Age, Learning, and Employability - DSpace Open Universiteit

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The workforce is greying due to an ageing population and raising retirement age, and organizations will therefore more a
Age, Learning, and Employability: The influence of age stereotyping

Marianne Wooning Student nummer: 836664298

Open Universiteit Nederland Faculteit

: Management, Science & Technology

Opleiding

: Master Management

Cursus

: Voorbereiding afstudeeronderzoek OVO

Eerste beoordelaar

: dr. Ellen Peeters

Tweede beoordelaar

: dr. Albert Kampermann

26/11/2017 – final version

Table of content Summary ................................................................................................................................................. 4 1.

Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 6

2.

Theoretical background and hypotheses ........................................................................................ 8 2.1

Ageism, age stereotypes and discrimination .......................................................................... 8

2.2

Age – the older worker ............................................................................................................ 9

2.3

Employability ......................................................................................................................... 10

2.4

Age and employability ........................................................................................................... 12

2.5

Learning and employability ................................................................................................... 13

2.6

Age, learning, and employability ........................................................................................... 13

2.7

Age, learning and employability; and the influence of age stereotyping ............................. 15

Study 1 ................................................................................................................................................... 17 3.

4.

Methods ........................................................................................................................................ 17 3.1

Secondary data ...................................................................................................................... 17

3.2

Data collection ....................................................................................................................... 17

3.3

Operationalization and appropriateness of secondary data approach ................................ 18

3.4

Data-analysis ......................................................................................................................... 21

Results ........................................................................................................................................... 23 4.1

Correlations ........................................................................................................................... 23

4.2

Statistical Analysis ................................................................................................................. 24

4.2.1

Regression analysis ........................................................................................................ 24

4.2.2

Multiple regressions ...................................................................................................... 25

4.2.3

Mediation ...................................................................................................................... 26

Study 2 ................................................................................................................................................... 27 5.

6.

7.

Methods ........................................................................................................................................ 27 5.1

Data collection ....................................................................................................................... 27

5.2

Data analysis .......................................................................................................................... 28

Results ........................................................................................................................................... 29 6.1

Age and employability ........................................................................................................... 29

6.2

Learning and employability ................................................................................................... 30

6.3

Age, learning, and employability ........................................................................................... 30

6.4

Age, learning and employability, and the influence of age stereotyping ............................. 31

Conclusions, discussion, limitations and practical implications .................................................... 33 2

7.1

Conclusions and discussion ................................................................................................... 33

7.2

Practical implications............................................................................................................. 39

7.3.

Limitations and future research ............................................................................................ 39

Literature ............................................................................................................................................... 42 Appendix 1 - Questionnaire for the employee ...................................................................................... 50 Appendix 2 - Questionnaire for the supervisor ..................................................................................... 52 Appendix 3 - Interview Questions ......................................................................................................... 54 Appendix 4 - Tree structure and prevalence results coding ................................................................. 55

3

Summary The workforce is greying due to an ageing population and raising retirement age, and organizations will therefore more and more depend on the contributions of older workers. Older workers have acquired their skills and organizational knowledge over the years. Maintaining their skills and knowledge current and stay employable, to keep up with the demands of their jobs, requires older workers to take part in learning and development activities. The participation of older workers in learning activities, however, appears to be lower than of younger workers. Individual factors, as well as age stereotyping are proposed as reasons for the lower training frequency of older workers. In this study the relation between the worker’s age and employability and the role of learning and workplace age stereotyping in this relation, is assessed. In study 1, a quantitative approach is used, to test the hypotheses of the conceptual model, using a dataset of KU Leuven (n=213), and applying secondary data analysis. In study 2, data is collected with semi-structured interviews (n=5) and qualitative analysis applied, aiming at providing alternative explanations to the results. In study 1, a subjective approach is used to assess employability. Perceived employability is defined as “the estimated probability of employment by the employee within the organization (i.e., internal employability) and outside the organization (i.e., external employability)”. Formal learnings are assessed by the formal learning opportunities as provided by the organization, and by the participation of the workers in the formal learning activities. Chronological age is used for the age of the worker and supervisor. An indirect approach is used to measure age stereotyping, assuming that direct measuring would be complicated and inaccurate. In study 1, a negative influence of worker’s age was shown on perceived internal employability (ß= -.265, p