Impression Management in the Job Interview: An Effective Way of Mitigating Discrimination against Older Applicants?

ABSTRACT: The increasingly aging population in most industrialized societies, coupled with the rather age-diverse current workforce makes discrimination against older employees a prevalent issue, especially in employment contexts. This renders research on ways for reducing this type of discrimination a particularly pressing concern. Drawing on theories of social identity and impression management, our research examines the role of impression management, aimed at refuting common older worker stereotypes, in diminishing bias against older job applicants during the job interview. The study consisted in an experimental hiring simulation conducted on a sample of 515 undergraduate students. Results show that older applicants who used impression management to contradict common older worker stereotypes were

SUBMITTER: Gioaba I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5432631 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature