Age discrimination in workplace - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages According to Gregory (2001), “Employers commonly make decisions affecting older workers that assume these workers are no longer capable of performing adequately” (Gregory, 2001, p.4) Age discrimination is one of the major problems in the organizational world nowadays. At the same time, avoidance of experienced workforce is suicidal for an organization. It is better to keep a balanced workforce in organizations which includes both younger and experienced employees. However, many organizations have the habit of avoiding the interests and needs of older employees while they give more importance to the needs and demands of the younger ones. In short, age based discrimination is not a myth but a reality in organizations. According to Torrington et al. (2011), “Human resource management (HRM) is the basis of all management activity”(Torrington et al., 2011, p.4). Human resource management or HRM is responsible for age discriminations in organizations. Recruitment, retention, training and development, allocation of jobs, deciding promotions, dispersing remuneration and incentives etc are some of the major human resource functions. Putting the right person at the right place at the right time is a major HRM function. HRM adopts several strategies to identify the right person for a particular job. Age is often a criterion while HRM decides about the recruitment of a candidate to a particular position. The topic age discrimination at workplace attracted me a lot because of the ethical dimensions involved in it. It is unethical to avoid, neglect or discriminate a person because of his age even if he had served admirably in the past for the organization. My father is a victim of age discrimination in current organizations. Even though my father worked hard and brought so many advantages to his organization, a fresh candidate with less qualification was appointed as a manager on top of him. Because of this humiliation, he was forced to resign from his organization even though he had a lengthy service with that organization. He discussed some of his bitter experiences with that organization. He has point out that his organization treated him differently while he was young and old. In short, his bitter experience motivated me to research this topic or the age discrimination at workplace more deeply to get more insights about the topic. This paper analyses the various aspects of age discrimination at workplace. HRM & Age Discrimination at Workplace Recent research has highlighted a so-called "prime building block" of HRM – the principle of "AMO". There must be sufficient employees with the necessary ABILITY (skills, knowledge and experience) to do the job; there must be adequate MOTIVATION for them to apply their abilities; and there must be the OPPORTUNITY for them to engage in "discretionary behavior" – to make choices about how their job is done (Buchan, 2004, p.3). From the above findings, it is evident that experience plays a vital role in the success of organizations. No organization can develop properly with the help of fresh employees alone. Same way, it is difficult for the organizations to remain competitive if it keeps only experienced employees. A mixed bag of fresh and experienced employees may serve better for an organization. Careful blending of youth and experienced employees may help an organization to develop new ideas and introduce it successfully in the market. Younger generation is capable of bringing new ideas. But these new ideas require the fine tuning from the experienced employees before an organization introduce it succ ...Download file to see next pagesRead More