Organizational Age Scale: New Lenses to Assess the Ageing of Workers

Few studies have focused on the ageing process within the specific context of organizations (Thomas, Hardy, Cutcher and Ainsworth, 2014), due to a lack of adequate measures assessing age. This paper introduces such a measure, namely the Organizational Age Scale (OAS) comprised of subjective age-related indicators stemming from the work context (Kooij, Peeters, de Lange, Jansen and Dikkers 2008; McCarthy, Heraty, Cross and Cleveland 2014 ; Sterns & Doverspike, 1989). More specifically, the OAS measures the individual's perception of his-her own ageing as a worker along five dimensions: career stage, obsolescence, age norms, time remaining in the workplace, and opportunities for professional development. Such a tool helps identify workers at risk of embodying negative age-based stereotypes and thus may counter the negative consequences that can result from self-ageism.