The over-fifties: victims of anthropological screnning ?

Stéphane Bellini (1)

1 CEREGE [Poitiers] - Centre de recherche en gestion [EA 1722]

France has one of the lowest employment rates for the over-fifties in Europe. Several surveys have confirmed that strategies for managing the over-fifties in French companies share a common characteristic: the search for ways to remove them. In this paper, we shall be investigating the reasoning behind the ousting of the over-fifties. We shall look closely at the explanations that purportedly show that these decisions are objectively based and apparently impartial, before going on to investigate just how rational these practices are. Our desire is to show that such widespread practices are based on widely shared schemes of thought. We use anthropological screening to refer to the process of using an implicit model of the individual at work as a criterion for selection and promotion. While formerly anthropomorphic 1 in nature, this screening now centres on types of skills, relationships and performance at work, the ability to fit into an organisation and psychological predispositions. How a person behaves matters as much as what he or she does.

Domaines: Gestion et management

Stéphane Bellini. The over-fifties: victims of anthropological screnning ?. EURAM, 2007, Paris, France. ⟨hal-02143528⟩