A Meta-Analytic Examination of the Impact of Leader Age on Leader Effectiveness Joshua Palmer
OVERVIEW
Does the age of first-line and midlevel leaders affect their effectiveness? Surprisingly, as the workforce grows older, and researchers increasingly focus on the role of age in the workplace, few have investigated whether older first-line and midlevel leaders are more or less effective than their younger counterparts. We conducted a meta- analysis of 217 primary studies to examine the relationship between leader age and widely studied leader and follower work outcomes as first-line and midlevel leaders not only perform their own tasks but also shape followers’ work outcomes. We found that leader age was negatively and weakly related to the leader’s own task performance but was positively and weakly related to follower task performance and organizational citizen behavior (OCB). Our findings were largely robust regardless of the gender of the leader and follower and the age difference between the leader and follower
42 | Summer Research Fellowship
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