This study investigates the emergence and the performance effects of
an age-diversity climate at the organizational level of analysis. Building
upon Kopelman and colleagues’ (Kopelman, Brief, & Guzzo, 1990) climate
model of firm productivity as well as Cox’s (1994) interactional
model of cultural diversity, we hypothesize a positive influence of ageinclusive
HR practices on the development of an organization-wide agediversity
climate, which in turn should be directly related to collective
perceptions of social exchange and indirectly to firm performance and
employees’ collective turnover intentions. The assumed relationships
are tested in a sample of 93 German small and medium-sized companies
with 14,260 employees participating. To circumvent common
source problems, information for the various constructs was gathered
from 6 different sources. To test our assumed relationships, we applied
structural equation modeling and executed bootstrapping procedures to
test the significance of the indirect effects. We received support for all
assumed relationships. The paper concludes with practical recommendations
on how to establish and make use of a positive age-diversity
climate