive perceptions of their personal attributes and negative perceptions regarding their employability. Second, both negative and ambivalent stereotypes are common in the presence of a labour union. Their prevalence declines, however, in different contexts: ambivalent stereotypes decline with increased intergroup contact and negative stereotypes decline when accountability triggers are implmented. Implications for research on work, organizations, older workers, and diversity management are discussed.

Keywords: ageism; diversity; equal opportunity; inclusion; intergroup contact; labour union; older workers; social closure; stereotype content (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09500170231175790 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:38:y:2024:i:4:p:1148-1171

DOI: 10.1177/09500170231175790

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Work, Employment & Society from British Sociological Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().