Age Management in Norwegian Hospitality Businesses

Abstract

This study investigates how managers direct issues of an ageing workforce, and whether this has implications for the hospitality industry. Managers' experiences with managing age‐mixed workforces are outlined, and implications of an ageing workforce for the hospitality industry are discussed. The study is centred on five human‐resource areas; (1) Job recruitment, (2) training, development, and promotion, (3) flexible working practice, (4) job design, and (5) younger versus older workers. The latter includes managers' attitudes towards older employees. Data was collected by interviewing 20 Norwegian hospitality managers. Results indicated that managers have more positive than negative experiences with balancing the workforce with younger and older workers. No explicit age‐barriers were found in recruitment, but few managers planned to actively recruit older workers. Training programmes were not designed specially for older workers. Flexible working practices are difficult to organize in hospitality jobs. The study indicated that there are positive outcomes of creating age‐balanced workforces in the hospitality industry, because younger and older workers complement each other. No overt negative attitudes towards seniors were expressed, and older managers seemed to be more positive towards older workers.