Aging & Social Change: Tenth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

Ageism in the workplace is a complex phenomenon that encompasses acts of age discrimination and cognitive biases that can contribute to differential treatment of workers based on their age. Previous studies have demonstrated the detrimental effects that perceived and experienced age discrimination can have on worker engagement, which is an immersive and positive psychological state that an individual can experience while in their job role. The absence of positive psychosocial job factors, such as perceived organizational support, peer and co-worker support, meaningful work, and access to workplace education and training, can also reduce the engagement of workers. This study provides insight into this important issue by asking: does worker age moderate the relationship between positive psychosocial job factors and worker engagement? To address this question, data collected by Statistics Canada in the General Social Survey (GSS), Cycle 30: Canadians at Work and Home, was analyzed using structural equation modelling (SEM) techniques. Results show that older workers did not experience disparity in the level of these positive psychosocial job factors or in the level of engagement in comparison to young and middle aged workers. Worker engagement has been recognized as a vital component of psychological health and safety in the workplace. As a growing proportion of the labour force becomes older, it is important that ageing workers are not subject to social exclusion and the loss of growth and learning opportunities in their workplaces.