IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i8p4866-d795621.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Testing the Shielding Effect of Intergenerational Contact against Ageism in the Workplace: A Canadian Study

Author

Listed:
  • Martine Lagacé

    (Department of Communication, Faculty of Arts, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada
    School of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada
    LIFE Research Institute, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada)

  • Anna Rosa Donizzetti

    (Department of Humanities, University of Naples Federico II, 80138 Naples, Italy)

  • Lise Van de Beeck

    (School of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada)

  • Caroline D. Bergeron

    (LIFE Research Institute, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada
    Center for Population Health and Aging, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA)

  • Philippe Rodrigues-Rouleau

    (Department of Communication, Faculty of Arts, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada)

  • Audrey St-Amour

    (School of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada)

Abstract

Negative outcomes of ageism in the context of the Canadian labor market are well documented. Older workers remain the target of age-based stereotypes and attitudes on the part of employers. This study aims at assessing (1) the extent to which quality and quantity intergroup contacts between younger and older workers as well as knowledge-sharing practices reduce ageist attitudes, in turn (2) how a decrease in ageist attitudes increase the level of workers’ engagement and intentions to remain in the organization. Data were collected from 603 Canadian workers (aged 18 to 68 years old) from private and public organizations using an online survey measuring concepts under study. Results of a path analysis suggest that intergroup contacts and knowledge-sharing practices are associated with positive attitudes about older workers. More so, positive attitudes about older workers generate higher levels of work engagement, which in turn are associated with stronger intentions to remain with the organization. However, positive attitudes about older workers had no effect on intentions to remain in the workplace. Results are discussed in light of the intergroup contact theory.

