Age Discrimination in the Workplace: Cultural Paradigms Associated with Age in Afghanistan, Jamaica, Turkey, and the United States

Age discrimination in the workplace impacts people of all nationalities, sizes, races, colors, religions, and ethnicities. Such discrimination, which can be highly unethical, is causing many managers anxiety, and is forcing many of them to court. It is no secret that age-related lawsuits are proliferating, and in the last five years age-related claims have been on the rise due to layoffs, which seem to be proportionally impacting older workers. Juries often side with aggrieved employees, even if the evidence is flimsy. Because of such trends, national and international companies and their managers are realizing the need to protect themselves by periodically reviewing their workforce diversity, while analyzing the data for latent signs and patterns of "unintentional" discrimination (Mujtaba & Rhodes, 2006). The focus of this article is discrimination based on age. The objective is to create awareness and reduce the negative impact of stereotypes associated with "older workers." Furthermore, based on a qualitative study of 206 culturally diverse respondents (Mujtaba and Cavico, 2006), a cultural perspective of aging is discussed from the societal norms and traditions of people in Afghanistan, Jamaica, Turkey, and the United States.