Organizational Performance Consequences of Age Diversity: Inspecting the Role of Diversity-Friendly HR Policies and Top Managers’ Negative Age Stereotypes

This study tests organizational trust as the psychosocial mechanism that explains how healthy organizational practices and team resources predict multilevel performance in organizations and teams, respectively. In our methodology, we collect data in a sample of 890 employees from 177 teams and their immediate supervisors from 31 Spanish companies. Our results from the multilevel analysis show two independent processes predicting organizational performance (return on assets, ROA) and performance ratings by immediate supervisors, operating at the organizational and team levels, respectively. We have found evidence for a theoretical and functional quasi-isomorphism. First, based on social exchange theory, we found evidence for our prediction that when organizations implement healthy practices and teams provide resources, employees trust their top managers (vertical trust) and coworkers (horizontal trust) and try to reciprocate these benefits by improving their performance. Second, (relationships among) constructs are similar at different levels of analysis, which may inform HRM officers and managers about which type of practices and resources can help to enhance trust and improve performance in organizations. The present study contributes to the scarce research on the role of trust at collective (i.e., organizational and team) levels as a psychological mechanism that explains how organizational practices and team resources are linked to organizational performance.

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A Theoretical Examination of the Role of Personality in Research on Strategic Process

Psychological Reports ◽

10.2466/pr0.1995.76.2.403 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 76 (2) ◽

pp. 403-417

Author(s):

Anisya S. Thomas ◽

Sherry E. Moss

Keyword(s):

Organizational Performance ◽

Business Strategy ◽

Interdisciplinary Approach ◽

Upper Echelon ◽

Career Theory ◽

Upper Echelon Theory ◽

Strategic Process ◽

Top Managers ◽

The Relationship

This paper incorporates an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the relationship between business strategy and top managers' personalities. The fundamental premise of this paper, derived from upper echelon theory, is that the study of managers within the context of their organizations or situations is more fruitful than the independent investigation of managers or organizations. The arguments are justified by drawing on studies from personality theory, career theory, and strategic management. Specific propositions concerning ideal matches between business-level strategies and managerial personality attributes are also developed, and their implications for organizational performance are discussed.

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When is age dissimilarity harmful for organisational identification? The moderating role of age stereotypes and perceived age-related treatment

Human Relations ◽

10.1177/0018726719900009 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 001872671990000

Author(s):

Alessia Sammarra ◽

Silvia Profili ◽

Riccardo Peccei ◽

Laura Innocenti

Keyword(s):

Age Group ◽

Age Stereotypes ◽

Age Diversity ◽

Age Related ◽

The Social ◽

Perceived Age ◽

The Relationship ◽

Potential Challenge ◽

Social Identity Approach

Due to demographic changes, age diversity is growing in the workplace, creating a potential challenge to social integration. However, who is most affected by working with colleagues of different ages and when is being dissimilar in age from others more likely to hinder organisational identification? Drawing on relational demography and on the social identity approach, we suggest that certain individual and contextual conditions can lead employees to react to greater age dissimilarity by reducing their psychological attachment to the organisation. We propose that negative age stereotypes and perceived age-related treatment affect the salience of age as a social category for employees and threaten their age group identity, thereby creating conditions in which age dissimilarity might hinder organisational identification. We therefore examine the moderating effects of negative age stereotypes and perceived age-related treatment on the relationship between age dissimilarity and organisational identification in a sample of 434 schoolteachers from 16 schools in Italy. Findings show that age dissimilarity per se is not sufficient to hamper employees’ identification with the organisation. However, it has detrimental effects when employees hold negative age stereotypes and/or perceive an unfair organisational treatment towards their own age group. Implications for research are discussed along with practice implications.

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