Caring for the Elderly But Not for One's Own Old Employees? Organizational Age Climate, Age Stereotypes, and Turnover Intentions in Young and Old Nurses

We introduce organizational age climate (OAC) as the employee's shared perception of age stereotypes within an organization and investigate its association with antecedents of turnover (i.e., turnover intention, organizational identification, and job satisfaction) and negative individual beliefs about older employees. Data from 397 nurses working in 45 German geriatric care units were analyzed within a multilevel design. Results show that more positive OAC is associated with lower levels of turnover intention and higher levels of job satisfaction, even after controlling for the organization's social climate. Both associations are mediated by organizational identification. Our results show that OAC uniquely contributes to explaining variance in nurses' turnover intention and thus deserves more attention both in research and practice.