Discrimination in the Workforce

883 Words2 Pages

Australia has an ageing population and therefore faces many challenges associated with its workforce. The Australian Government (2010, p.4) released statistics showing that the number of people above 65 is expected to double and quadruple for people over age of 84. As a result, the retirement age will be increased and therefore there will be more ‘older’ workers than there is now. With the plans to increase the workforce by including more of both, younger and older workers (Skills Australia, 2010), there will be further challenges in the workplace dynamics. Due to these developments, this research was conducted to analyse and compare the participant’s perceptions of the older male and female worker’s abilities, work effectiveness, training, promotion and working with them in general. Research such as this may aid organisations in hiring new employees, managing current employment relations and implementing policies to improve the workplace. This study is useful as it offers insight to age discrimination and stereotyping in Australia, which already occurs in the Hong Kong and UK (Chiu, Chan, Snape, Redman, 2001). This study differed from the previous conducted because it was more specific, focusing on the Australian participants only rather than comparison between other countries (UK and Hong Kong study from Chiu et al (2001)). It also differed as it compared the perception of males and females, and also all the participants were university students unlike Chiu et al (2001) where the participants were mostly persons working in management. The theories and models that underpinned this research were the idea that stereotyping of the older workers lead to age discrimination in the workplace (Chiu et al, 2001), older managers tending to...

... middle of paper ...

...WCK, Chan, AW, Snape, E & Redman, T 2001 ‘Age stereotype and discriminatory attitudes towards older workers: an East-West comparison’, Human Relations, vol. 54, no. 5, pp. 629-61.

Available Online

Available: 22-02-2011 - 17-07-2011

#

Henkens, CJIM 2005 ‘Stereotyping older workers and retirement: the managers’ point of view’, Canadian Journal on Aging, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 353-66.

Available Online

Available: 22-02-2011 - 17-07-2011

#

Kite, ME, Stockdale, GD, Whitley, BE & Johnson, BT 2005 ‘Attitudes toward younger and older adults: an updated meta-analytic review’, Journal of Social Issues, vol. 61, no. 2, pp. 241-66.

Available Online

Available: 22-02-2011 - 17-07-2011

#

Tomkiewicz, J & Bass, K 2008 ‘Attitudes of business students toward management generation cohorts’, North American Journal of Psychology, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 435-44.

Available Online

Open Document