Age stereotypes and the job suitability of older workers from hotel managers’ perspectives

Abstract

This study explored hotel managers’ views of older workers and the underlying mechanism of their appraisal of older workers’ job suitability. A qualitative research approach was adopted: in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 hotel managers in Hong Kong. Analysis of the hotel managers’ responses revealed that age stereotypes influenced their perceptions of the suitability of certain jobs for older workers. The study contributes to the hospitality literature by developing a novel version of the cognitive framework of prototype matching to examine hotel managers’ perceptions of job suitability according to age. It offers examples of age-typed jobs in the hotel industry and suggests human resource practices to reduce age stereotypes and age-related discrimination in the hotel workplace.