Desire to Retire: Increasing Age Diversity in the Workplace As a result of demographic changes in many industrialized countries, organizations are experiencing a greater age diversity (Hertel, Van der Heijden, de Lange, & Deller, 2013a). In the United States, this is due to the aging of the baby boom generation (Schram, 2006) and organizations are faced with adapting to demographic change. In contrast, in Europe and China the workforce is shrinking (Cheung & Wu, 2013; Schermuly, Deller, & Busch, 2014), thus requiring organizations to find ways to recruit and retain older workers. In this article I will explore the increasing age diversity in the workplace as it relates to employment relationships, age discrimination, the challenges of age diversity, and the benefits of age diversity. Employment relationships As the population ages, there will be changes in the employment relationship between older workers and older workers. their employers. As workers age, they tend to perceive more limited space for further growth in the organization, and their primary goal is to maintain their current job (Cheung & Wu, 2013). Older workers also have a greater sense of generativity, or the desire to pass on knowledge and skills to another generation (Schermuly et al., 2014). These two examples would lead to a more stable working relationship between an aging workforce and its organizations. However, many research studies have shown that older workers are the target of persistent negative perceptions (Hertel, Van der Heijden, de Lange, & Deller, 2013b ; Hippel, Kalokerinos, & Henry, 2013; Stereotype threat occurs when a individual believes they may be the target of humiliating stereotypes (Hippel et al., 2013). Stereotype threat experienced by older adults w...... middle of paper ......3), 382-393. doi: 10.1177/0164027513508288Schermuly, C. C., Schroder, T., Nachtwei, J., Kauffeld, S., & Glas, K. (2012). Die Zukunft der Personalentwicklung. Eine Delphi-Studie [The future of human resources development. A delphy study]. Zeitschrift fur Arbeits- und Organizationspsychologie, 56, 111–122. doi:10.1026/0932-4089/a000078Schram, J. (2006). SHRM Workplace Predictions. Alexandria, VA: Society for Human Resource Management. Van der Heijden, B. I. J. M., de Lange, A. H., Demerouti, E. & Van der Heijde, C. M. (2009). Effects of age on the employability-professional success relationship. Journal of Professional Behavior, 74(2), 156-164. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2008.12.009Von Hippel, C., Kalokerinos, E. K., & Henry, J. D. (2013). Stereotype threat among older employees: Relationship to work attitudes and turnover intentions. Psychology and Aging, 28(1), 17-27. doi:10.1037/a0029825