Recent advances in leadership research suggest that collective-focused leadership climate and differentiated individual-focused leadership might simultaneously, yet oppositely, affect collective outcomes. The present study extends this literature by addressing open questions regarding theory, methods, statistics, and level of analysis. Therefore, a new and more parsimonious theoretical model is developed on the organizational-level of analysis. Drawing on the commitment literature, we argue for opposite relations of the two leadership constructs on the affective organizational commitment climate. We subsequently theorize that contingent-reward leadership climate moderates these opposing relationships, making our study the first in this field to investigate moderators. Last, we reason that organizational effectiveness is enhanced when affective commitment is "put into action" and raises the organizational citizenship behavior climate. Our three-path moderated-mediation hypotheses are tested, and supported, by structural equation modeling analyses in a multisource data set containing 16,911 respondents from 157 companies. Extensive alternative model testing shows that our theory and findings are robust.
This paper seeks to advance the diversity literature by investigating organizational performance consequences of age diversity. Drawing from social-identity and social-categorization theory, we theoretically argue that, in age-diverse companies, age-based subgrouping processes occur, favoring a shared perception of a negative age-discrimination climate. This perceived negative age-discrimination climate in turn negatively relates to organizational performance. As main contribution, top managers' negative age-related stereotypes and diversity-friendly HR policies are introduced as organizational-level moderators that increase and attenuate, respectively, the social categorization processes affecting performance in age-diverse companies. We utilized structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the proposed hypotheses using a multisource data set comprising 147 companies. The results supported all hypotheses, indicating that low negative top managers' age stereotypes as well as high diversity-friendly HR policies are potential organizational factors that can prevent the negative relation of age diversity with organizational performance transmitted through the negative age-discrimination climate. These results are discussed in light of their contribution to the diversity literature and social-categorization theory as well as their implication for practitioners.
The successful management of demographic change in German companies will mostly depend on their executives’ leadership capabilities. Based on the implicit leadership theory of effective leader-subordinate relationships, the perceived leadership behaviour must match individual subordinates’ leadership prototypes. As research in sociology and social psychology indicates, these leadership prototypes – consisting of employees' work values and preferences – are influenced by generational experiences as well as by individual employees’ age. Building on these arguments, this chapter tries to develop different leadership styles for the five generations currently present in the German workforce: The Post-War Generation, the Economic-Boom Generation, the Baby-Boom Generation, the Golf Generation, and the Internet Generation. Such adaptive and generation-specific leadership should help spur high levels of work motivation, organisational commitment, and hence lead to top performance by every generation and age group within the company.
The article discusses evidence on the relationship between employees' age and their resistance to change. It considers organizational tenure and occupational status as potential moderators in explaining the age/resistance to change association. Resistance to change is introduced as a potential mediator in the age/job performance relationship. A negative linkage between age and individual resistance to change is observed, which suggests that some younger employees were more resistant to change than older workers. Having a longer organizational tenure and being a blue collar worker are also identified as positive boundary conditions for the relationship between age and resistance to change.
This paper deals with the emergence of perceived age discrimination climate on the company level and its performance consequences. In this new approach to the field of diversity research, we investigated (a) the effect of organizational-level age diversity on collective perceptions of age discrimination climate that (b) in turn should influence the collective affective commitment of employees, which is (c) an important trigger for overall company performance. In a large-scale study that included 128 companies, a total of 8,651 employees provided data on their perceptions of age discrimination and affective commitment on the company level. Information on firm-level performance was collected from key informants. We tested the proposed model using structural equation modeling (SEM) procedures and, overall, found support for all hypothesized relationships. The findings demonstrated that age diversity seems to be related to the emergence of an age discrimination climate in companies, which negatively impacts overall firm performance through the mediation of affective commitment. These results make valuable contributions to the diversity and discrimination literature by establishing perceived age discrimination on the company level as a decisive mediator in the age diversity/performance link. The results also suggest important practical implications for the effective management of an increasingly age diverse workforce.
This paper seeks to advance the diversity literature by investigating organizational performance consequences of age diversity. Drawing from social-identity and social-categorization theory, we propose that age diversity indirectly relates negatively to company performance through the intermediation of the perceived age-discrimination climate. As main contribution, top managers' age stereotypes and organizational efforts to support diversity are introduced as organizational-level moderators of the indirect age diversity/company performance relationship. Structural equation modeling was utilized to test the moderated-indirect hypotheses using a multisource data set comprising 63 companies with 17,439 employees. The results supported all hypotheses, indicating that low top managers' age stereotypes and high organizational efforts to support diversity are potential buffering factors that can inhibit the indirect negative effect of age diversity on performance within an organization. These results are discussed in light of their contribution to the diversity literature as well as their implication for practitioners.
