Ageism Contemporary Issues

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Ageism as a contemporary issue Being a manager nowadays is an extremely difficult task. The modern leader has to be open-minded to take care of its business as well as employees. Unfortunately, there are many reasons why staff members may feel abused or unwelcomed in their workplaces. One of the biggest issues when it comes to the companies, especially high-tech, is Age Discrimination, also called Ageism. There are four types of Ageism. The most common is Direct Discrimination. It can appear when the choice is made by the reason of other person’s age (Silkin et al., 2007). “For the purposes of these Regulations, a person (“A”) discriminates against another person (“B”) on grounds of B’s age, A treats B less favourably than he treats or would …show more content…

In some cases, Age discrimination can be unintentional, usually as a result of sub-conscious prejudice. (Silkin et al., 2007) That is why leaders have to be extremely careful while working with people from different age groups. Employees who are under age pressure may be less effective and experience some mental issues. Moreover, the lawsuit is not the worst or the most important thing which may happen to a manager or company. The most meaningful thing about aged-diverse crew is good performance. Diversity in the workplace can be awfully crucial and can boost the results in a significant way. That is the reason why it is worth to keep diversified team. A study from 2009 conducted by Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin of Harvard Business Review shows differences between divers and homogenous teams. The study was based on a teamwork and the goal of this task was to solve a murder mystery. After individual piece of work they were joined in two kinds of groups and they had to discuss and give an answer. The members of the first type of groups knew their teammates from common places like fraternity or sorority. The group of the second type was created from three people who were familiar with each other and one stranger. Cooperation in the first type of groups was smoother and their decisions about mystery were more confident than in the groups of the second type. Their work felt easier in comparison to the groups of other kind. Nevertheless, the answers from the second type of groups were more accurate. It means that the harder work is, the results are better. As a result of this test it is possible to state why it is essential to have a diverse team.