Opinion
Making the Case for ‘Subjective Age’ in the Multigenerational Workforce
— June 16, 2021

By Michael S. North and Noemi Nagy
By Michael S. North and Noemi Nagy
The most significant problem with age-based generalizations is that they oversimplify and inaccurately reflect the current unprecedented age diversity of the workforce. In addition, these stereotypes assume that chronological age is more reliable than it is. But while chronological age is useful to track childhood development, it grows appreciably less predictive of personality or behavior the older we get. In other words, there are larger differences within age groups than between age groups, and this discrepancy grows as we age. Sociologists call this concept aged heterogeneity.
In the context of work, aged heterogeneity implies that companies and policy makers should not consider all older workers as equivalent — and yet that is exactly what they have tended to do, including in the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. Surprisingly, scholarly research in this area also tends to view all older workers through the same lens. Research is sparse in this critically important area, despite the fact that older workers are the fastest-growing segment of the workforce, and a projected 13 million people age 65 and above are expected to be employed in the U.S. by 2024, compared with 8.9 million in 2016.
Read the full MIT Sloan Management Review article.
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Michael S. North is an Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations
Noemi Nagy is a Visiting Research Professor