Washington D.C. [USA], Mar 6 : Employees over the age of 50 can feel excluded and demotivated in the workplace when they believe that their cognitive abilities are decreasing with age, as reported in a recent study.
Older people are generally happier and have better social relationships than younger people - and yet, negative stereotypes about older people are widespread, for example, they are often seen as forgetful and less competent than younger people.
In their research, psychologists from the University of Basel have shown that older workers who have internalized such negative age stereotypes feel belonging less to their company and their colleagues.
As a consequence, they are less motivated to seek social contacts in the workplace. This, in turn, can have negative consequences for their integration and can cause them to leave the work process, for example through early retirement. Also, previous research has shown that this negative internalization of old age stereotypes can have an impact on performance-related variables.
This phenomenon can also make older workers feel insecure about their belongingness in the workplace. This was shown in four online experiments and in an overall analysis with a total of 1306 employees between 50 and 76 years of age and from various professions.
The more the persons internalized negative age stereotypes, the less they were motivated to establish social contacts with their colleagues and the more they socially withdrew. Investigations of the causality of these relationships, however, did not yield any clear results.
"Fewer negative age stereotypes would not only enable older employees to maintain fulfilling social contacts in the workplace," comments project leader Prof. Dr Jana Nikitin the studies. The professional potential of older employees could also be better capitalized.
"This could, in turn, contribute to the solution of economic and social challenges in connection with the latest demographic developments."