The Older, the Less Digitally Fluent? The Role of Age Stereotypes and Supervisor Support

Abstract

Over the last decades, digital technologies have progressively made their way into the workplace. Therefore, it becomes increasingly important for employees to have digital competencies, which can be measured through digital fluency, including its two sub dimensions, namely digital knowledge and digital self-efficacy. This is particularly the case for older workers, who might be affected by a digital divide that proposes younger and older employees have different prerequisites for digital fluency. Drawing from the stereotype embodiment theory, we argue that age is generally negatively related to self-perceptions of digital fluency and particularly impactful when older employees hold negative age stereotypes against older workers and therefore self-stereotype themselves. Furthermore, we argue that developmental support from the direct supervisor has the potential to either amplify or alleviate this negative relation: While a lack of supervisor support may lead to the activation of internalized negative age stereotypes, strong support by the supervisor could strengthen the employees’ self-perceptions in several ways. Performing multiple regression analyses on survey data collected from 1,007 employees, we find support for our three hypotheses. Negative age stereotypes exacerbate the negative relationship between age and digital fluency, whereas the interplay of high individual stereotypes and low supervisor support is the most negative condition for the relation of age on digital fluency. On the other hand, strong supervisor support with low negative stereotypes counteract existing age differences in digital fluency. Therefore, our findings have important theoretical and practical implications.