Interpreting relationships between age and promotion in age-discrimination cases

Abstract

Addresses the logic behind the negative relationship between age and promotions and presents a simulation model that assesses this relationship. Expected negative relationships with a job level between age and promotion assumes that people in the same job level vary in how much potential they have to do the next job up the hierarchy and that there is some validity to the organization's promotional policy. The model simulates the promotion process using 1,000 employees in a target level job by considering the validity of the process, by calculating the distribution of replacement, by allowing for changes in promotability over time as a result of learning and other factors, by considering retirement, by continuing the process until age and promotion stabilizes, and by eliminating age discrimination from the model by random assignment. The model empirically demonstrates the expected negative relationship between age and promotions and provides a means for predicting the strength of the relationship that would be expected in the absence of age discrimination. (8 ref) (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)