Over 60 researchers, government and industry representatives registered to participate in the CEPAR Mature Workers in Organisations (MWOS) Virtual Symposium on 30 June. Guest speaker Fabiola Gerpott, Professor at the WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management, Germany shared learnings from two studies on intergenerational studies and how to get organisations take part in interventions research as well as insights into what happens if they say agree to participate.
"To establish work practice and policies that promote mature workers’ successful ageing and foster intergenerational knowledge learning in organisations, scholars often want to directly test interventions such as implementing age-specific HR practices, conducting training programs, changing work design, or adapting recruitment practices," said Professor Gerpott.
"At least theoretically, organisations have become increasingly interested in evidence-based management approaches. However, practically scholars often experience a large gap between the rigorous design they want to implement to study the effectiveness of interventions and the expectations and requirements of organisations."
In this talk, Professor Gerpott presented findings from two studies on intergenerational learning in which her research team collected data by training an age-diverse group of employees. In addition to presenting their results, she also shared strategies used to get organisations on board, and discussed challenges that scholars may face when collecting data “in the wild”.
Before working fulltime in academia, she was employed in the strategic HR department of Daimler AG, an automotive company. During that time, she evaluated pilot interventions to foster intergenerational learning and age-specific HR accommodation practices. Fabiola then graduated from a Double PhD program in Organizational Psychology and Business Administration. She continued her career as an assistant professor in Amsterdam and Berlin. In 2019, she became a tenured professor at WHU. Today, Fabiola studies knowledge exchange between age-diverse co-workers and diversity management initiatives. Her work is published in outlets such as the Academy of Management Journal or the Journal of Applied Psychology. She is highly passionate to make her research accessible to practice and constantly engages in collaborations with organisations.
The video recording of the talk is available below.
Recording