Normative and Structural Perspectives on Age in a Work Organization

摘要

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.