Work

Age and Organisation Studies: Rethinking age as a fluid identity

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: The renewal of ‘age’ as a workplace identity is long overdue. Age essentialism and agewashing have been pervasive within today’s so-called age-inclusive organisations and labour markets. In this article, I challenge the entrenched and outdated ways of thinking about and organising age within organisations. Management and organisation studies especially suffer from methodological inertia when studying age in relation to work, employment, and its position within organisational hierarchies, systems, and structures. The permanence of age in its rigid form jeopardises modern organisations’ diversity and inclusion agendas as well as the prospects of longevity economy. My article argues that we dismantle the unyielding existing notion of ‘age’ constrained by chronological boundaries, making inroads into more innovative and progressive fluid approaches to age-related organisational thinking. To do so, I propose a paradigm shift inspired by Sartre’s existentialism, rethinking age as a fluid identity.

Source: Organization Studies

DOI: 10.1177/01708406261459078

Author: Sajia Ferdous

Institution: Queen's University Belfast

Language: English

Topic: Retirement, Disability, and Employment

Subfield: Demography

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Decent work and economic growth

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,900