Older workers tend to resist change more than younger workers because they ________.

Risto G.

Risto G.

Change Management Practitioner, Trainer and Lecturer | Driving change with a people-centred approach

Published Apr 17, 2017

The Wall Street Journal reported recently that PricewatherhouseCoopers (PwC) – which boasts of its “strikingly young workforce” and advertises itself as the “place to work for millennials” – is the focus of a class action lawsuit alleging age bias in its hiring practices. The plaintiffs in the case are two men (aged 47 and 53) who say their job applications were rejected “because they lacked the youthful profile possessed by many PwC recruits”. The suit alleges that, to attract and maintain ‘millennials’, PwC intentionally screens out and denies employment opportunities to individuals aged 40 and above, and that such favouritism toward millennials violates the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). 

Many organisations – perhaps like PwC - hold notable differences in their attitudes toward job applicants and workers of different career stages. Negative stereotypes such as inflexible attitude, low trainability and resistance to change have come to stigmatise older workers. While empirical research has demonstrated that many of the stereotypes about late-career workers are unfounded, until recently, the stereotype that older workers are more resistant to change has rarely been investigated for its empirical validity.

In 2013, the Journal of Managerial Psychologypublished an intriguing study investigating empirically the commonly held stereotype that older workers are more resistant to change. The study, conducted by Florian Kunze, Stephen Boehm and Heike Bruch, builds upon several career and life-span models, particularly Paul and Margret Baltes’ model for selective optimisation with compensation (SOC), to examine if and how an employee’s age might relate to their resistance to change taking into account occupational status and tenure as important moderators. Data was collected from a sample pool of employees in 93 German companies from a number of industries (including services, manufacturing, trade, and finance) and ranging in size from 19 to 3,269 employees with 30,061 employees overall. In sum, the study found that, contrary to common stereotypes, age does not seem to be a barrier to change. In fact, younger employees in the sample were found to be more resistant to change than their older colleagues. Explanations for this counter-intuitive finding can be drawn from the SOC model itself which is a good framework for explaining why older employees might have better strategies for coping with organisational change. Additionally, the researchers found that occupational status and tenure moderate the relationship between age and resistance to change such that older white-collar workers and short-tenure workers are less resistance to change than older blue-collar workers and long-tenure workers.

An earlier study, conducted by Tracey Rizzuto from Louisiana State University, focused on workers’ motivation, willingness to learn new systems, and commitment and satisfaction in accepting change. The study found that the older workers in the sample were more willing and excited about changes. Rizzuto concluded that older workers are generally more inclined and interested in making changes to benefit the organisation than their younger colleagues. And there are similar findings from a growing body of research investigating the correlation between age and resistance to change.

Older workers are too often assumed to be more short-term focused and more cognitively rigid (resistant to change) than younger workers. These misconceptions can lead to age-biased discrimination in the workplace, which, in turn, may have a negative effect on both individual and company performance. Hopefully, the continuing research into the relationship between age, job performance and resistance to change will help reduce negative stereotyping and provide a more positive, differentiated portrayal of older employees in the workplace. Of course, every generation is unique, and organisations that understand and respect the differences between them will be in a better position to develop strategies that will encourage and facilitate optimal performance from all employees regardless of their age.