Leveraging Age Diversity for Organizational Performance: An Intellectual Capital Perspective

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Li, Yixuan; Gong, Yaping; Burmeister, Anne; Wang, Mo; Alterman, Valeria; Alonso, Alexander; Robinson, Samuel
• 署名单位: Purdue University System; Purdue University; Hong Kong University of Science & Technology; Erasmus University Rotterdam - Excl Erasmus MC; Erasmus University Rotterdam; State University System of Florida; University of Florida; University of Miami
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0021-9010
• DOI: 10.1037/apl0000497
• 发表日期: 2021
• 页码: 71-91
• 关键词: age diversity; human capital; Social capital; functional diversity; age-inclusive management

摘要

The global trend of increasing workplace age diversity has led to growing research attention to the organizational consequences of age-diverse workforces. Prior research has primarily focused on the statistical relationship between age diversity and organizational performance without empirically probing potential mechanisms underlying this relationship. Adopting an intellectual capital perspective, we posit that age diversity affects organizational performance via human and social capital. Furthermore, we examine workplace functional diversity and age-inclusive management as two contingent factors shaping the effects of age diversity on human and social capital. Our hypotheses were tested with a large manager-report workplace survey data from the Society for Human Resource Management (N = 3,888). Results indicate that age diversity was positively associated with organizational performance through the mediation of increased human and social capital. In addition, functional diversity and age-inclusive management amplified the positive effects of age diversity on human and social capital. Our research sheds light on how age-diverse workforces may create value through cultivating knowledge-based organizational resources (i.e., human and social capital).