Dealing With an Aging Workforce: Locating Diagnostic and Prognostic Frames in Corporate Media

• In Event: Organizational Communication Research Escalator - Extended Session

Abstract

So far, it is unclear how organizations, in the midst of profound labor market changes, communicate about conceived problems and solutions in the employability debate. Following Snow and Benford’s (1988) approach to the framing concept, this study seeks to answer the question how organizations frame older workers’ employability in terms of diagnoses (problem-definitions) and prognoses (solution-definitions). Using multilevel modelling, we explain variation in these frame activities across diverse organizations and outlets. Data come from a content-analysis of internal (employee magazines) and external (annual reports) corporate outlets of 50 Dutch large-scale organizations during the period 2006 – 2013, totaling 434 items. By shedding light on the parts of the employability debate that organizations do and do not adhere to, this study eludes our understanding of how organizations strategically frame this issue.

Authors

• Anne Cornelia Kroon, University of Amsterdam, ASCOR

• Martine van Selm, Amsterdam School of Communication Research

• Claartje L. ter Hoeven, ASCoR, U of Amsterdam