Ageing in organizations A view of HR professionals on the positioning of mature managers and adoption of age management practices

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to show which factors influence the perception of human resources
professionals about managers over 50 years old and which factors guide the age management practices
adopted in the surveyed companies.

Design/methodology/approach – To this end, a survey was conducted with 140 companies accessed
from a database of a human resources association. Through the answers obtained through the online
questionnaire, an exploratory factor analysis was made with the aid of Software R.

Findings – Thus, it was possible to identify four factors that explain the work posture of professionals
50 years of age and older (company expectations, performance, morality and knowledge and
professionalism) and three factors that guide the adoption of age management practices in organizations
(recruitment & selection and integration, retention and continuity in the company, adaptation to the
needs).

Originality/value – The results suggest that, even considering the high performance of older managers,
perceived by HR professionals, the adoption of age management practices is still insufficient, making it
difficult for these professionals to enter and remain in organizations. Moreover, it can be inferred that such
posture indicates biases of discrimination and age stereotypes.