Die Thematik des demographischen Wandels gerät angesichts zyklischer Krisen und Rezessionen wie der momentan vorherrschenden Wirtschaftskrise mitunter in den Hintergrund der öffentlichen Wahrnehmung. Über die nächsten Jahrzehnte betrachtet ergeben sich aus dem demographischen Wandel jedoch vielfältige Chancen und Herausforderungen, die das Topmanagement von Unternehmen vor beträchtliche Aufgaben stellen. Die sich abzeichnenden demographischen Veränderungen führen zu einem zukünftigen Mangel an jüngeren Mitarbeitern, einer steigenden Altersvielfalt innerhalb der Unternehmen sowie zu älter werdenden Kunden und Mitarbeitern.
Raising levels of age diversity are a corporate reality in most organizations today. Unfortunately, the effects of age diversity on various organizational outcomes including its effect on the employment relationship are not yet fully understood. This chapter strives to provide a theoretical and empirical synopsis of relevant literature in this field. First, various theoretical frameworks are discussed to explain both positive and negative effects of age diversity. These include cognitive resource models of variation as well as processes related to similarity-attraction, social identity, career timetables and prototype matching, as well as age-based faultlines. Second, a structured review is conducted which summarizes empirical findings on the effects of age diversity at different organization levels and with regard to various outcomes including performance, innovation, communication, discrimination, conflict, and turnover. Third, potential moderators of the age diversity-outcome relationship are discussed which include demographic and task characteristics, team processes, leadership behavior, age stereotypes, HR and diversity management practices, as well as diversity mindsets and age-diversity climate. The chapter concludes with an outline for future research in this important area of organizational behavior.
Demographic change is one of the most crucial issues of our time. Owing to its importance for companies, this topic has made it onto decision-makers' agendas in recent years. This chapter - which also serves as the introductory chapter - sets out to first establish a common understanding of the term demographic change. The motivation is that one must first understand the specific developments of demographic change if one is to effectively consider its various implications. Secondly, by taking the company stakeholder perspective, this chapter introduces an integrated framework for examining demographic change's implications for companies. Thirdly, on the basis of the suggested framework, this chapter integrates and organises the individual book contributions.
The present study extends knowledge of the performance consequences of work group diversity climate. Building upon Kopelman, Brief, and Guzzo's (1990) climate model of productivity, we introduced work group discrimination as a behavioral mediator that explains the positive performance effects of diversity climate on group performance. In addition, we investigated group size as moderator upon which this mediated relationship depended. These moderated-mediated propositions were tested using a split-sample design and data from 248 military work units comprising 8,707 respondents. Findings from structural equation modeling revealed that work group diversity climate was consistently positively related to group performance and that this relationship was mediated by work group discrimination. Results yielded a pattern of moderated mediation, in that the indirect relationship between work group diversity climate (through perceptions of work group discrimination) and group performance was more pronounced in larger than in smaller groups. The results illustrate that work group discrimination and group size represent key factors in determining how a work group diversity climate is associated with group performance and, thus, have significant implications for research and practice.
In this paper, we suggest that CEO charisma is related to firm performance via its effect on two important mediators. First, charismatic CEOs are expected to raise the transformational leadership climate within an organization. Second, both CEO charisma and transformational leadership climate are proposed to increase a firm's organizational identity strength, which in turn, relates positively to firm performance. We tested these propositions on a sample of 150 German companies (20,639 employees) with a three-path mediation model at the organizational level of analysis, utilizing four independent data sources. To test the assumed relationships, we used structural equation modeling and applied bootstrapping. Our study helps open the black box of organizational leadership and organizational performance by demonstrating top-level leadership's (CEO charisma) cascading effect on the TFL climate throughout the organization and by showing that OIDS mediates both leadership levels' relationships with firm performance. Further, our study is the first to investigate and demonstrate the relationship between OIDS and performance at the organizational level of analysis.
