The Cultural Anchors of Age Discrimination in the Workplace: A Multilevel Framework

Drawing from theories in both the social and cross-cultural psychology domains, this article provides a theoretical framework that specifies the mechanisms by which age and culture interact to predict age discrimination, across multiple levels of culture, including societal, organizational, and individual levels of analyses. The prime facets of culture that are most relevant to discrimination in the workplace are identified. These facets of cultural values are then theoretically linked to age discrimination in the workplace as they are postulated to occur across levels, independently and in tandem. A theoretical model and research propositions are presented. Implications for research on age discrimination in the workplace are discussed.