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Age diversity and its performance implications – Analysing a major future workforce trend

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Abstract

Demographic change, increased retirement age, and efforts to shorten the duration of education will lead to a more age-diverse workforce in future. Age diversity’s successful management will therefore become an important business issue for company practitioners. Unfortunately, knowledge concerning the outcomes of diversity in general and age diversity in particular lacks consistency. On the basis of the similarity-attraction paradigm, social identity and self-categorisation theory, token status, and inequality, some scholars argue that diversity has negative effects. On the basis of the information/decision-making perspective, other scholars predict that diversity has positive outcomes.

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  1. University of St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland

    Dr. Stephan A. Boehm (Senior Lecturer and Director of the Center for Disability and Integration), Miriam K. Baumgaertner (Research Associate and Ph.D. candidate at the Center for Disability and Integration), David J. G. Dwertmann (Research Associate and Ph.D. candidate at the Center for Disability and Integration) & Dr. Florian Kunze (Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Leadership and Human Resources Management)

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  1. Dr. Stephan A. Boehm
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  2. Miriam K. Baumgaertner
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  3. David J. G. Dwertmann
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  1. , Institute of Management, University of St. Gallen, Dufourstr. 40a, St. Gallen, 9000, Switzerland

    Michael Boppel

  2. , Center for Disability and Integration, University of St. Gallen, Rosenbergstrasse 51, St. Gallen, 9000, Switzerland

    Stephan Boehm

  3. Inst. Betriebswirtschaft, Universität St. Gallen, Dufourstr. 40 A, St. Gallen, 9000, Switzerland

    Sven Kunisch

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Boehm, S.A., Baumgaertner, M.K., Dwertmann, D.J.G., Kunze, F. (2011). Age diversity and its performance implications – Analysing a major future workforce trend. In: Boppel, M., Boehm, S., Kunisch, S. (eds) From Grey to Silver. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-15594-9_11

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