Number of employees requesting alternative benefit representative. Discussion

The results of the experiment failed to demonstrate any significant or conclusive findings concerning the hypothesis that age would have an adverse effect on the perception of the credibility of the younger benefit representatives for a variety of reasons. Notwithstanding the themes identified in the literature review concerning the possible relationship between age, credibility and trustworthiness, just one (or 5%) of the 20 employees who sought assistance from the 20-year-old benefit representatives requested assistance from another benefit representative, and this was most likely attributable to the fact that the requested benefit representative possessed the requisite expertise in the benefit area being consulted (retirement). None of the Some of the potential reasons that the visiting employees were satisfied with the services provided by the visibly younger benefit representatives include the following:

1. Employees were less concerning about the age of the benefit representative than the quality and friendliness of the services provided.

2. Employees did not want to appear "pushy" or otherwise offend the participating benefit representatives by requesting another benefit representative.

3. There was an insufficiently distinct age gap between the two younger benefit representatives and the others available to assist employees with their questions or requests.

4. Employees did not want to single out a human resource employee for failing to perform his or her job adequately and thereby harm their livelihood and opportunities for future advancement.

In reality, though, the refutation of the study's hypothesis is good news for...

In a day and age characterized by an increasingly multicultural society and globalized marketplace, there would appear to be little room available for using spurious factors such as individuals' age, gender or race in formulating preconceptions about them. In fact, rejecting the assistance of a younger person in favor of an older one smacks of ageism, and the law of the land prohibits such conduct in the workplace today. Certainly, it is reasonable to conclude that older employees will likely possess a greater amount of experience and expertise in their given field than their younger counterparts, but this does not mean that younger people are not able to perform their jobs satisfactorily or even superbly. It does, mean, though, that there are significant and important gaps in the growing body of research concerning how people perceive others based on physical appearances that require further investigation before any valid conclusions can be drawn concerning these issues today.
References

"Engage Employees as Consumers in Benefits Enrollment." (2007). Managing Benefits Plans,

07-04, 2-3.

Little, a.C. & Perrett, D.I. (2007). Using Composite Images to Assess Accuracy in Personality

Attribution to Faces. British Journal of Psychology, 98, 111-126.

Masip, J., Garrido, E., & Herrerro, C. (2003). Facial Appearance and Judgments of Credibility:

The Effects of Facial Babyishness and Age on Statement Credibility. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 129(3), 269-311.

Thumin, F.J., Johnson, J.H., Kuehl, C., & Jiang, W.Y. 91995). Corporate Values as Related to Occupation, Gender, Age, and Company Size. The Journal of Psychology.