Gestion des travailleurs seniors : le rôle de la communication organisationnelle âgiste

Les travailleurs de 45 ans et plus représentent une part substantielle de la population active, lesquels pourraient pallier au défi des pénuries de main-d’œuvre. Cependant, pour générer une extension de la vie professionnelle, le discours négatif sur l’âge doit être remplacé par celui d’une revalorisation de l’expérience. Dans cet article, nous montrons comment les croyances âgistes sont coûteuses pour le travailleur senior et pour l’organisation. Ce faisant, nous abordons le rôle de la communication organisationnelle en tant que véhicule de l’âgisme, tout autant que celui du gestionnaire, comme élément clé dans la modification du discours sur le vieillissement au travail.Workers aged 45 years old and over represent a substantial part of the population, which could overcome the challenge of shortages of labor. However, in order to generate an extension of professional life, the current negative discourse on age must be replaced by one valuing experience. In this article, we show how ageist beliefs are costly for the senior worker as well as for the organization. In doing so, we explore the role of organizational communication as a vehicle of ageism, as well as the manager, as a key element in changing the discourse on aging at work

Construction sociale du vieillir dans les médias écrits canadiens : de la lourdeur de la vulnérabilité à l’insoutenable légèreté de l’être

Les médias contribuent au façonnement des représentations sociales entourant la vieillesse, le processus du vieillissement et les personnes âgées. Les résultats d’études antérieures ont souligné la façon explicitement négative dont ces médias (la télévision surtout) dépeignent ces notions, contribuant ainsi à la cristallisation de croyances et d’attitudes âgistes. Cependant, ces mêmes études n’ont pas permis de cerner les manifestations implicites, subtiles et sournoises de l’âgisme, notamment dans une analyse approfondie du cadrage discursif des médias. En outre, les études canadiennes sur les représentations du vieillir et des aînés dans les médias ont surtout été orientées vers le médium télévision ; celles portant sur la presse écrite se sont essentiellement centrées sur les quotidiens anglophones, inscrivant leur analyse à un point précis dans le temps. La présente étude a permis de pallier ces lacunes en ce qu’elle avait pour but de circonscrire les manifestations explicites comme implicites d’âgisme dans le discours médiatique canadien. Un total de 120 articles parus entre 2000 et 2009 (inclusivement) dans deux quotidiens nationaux francophone et anglophone a été sélectionné. Les résultats de l’analyse qualitative de contenu ainsi que des analyses statistiques descriptives confirment la présence de marqueurs d’âgisme explicite et implicite dans le discours de ces médias et révèlent aussi le recours, par ces mêmes médias, à des propos âgistes polarisant les générations, en mode inter et intra.Social representations surrounding age, the aging process and elders are partly shaped by media. Results of previous studies have highlighted the explicitly negative way media (mostly television) depict these concepts and as such, help reinforce ageist beliefs and attitudes. However, these same studies did not allow a better understanding of the subtle and implicit manifestations of ageism, namely through an in-depth analysis of the discursive framing of age and the aging process by the media. Moreover, Canadian studies on the discourse surrounding aging and elders in the media have mostly focused on television, Anglophone newspapers and on a specific point in time. The goal of the current study is to better understand explicit as well implicit manifestations of ageism in Canadian media. More precisely, a total of 120 articles published between 2000 and 2009 in two national French and English Canadian newspapers were analyzed. Results of the content analysis and descriptive statistics revealed that Canadian print media’s discourse contains explicit as well as implicit indicators of ageism contributing to the inter and intra generational divide

Cerebrovascular and blood-brain barrier impairments in Huntington's disease: Potential implications for its pathophysiology: Vascular impairments in HD

