Perspectives on perceived workplace age discrimination and engagement: the moderating role of emotion regulation

Engaging workers with their work is fundamental for employee wellbeing and performance. Perceived age discrimination in the workplace is a factor that may influence workers’ engagement. The present study aimed to analyze the moderating role of emotion regulation in the relationship between perceived age discrimination and work engagement. Survey data were collected from a sample of 453 Portuguese workers of various age groups, between 18 and 65 years-old. Four instruments were used in this study: (a) a sociodemographic questionnaire; (b) the Workplace Age Discrimination Scale (WADS); (c) the Emotion Regulation Scale and (d) the reduced version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9). Results show that perceived workplace age discrimination negatively impacts work engagement. Further, results suggest that emotional regulation exacerbates the negative relationship between perceived age discrimination and work engagement. The progressively aging workforce is creating challenging issues to organizations, from a human resource management perspective. Age management strategies to address perceived age discrimination and work engagement are needed.