Suggested Citation

  • Martine Lagacé & Anna Rosa Donizzetti & Lise Van de Beeck & Caroline D. Bergeron & Philippe Rodrigues-Rouleau & Audrey St-Amour, 2022. "Testing the Shielding Effect of Intergenerational Contact against Ageism in the Workplace: A Canadian Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-14, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:8:p:4866-:d:795621
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/8/4866/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/8/4866/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Neumark & Ian Burn & Patrick Button, 2019. "Is It Harder for Older Workers to Find Jobs? New and Improved Evidence from a Field Experiment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(2), pages 922-970.
    2. Alain Bélanger & Yves Carrière & Patrick Sabourin, 2016. "Understanding Employment Participation of Older Workers: The Canadian Perspective," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 42(1), pages 94-109, March.
    3. Niklas Ellerich-Groppe & Larissa Pfaller & Mark Schweda, 2021. "Young for old—old for young? Ethical perspectives on intergenerational solidarity and responsibility in public discourses on COVID-19," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 159-171, June.
    4. Sylvie St-Onge & Marie-Ève Beauchamp Legault, 2022. "What Can Motivate Me to Keep Working? Analysis of Older Finance Professionals’ Discourse Using Self-Determination Theory," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-16, January.
    5. Ibrahim M. Al-Jabri, 2020. "Investigating the Mediating Role of Knowledge Sharing on Employee Engagement: Evidence from a Developing Nation," International Journal of Human Capital and Information Technology Professionals (IJHCITP), IGI Global Scientific Publishing, vol. 11(1), pages 47-63, January.
    6. Lössbroek, Jelle & Radl, Jonas, 2019. "Teaching older workers new tricks: workplace practices and gender training differences in nine European countries," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 39(10), pages 2170-2193.
    7. Bruno Larue, 2020. "Labor issues and COVID‐19," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 68(2), pages 231-237, June.
    8. Monica Costa Dias & Robert Joyce & Fabien Postel‐Vinay & Xiaowei Xu, 2020. "The Challenges for Labour Market Policy during the COVID‐19 Pandemic," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(2), pages 371-382, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Emilio Paolo Visintin & Alessandra Tasso, 2022. "Are You Willing to Protect the Health of Older People? Intergenerational Contact and Ageism as Predictors of Attitudes toward the COVID-19 Vaccination Passport," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-13, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Giulio Marcucci & Filippo Emanuele Ciarapica & Giovanni Mazzuto & Maurizio Bevilacqua, 2024. "Analysis of ripple effect and its impact on supply chain resilience: a general framework and a case study on agri-food supply chain during the COVID-19 pandemic," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 175-200, March.
    2. Truc Thi Mai Bui & Patrick Button & Elyce G. Picciotti, 2020. "Early Evidence on the Impact of COVID-19 and the Recession on Older Workers," NBER Working Papers 27448, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Yanqi Han & Hui Lyu & Shixiong Cheng & Yuhang He, 2022. "Influencing Mechanism and Difference of Poultry Farmers’ Willingness and Behavior in Breeding Scale—Evidence from Jianghan Plain, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-15, January.
    4. Amanda Agan & Sonja Starr, 2016. "Ban the Box, Criminal Records, and Statistical Discrimination: A Field Experiment," Working Papers 598, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    5. Gordon B. Dahl & Matthew Knepper, 2023. "Age Discrimination across the Business Cycle," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 75-112, November.
    6. Stijn Baert & Sunčica Vujić, 2018. "Does it pay to care? Volunteering and employment opportunities," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 31(3), pages 819-836, July.
    7. Henry S. Farber & Chris M. Herbst & Dan Silverman & Till von Wachter, 2018. "Whom Do Employers Want? The Role of Recent Employment and Unemployment Status and Age," Working Papers 619, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    8. David Neumark & Ian Burn & Patrick Button & Nanneh Chehras, 2016. "Do State Laws Protecting Older Workers from Discrimination Reduce Age Discrimination in Hiring? Experimental (and Nonexperimental) Evidence," Working Papers wp349, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    9. Laetitia Challe & Florent Fremigacci & François Langot & Yannick L'Horty & Loic Du Parquet & Pascale Petit, 2015. "Access to employment with age and gender : results of a controlled experiment," Working Papers hal-01292137, HAL.
    10. Kuhn, Florian & Chanci, Luis, 2024. "Racial disparities in labor outcomes: The effects of hiring discrimination over the business cycle," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 801-817.
    11. David Neumark, 2018. "Experimental Research on Labor Market Discrimination," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(3), pages 799-866, September.
    12. Gaulke, Amanda & Cassidy, Hugh & Namingit, Sheryll, 2019. "The effect of post-baccalaureate business certificates on job search: Results from a correspondence study," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    13. Cristina PRUND, 2020. "The Abrupt Fall Of The Labor Market: The Case Of The European Labor Market And The Impact Generated By Covid-19," Proceedings of the INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 14(1), pages 722-730, November.
    14. Pawel Chrostek & Krzysztof Karbownik & Michal Myck, 2024. "Labor Market Externalities of Pre-Retirement Employment Protection," CESifo Working Paper Series 11078, CESifo.
    15. Joanna Tyrowicz & Lucas van der Velde & Irene van Staveren, 2018. "Does Age Exacerbate the Gender-Wage Gap? New Method and Evidence From Germany, 1984–2014," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(4), pages 108-130, October.
    16. Berson, C. & Malgouyres, C. & Roux, S., 2016. "Marché du travail : institutions et réformes - Synthèse de la quatrième conférence annuelle sur le marché du travail des 3 et 4 décembre 2015 organisée à Paris par l’École d’économie d’Aix-Marseille e," Bulletin de la Banque de France, Banque de France, issue 205, pages 63-71.
    17. Melo, Vitor & Rocha, Hugo Vaca Pereira & Sigaud, Liam & Warren, Patrick L. & Gaddis, S. Michael, 2024. "Understanding Discrimination in College Admissions: A Field Experiment," SocArXiv 5ctms, Center for Open Science.
    18. Luca Fumarco & Benjamin Harrell & Patrick Button & David Schwegman & E Dils, 2020. "Gender Identity, Race, and Ethnicity-based Discrimination in Access to Mental Health Care: Evidence from an Audit Correspondence Field Experiment," NBER Working Papers 28164, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Luca Fumarco & S. Michael Gaddis & Francesco Sarracino & Iain Snoddy, 2024. "sendemails: An automated email package with multiple applications," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 24(1), pages 138-160, March.
    20. Drydakis, Nick & MacDonald, Peter & Bozani, Vasiliki & Chiotis, Vangelis, 2017. "Inclusive recruitment? Hiring discrimination against older workers," GLO Discussion Paper Series 103, Global Labor Organization (GLO).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:8:p:4866-:d:795621. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.