Reliable and unproductive? Stereotypes of older employees in corporate and news media

Anne C. Kroon*, Martine Van Selm, Claartje L. Ter Hoeven, Rens Vliegenthart

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

25 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Older employees face a severe employability problem, partly because of dominant stereotypes about them. This study investigates stereotypes of older employees in corporate and news media. Drawing on the Stereotype Content Model, we content analysed newspaper coverage and corporate media of 50 large-scale Dutch organisations, published between 2006 and 2013. The data revealed that stereotypical portrayals of older employees are more common in news media than in corporate media and mixed in terms of valence. Specifically, older employees were positively portrayed with regard to warmth stereotypes, such as trustworthiness, but negatively with regard to competence stereotypes, such as technological competence and adaptability. Additionally, stereotypical portrayals that do not clearly belong to warmth or competence dimensions are found, such as the mentoring role stereotype and the costly stereotype. Because competence stereotypes weigh more heavily in employers' productivity perceptions, these media portrayals might contribute to the employability problem of older employees. We suggest that older employees could benefit from a more realistic media debate about their skills and capacities.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)166-191
Number of pages26
JournalAgeing and Society
Volume38
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2018
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • corporate and news media
  • older employees
  • Stereotype Content Model
  • stereotypes

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