Organizational Age Norms: Why Is It So Hard To Know One When You See One?

Scholars believe that age norms, defined here as widely shared judgments of the standard or typical ages of individuals holding a role or status within a given context, circumscribe behavior in all human societies. Admonitions such as "act your age" indicate that we expect older people to conduct themselves differently from younger people. Laws codify society's judgments of when people are old enough to vote and purchase alcoholic beverages. Work organizations have informal rules about typical ages for promotion. Yet, despite the centrality of age norms to human interaction, we know very little about them. Age norms seem easy to observe, but they have proved difficult to define and measure. Moreover, although many scholars consider age norms in a societal context, few examine them in other structured settings, such as communities or work organizations. This article explores theoretical and measurement issues that have impeded age norm studies, and presents one approach to their resolution using data from three work organizations.