Managerss Interview Decisions About Older Job Applicants: Effects of Human Capital-Related Characteristics, General Economic Conditions, and Changes in Job Demands

Abstract

Older job applicants are vulnerable to stereotype related bias in the recruitment process. In the current study, we examined how managers’ job in terview invitation decisions regarding older job applicants are influenced by a pplicants’ human capital-related characteristics, general economic conditions and managers’ experiences of changes in job demands. Data were collected with two waves of a vignette experiment, three years apar t, among a sample of 211 Dutch managers from various organisations. Multilevel analysis showed that managers were more likely to invite older job applicants who had matching qualifications, were employed at the time of application, and came with recommendations. In addition, managers’ propensity to invite ol der job applicants was higher in better economic conditions. The effects of recommendations were moderated by the general economic conditions and changes in job demands, such that a recommendation from another employer was especially influential in bad economic conditions, while a recommendation from an internal employee was especially influential when job demands had increased. The results emphasize the importance of considering the organisational and economic context in understanding the recruitment of older workers. The findings also suggest that older workers, employers, and policy makers should invest in older workers’ human capital to protect their employability.