Elissa L. Perry

Moderating effects of personal and contextual factors in age discrimination.

The researchers explored personal and contextual factors that inhibit or facilitate the use of older worker stereotypes in a selection context. The authors suggest that older worker stereotypes are more likely to be used and influence applicant evaluations when raters are biased against older workers, when raters do not have the cognitive resources to inhibit the use of age-associated stereotypes, or when applicants apply for age-incongruent jobs. The researchers explored the extent to which raters differing in older worker bias make discriminatory decisions about young or old individuals applying for age-typed jobs under conditions of high- and low-cognitive demands. A laboratory study was conducted with 131 undergraduate students who evaluated applicants in a simulated employment context. Results indicated that older worker bias, cognitive busyness, and job age-type interact to affect the extent to which applicant age plays a role in selection decisions.

Ironic evaluation processes: effects of thought suppression on evaluations of older job applicants

This research explored ironic evaluation processes initiated by suppression instructions conveyed during diversity training. Raters watched one of three training videos: a video providing information about age diversity and recommending that they try to suppress age-related thoughts; a video providing information about age, sex, race, and ethnic diversity and recommending that they try to suppress demography-related thoughts; or a control video containing no suppression recommendations. All raters then evaluated a series of job applicants. During the evaluation task, some raters were cognitively busy while others were not. Ironically, busy raters instructed to suppress age-related thoughts evaluated an older applicant less favorably than raters in other conditions. These results suggest that organizational diversity training including instructions to suppress stereotypic thoughts may have detrimental effects on evaluations of non-traditional job applicants if raters are cognitively busy when they implement these instructions. Copyright

An Exploration of Access and Treatment Discrimination and Job Satisfaction among College Graduates with and without Physical Disabilities

The current study explored the extent to which college graduates with and without physical disabilities reported experiencing discrimination in their overall work histories. Resufts suggested that respondents with disabilities reported experiencing significantly more access discrimination than respondents without disabilities and that the specific type of physical disability influenced the extent of access discrimination experienced. There were no significant differences in the extent of treatment discrimination experienced by individuals with and without disabilities. The current study also explored the level of job satisfaction reported by currently employed respondents with and without physical disabilities. Results indicated that access discrimination significantly reduced current job satisfaction, and, when it was statistically controlled, individuals with disabilities reported marginally higher levels of job satisfaction than individuals without physical disabilities. These and other resufts are presented and their implications are discussed.

Is There a Technology Age Gap? Associations Among Age, Skills, and Employment Outcomes

The current study used survey data collected by a top job search web site to explore the extent to which older (50-64 years), middle-aged (40-49 years), and younger (18-39 years) computer programmers reported different levels of human capital (e.g., job tenure) and specialized computer skills (e.g., number of programming languages). In addition, we explored the effect of age on annual salary and job benefits controlling for both traditional human capital factors and specialized computer skills. Although older computer programmers reported higher levels of most human capital factors, there were no differences in the ten specialized computer skills as a function of age. Results also indicated that age was negatively associated with both annual salary and job benefits levels even when human capital factors and specialized computer skills were statistically controlled. However, the variance accounted for by age was quite small.

Heuristic Processing in Organizational Judgments

Traditional information processing models (e.g., Greenwald, 1968) have often assumed that perceivers process information in an effortful, systematic fashion. Several authors (Chaiken, 1987; Fiske & Neuberg, 1990; Petty & Cacioppo, 1979) have suggested, however, that in many contexts (e.g., when individuals have low motivation or limited cognitive resources), people form judgments with a minimum of information processing. In these contexts, perceivers rely heavily on heuristics or social categories as a basis for judgments.

Antecedents and outcomes of targeting older applicants in recruitment

Inspired by Rynes and Barbers and Avery and McKays theoretical work, we examined factors that influence organizations’ decision to target older applicants and the influence of this decision on other recruiting strategies. Our study of two samples of HR professionals provides mixed support for these theoretical frameworks. Incumbent age and an organizational climate that rewards diversity were related to targeting older workers, whereas an ageist climate and labour market tightness were not. Further, the decision to target older applicants was related to the number of recruitment sources used and, in one sample, an emphasis on work environment benefits. However, this decision was not related to an emphasis on financial stability benefits or to recruiter age.

Factors impacting the knowing-doing gap in sexual harassment training

We examined the gaps between research-based sexual harassment training practices human resource (HR) managers believe their organization should use and the practices their organizations actually use (knowing-doing gaps). We studied individual (attitudes about academics) and organizational predictors (senior management support, managerial rewards, and organizational resources) of gaps at the pre-training, training design and delivery, and post-training stages. Organizational factors generally reduced gaps at the pre-training and post-training stages, while the individual factor marginally increased the gap at the pre-training stage. The knowing-doing gap for training design and delivery practices was not predicted by any of the individual or organizational variables.