Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4hhp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-19T18:25:11.640Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Fire All the Boomers: How Generational Labeling Legitimizes Age Discrimination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 October 2015

Cody B. Cox  and
Gary Coulton
Cody B. Cox*
Affiliation:
College of Arts and Sciences, Texas A&M University San Antonio
Gary Coulton
Affiliation:
College of Arts and Sciences, Texas A&M University San Antonio
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Cody B. Cox, Texas A&M University San Antonio, One University Way, San Antonio, TX 78224. E-mail: ccox@tamusa.tamus.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Costanza and Finkelstein (2015) make a number of important observations in their exploration of how generation-based differences are understood by academics and practitioners. The absence of a unifying theory, the lack of a clear pattern of findings, and the conceptual ambiguity about generational membership have all limited the utility of generational membership to researchers, while the practice of describing large groups of individuals in generational terms has become enormously popular outside of academia. Certainly, there are several topics that are popular among the public and widely used by businesses despite being viewed negatively by academics; however, there is some danger in the widespread perception that group differences between individuals of different ages can be explained by generational membership. Although it might be tempting to consider these generational stereotypes as simply innocuous misperceptions supervisors may hold, they may, in fact, be quite harmful. The purpose of this article is to further expand on the potential for these stereotypes to be harmful for older and younger employees.

Type
Commentaries
Information
Industrial and Organizational Psychology , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , September 2015 , pp. 372 - 376
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barron, L. G. (2010). Promoting the underlying principle of acceptance: The effectiveness of sexual orientation employment antidiscrimination legislation. Journal of Workplace Rights, 14, 251–268.Google Scholar
Barron, L. G., & Hebl, M. (2010). Reducing “acceptable” stigmatization through legislation. Social Issues and Policy Review, 4 (1), 1–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biskupic, J. (2009, June 18). Supreme Court makes it harder to prove age discrimination. USA Today. Retrieved from http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2009-06-18-supreme-court-age-discrimination_N.htmGoogle Scholar
CBS News. (2009, June 18) Age discrimination now harder to prove. Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/news/age-discrimination-now-harder-to-prove/Google Scholar
Costanza, D. P., & Finkelstein, L. M. (2015). Generationally based differences in the workplace: Is there a there there? Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, 8 (4), 308–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, C. B., & Barron, L. (2012). The effect of changing anti-discrimination legal standards on the evaluation of older workers. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 42, E198–E221. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2012.01040.xGoogle Scholar
Cox, C. B., & Beier, M. E. (2014). Too old to train or reprimand: Evaluating the effect of intergroup attribution bias in the evaluations of older workers. Journal of Business and Psychology, 29, 61–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erber, J. T., & Long, B. A. (2006). Perceptions of forgetful and slow employees: Does age matter? Journal of Gerontology, 6, 333–339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hicks, R., & Hicks, K. (1999). Boomers, X-ers, and other strangers: Understanding the generational differences that divide us. Colorado Springs, CO: Tyndale House.Google Scholar
Levy, B. R., Chung, P., & Canavan, M. (2011). Impact of explanatory style and age stereotypes on health across the lifespan. In Fingerman, K. L., Berg, C. A., Smith, J., & Antonucci, T. C. (Eds.), Handbook of life-span development (pp. 437–456). New York, NY: Springer.Google Scholar
Maurer, T. (2001). Career-relevant learning and development, worker age, and beliefs about self-efficacy for development. Journal of Management, 27, 123–140. doi:10.1177/014920630102700201Google Scholar
Rupp, D. E., Vodanovich, S. J., & Crede, M. (2006). Age bias in the workplace: The impact of ageism and causal attributions. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 36, 1337–1364. doi:10.1111/j.0021-9029.2006.00062.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiner, B. (1991). Metaphors in motivation and attribution. American Psychologist, 46 (9), 921–930.Google Scholar