Coulon, Sophie; von Hippel, Courtney; Peters, Kim; Zacher, Hannes

Older employees are often negatively stereotyped at work (e.g., as more resistant to change, less capable, and less technologically savvy; Posthuma & Campion, 2009; van Dalen et al., 2010). In light of the societal and economic challenges that the global aging population presents, it is increasingly important to focus on improving the workplace experiences of older employees. At the organizational level, organisations are implementing policies to foster retention of older employees and address age discrimination (ILO, 2017). However, at the individual level, older employees are nonetheless still susceptible to age-based stereotype threat, or the concern about being reduced to a negative stereotype (Steele, 1997). Older employees who experience stereotype threat also report more negative job attitudes and greater intentions to quit (Kulik et al., 2016; von Hippel et al., 2013; 2019). In this presentation, we propose a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) style intervention as a tool to help older employees build resilience to age-based stereotype threat. According to CBT our emotions are not caused by the event itself, but rather, how the event is interpreted. We will report the results of two experiments in which we test the effectiveness of a cognitive reframing intervention in alleviating stereotype threat among older employees. The goals of this presentation are to equip attendees with an in-depth understanding of the triggers of age-based stereotype threat, the implications of stereotype threat on older employees' well-being and engagement, and to provide an evaluation of a cognitive reframing intervention as a mitigation tool.

Attendees will learn about the key triggers of age-based stereotype threat in the workplace, the frequency at which they occur in the workplace, and how stereotype threat impacts older employees’ wellbeing and engagement. Attendees will be provided an evaluation of a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy-style reframing intervention as a tool for mitigating age-based stereotype threat for older employees. Attendees are welcome to engage in discussion and ask questions at the end of the presentation.