Age work in organizations: maintaining and disrupting institutionalized understandings of higher age
Article
Collien, I., Sieben, B. and Muller-Camen, M. 2016. Age work in organizations: maintaining and disrupting institutionalized understandings of higher age. British Journal of Management. 27 (4), pp. 778-795. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12198
Type | Article |
---|---|
Title | Age work in organizations: maintaining and disrupting institutionalized understandings of higher age |
Authors | Collien, I., Sieben, B. and Muller-Camen, M. |
Abstract | Age diversity research calls for new approaches in explaining the persistence of age inequalities, which integrate different levels of analysis and display greater context sensitivity. Concurrently, neoinstitutionalist research interested in social inequalities calls for merging institutional theory with critical perspectives and to account for issues of power. In this study, we address the calls of both research streams through developing the concept of ‘age work’: the institutional work actors undertake on age as a social institution. Applying our novel concept to a multi-actor study of four German organizations known for their age management, we come across a counterintuitive insight regarding actors’ age work: maintaining stereotypical age images can serve to counter age inequalities, whereas deconstructing age images can reinforce age inequalities. The multi-actor perspective of our study allows us to categorize different forms of power-laden and interest-driven age work and to portray the reproduction of age inequalities as a result of actors’ age work, embedded in different contexts and complex power relations. Comparing employees’ forms of age work across sectors and organizations, we detail how notions of masculinity as well as income and job security shaped the categorized forms of age work. |
Keywords | age diversity, institutional work, inequality, interests, power |
Publisher | WileyBlackwell |
Journal | British Journal of Management |
ISSN | 1045-3172 |
Electronic | 1467-8551 |
Publication dates | |
Online | 19 Oct 2016 |
19 Oct 2016 | |
Publication process dates | |
Deposited | 20 Jan 2017 |
Accepted | 29 Jul 2016 |
Output status | Published |
Accepted author manuscript | |
Copyright Statement | This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Collien, I., Sieben, B. and Müller-Camen, M. (2016), Age Work in Organizations: Maintaining and Disrupting Institutionalized Understandings of Higher Age. Brit J Manage, 27: 778–795. doi:10.1111/1467-8551.12198, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12198. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving. |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12198 |
Language | English |
https://repository.mdx.ac.uk/item/86w52
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