Normative and Structural Perspectives on Age in a Work Organization,

Abstract

Age grading, the differentiation of social organizations by members' age judgments, is widely regarded to be a universal aspect of social life. Most studies examine age structurally, using age distributions, rather than normatively, using group members' beliefs. Survey data measuring employees' age judgments of managerial careers were collected from an electric utility. There is wide agreement on age boundaries for each level; however, employees' age judgments differ systematically from the company's actual age distribution, suggesting that age grading occurs in work organizations and that normative and structural perspectives are necessary to study this phenomenon.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1983
Accession Number
ADA141434

Entities

People

  • B. S. Lawrence

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Age Distribution
  • Age Groups
  • Agreements
  • Contracts
  • Corporations
  • Demographic Cohorts
  • Judgment
  • Military Research
  • New York
  • Personnel Management
  • Plastic Explosives
  • Psychology
  • Social Psychology
  • Social Sciences
  • Sociology
  • Standards

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  • Theoretical Analysis.
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