ObjectiveAlthough the underlying cause of Huntington's disease (HD) is well established, the actual pathophysiological processes involved remain to be fully elucidated. In other proteinopathies such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, there is evidence for impairments of the cerebral vasculature as well as the blood–brain barrier (BBB), which have been suggested to contribute to their pathophysiology. We investigated whether similar changes are also present in HD.MethodsWe used 3‐ and 7‐Tesla magnetic resonance imaging as well as postmortem tissue analyses to assess blood vessel impairments in HD patients. Our findings were further investigated in the R6/2 mouse model using in situ cerebral perfusion, histological analysis, Western blotting, as well as transmission and scanning electron microscopy.ResultsWe found mutant huntingtin protein (mHtt) aggregates to be present in all major components of the neurovascular unit of both R6/2 mice and HD patients. This was accompanied by an increase in blood vessel density, a reduction in blood vessel diameter, as well as BBB leakage in the striatum of R6/2 mice, which correlated with a reduced expression of tight junction‐associated proteins and increased numbers of transcytotic vesicles, which occasionally contained mHtt aggregates. We confirmed the existence of similar vascular and BBB changes in HD patients.InterpretationTaken together, our results provide evidence for alterations in the cerebral vasculature in HD leading to BBB leakage, both in the R6/2 mouse model and in HD patients, a phenomenon that may, in turn, have important pathophysiological implications. Ann Neurol 2015;78:160–17

Testing the Shielding Effect of Intergenerational Contact against Ageism in the Workplace: A Canadian Study

Negative outcomes of ageism in the context of the Canadian labor market are well documented. Older workers remain the target of age-based stereotypes and attitudes on the part of employers. This study aims at assessing (1) the extent to which quality and quantity intergroup contacts between younger and older workers as well as knowledge-sharing practices reduce ageist attitudes, in turn (2) how a decrease in ageist attitudes increase the level of workers’ engagement and intentions to remain in the organization. Data were collected from 603 Canadian workers (aged 18 to 68 years old) from private and public organizations using an online survey measuring concepts under study. Results of a path analysis suggest that intergroup contacts and knowledge-sharing practices are associated with positive attitudes about older workers. More so, positive attitudes about older workers generate higher levels of work engagement, which in turn are associated with stronger intentions to remain with the organization. However, positive attitudes about older workers had no effect on intentions to remain in the workplace. Results are discussed in light of the intergroup contact theory

Male fitness and optimal sex allocation in Trichogramma evanescens

Fitness components of small and large males (emerging respectively from small and large hosts) of Trichogramma evanescens Westwood (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) were compared in laboratory experiments. These components were the longevity, courtship, mate competition, and daily and lifetime fertilization. Small males were less fit than large males: they had a reduced longevity, took longer to induce female mating behavior, rarely succeeded in mating females when in competition with large males and had lower fertilization capacity; female fertilized by small males oviposited in the first two days of their life only one third of the progeny of daughters mated by large males. The impact of males fitness on optimal sex allocation by females parasitoids was evaluated by measuring the primary and tertiary sex ratios (proportion of males in the progeny) produced by a female T. evanescens when ovipositing in small and large hosts (low and high quality patches). Females of T. evanescens, an arrhenotokous species, have control on the sex ratio of their offspring by regulation of the sperm's access to the egg. Certain combinations of male and female eggs deposited in a host patch result in greater fitness than others. As predicted, females produced a significantly higher proportion of males on the low quality patches. T. evanescens females adjusted the sex ratio allocated to a patch of homogeneous quality and under complete local mate competition to the expected fitness of their sons, as smaller males have a lower fitness and are expected to have low fertilization capacity and therefore fertilize less females. To optimize her fitness gain (the capacity of the individual to transmit its genes), the sex ratio is increased in order to have all daughters mated

From psychological to digital disengagement: exploring the link between ageism and the ‘grey digital divide’

The need for digital literacy is apparent in today’s workplace, driven by strong pressures for constant technological innovation. Previous studies have shown that although older workers make up (and will make up) a great proportion of the workforce, there persists an age-based digital divide in the workplace; and the outcome of such divide is quite negative: at the individual level, older workers feel they’re being marginalized and as such, become dissatisfied and disengage from their workplace; at the organizational level, a pool of skills and expertise is lost as a result of the older worker’s disengagement, putting at risk effective knowledge transfer and mentoring process. Hence, the importance of a deeper understanding of the contextual factors that may feed the ‘grey digital divide’ in the workplace. The goal of this paper is to address such factors moving beyond the ageist claim that a worker’s chronological age is the driving force behind the ‘grey digital divide’