Chapter 2: Literature Review
2.6 Employers’ and Societal Attitudes Towards an Aging Workforce
so they continue to be economic assets. This strategy depends on a range of micro-level adjustments, about which relatively little is known in terms of reforming employment policies and effectively managing ageist attitudes in workplaces (Cebola et al., 2021; Hachem et al., 2017; OECD, 2018; Ugheoke et al., 2021). Further, older workers can face difficulties in acquiring another job if they lose their current ones, with many employers reluctant to hire older workers. For example, young workers in Germany and North America have a much higher chance of re-employment than older workers due to contextual barriers and ageist attitudes (Berger, 2021; Lippmann & Brown, 2016; Rudman & Aldrich, 2021). Despite many organisations establishing and implementing anti-discrimination policies (Bal et al., 2011;
Crăciun et al., 2019), even hiring managers responsible for designing and implementing age- related policies can hold stereotypical views of older workers (Czaja et al., 2020; Chung &
Park, 2019; Miller, 2019; Parry & Tyson, 2009).
It is suggested that cultures also influence and shape ageist attitudes. Three studies (Luke & Neault, 2020; Naegele et al., 2018; Wainwright et al., 2019) report a multitude of factors behind ageist attitudes towards older workers in organisations, including societal and media misrepresentations and deeply entrenched societal attitudes towards the elderly.
Francis-Pettway (2019) and Kolhs et al. (2019) found it is challenging for older workers to deal with the uncertainties and insecurities experienced at work. Five studies conducted in various parts of Europe, Australia and the US (Bratt et al., 2018; Black et al., 2018; Choi et al., 2018; Gonzales et al., 2018; Hovbrandt et al., 2019) argue that despite policy shifts, older workers face barriers at their workplaces and challenges in sustaining satisfactory work and being productive. Over time, perceived age discrimination and ageist attitudes are expected to lower job satisfaction, affect older workers’ health status and elevate depressive symptoms (Ilișanu & Andrei, 2018; Petery et al., 2020). It is unlikely for these workers to continue working past their retirement ages due to the detrimental effects of perceived workplace age discrimination on older workers’ mental and overall health. (Marchiondo et al., 2019).
Marchiondo et al. (2020) report longitudinal data showing that older workers suffered from workplace incivility due to ageist attitudes, which negatively affected their wellbeing and severely impaired their perceptions of life satisfaction. Therefore, it can be assumed that in a positive work culture with fair employment practices, older workers may be encouraged to remain in the workforce.
Similarly, ageist attitudes dominate many workplaces in Asia, although fewer incidences of discrimination against older workers exist because of the norms and values that admire and respect elders (Billett, 2011; Yunus & Hairi, 2020). Yunus and Hairi (2020) argue that the media plays an influential role in countering ageism through more positive portrayals of older adults, giving audiences a more realistic view of aging and old age. Given the unprecedented rate of aging in the Asia Pacific, combating ageism is perhaps more pertinent in this region. However, this assumption is inconclusive and cultural differences in ageism are more nuanced than previously thought (Ng et al., 2021b; Rudolph, et al., 2021). It has also been suggested that the older Asian generation are an interim generation and, despite their old age, are usually without substantial personal resources and considered a liability. Therefore, older workers are often caught between the state’s policies and unsupportive work environments (Lain et al., 2019; Zhan et al., 2019). Concerningly, most of the perceptions of older workers are generally negative (Perron & McCann, 2018) regardless of the context.
Despite the policies enacted to change this negativity, time-entrenched perceptions are obstinate and challenging to transform.
Several studies to understand perceptions of older people suggest the media and academic research are culpable for frequently presenting older people in a negative light, thus shaping negative perceptions of older workers (Koskinen et al., 2014; Kroon et al., 2019;
Mosberg & Monika, 2019; Rovner-Lev & Elias, 2020; van der Heijden, 2018). The research also frequently identified poor public and self-images of older persons (Jose et al., 2021;
Mosberg & Monika, 2019). However, other studies on ageism (Bratt et al., 2018; Chasteen et
al., 2021) present unique findings and argue for more research to address ageism, considering the different forms of ageism experienced by people at different life stages and ages and not restricted to older workers (Chung & Park, 2019). Further compounding this issue, an Australian survey reported that intergenerational competition is responsible for ageist attitudes and is a challenge that needs to be resolved. These attitudes principally stem from beliefs over the succession of enviable resources in organisations (Healy & Williams, 2016).
Rego et al. (2018) show that despite expressing positive attitudes towards older workers, a significant number of managers prefer younger workers even when the older worker is more productive. The authors added that it is important to develop clearer understandings of how attitudes influence recruiting and promotion decisions. Consequently, competition for resources and economic advantage can exacerbate ageist attitudes already prevalent in many modern societies.
As discussed, ageism is a debilitating phenomenon that in itself is a profound challenge to many governments around the world (Ayalon & Tesch-Römer, 2018) and can be attributed to several factors. First, many economies highlight increasing healthcare costs straining government expenditure and blame this largely on the older population (Seah et al., 2019; Tovel et al., 2019). Second, some governments attribute the strain on the workforce to the increasing percentage of older people retiring from work combined with very low fertility rates, such as in Singapore’s case (Peng, 2019). Third, many of these negative stereotypes are deep, time-entrenched beliefs that have remained obstinately unchanged for decades (Teater, 2018). Despite many of the world’s economies embarking on different initiatives to remedy the situation, it remains defiant and very much unaffected by most of the initiatives (Nagarajan et al., 2019). The last factor is the intergenerational conflict occurring at workplaces where the divide between older people and younger workforce entrants has been fraught with testy encounters and engagements (Arranz et al., 2019; Truxillo et al., 2012;
Wijayanti, 2018), particularly when resources such as training opportunities and promotions are in contention.
Ageism is one of the biggest obstacles confronting older workers in training and employment. Ageism has subtly manifested itself in many workplaces (Nachmias, 2019).
Worryingly, ageism is a major barrier preventing older workers from becoming valuable workforce members (Stypińska & Nikander, 2018), and it is prevalent in many organisations (Naegele et al., 2018). It could simply be an absence of policies to transform ageist attitudes and perceptions in some instances; in others, it could be situated in time-entrenched cultural norms. Additional isolated sources include the negative media portrayal of older people even in children’s programs (Rovner-Lev & Elias, 2020) and the prevalent trends in research studies and human resource policies that present older workers in inimical terms (Zaniboni et al., 2019).