In undertaking research into age discrimination in employment, Jenkins (2007, p. 12) recommends not
relying exclusively on quantitative data but utilizing more qualitative methods, such as interviews, because
“as much age discrimination is subtle and indirect, qualitative research methods are necessary to uncover
underlying attitudes, beliefs, stereotypes and employment practices”. Furthermore, Jenkins (2007) states
that age discrimination cannot be measured in a purely positivistic manner. As research on perceptions of
age discrimination in employment needs to expose underlying causal mechanisms, the use of statistical
methods and techniques will not uncover such mechanisms (Johnson, 2003). Therefore, the method
employed in this study is qualitative, namely semi-structured interviews.