Study shows little impact of age on managerial style

The Department of Management at Monash University and the Australian Institute of Management (QLD/NT) have released a study looking at a range of hypotheses on the correlation of age and managerial styles. What they found however, was that there were in fact very little differences between age groups.

Contrary to all expectations, our study shows that the opposite applies. Australian leaders, be they young or older and more experienced, record similar levels of leadership and have a similar impact on employee morale and performance. That is, while older managers do not add significantly more to the organization as measured by specific employee outcomes (employee well-being and psychological capital (PsyCap)), nor do they compromise these outcomes. Nonetheless, there are subtle indicators that older managers do contribute different skills to the organization.

Other interesting findings were that there was no statistically significant difference between the amount of transformational and transactional managers in age groups or the emotional intelligence between age groups.

Another hypothesis the research looked at was whether older managers possessed higher crystalized intelligence with younger managers possessing higher fluid intelligence. According to the paper:

• Crystalized intelligence refers to an individual's mental abilities learned through applying skills to certain situations. Generally, something that increases during an individual's life.
• Fluid intelligence on the other hand is refers to an inherited basic reasoning ability in solving novel or unusual problems which tends to decrease with time.  

The research showed no significant differences in age groups in regards to crystalized intelligence for managers over 31. The only difference being managers under 31 tended to show less. There was however a decline in fluid intelligence through age groups. The authors importantly note however that the differences in both of these findings are still statistically insignificant.

Either way it doesn't really matter because the research also showed there was no statistically significant association between fluid/crystalized intelligence and actual managerial competencies i.e managerial effectiveness.

So over all it's pretty safe to say 'statistically insignificant' is the word of the day with this paper. The authors find this surprising and tend to relate this to their sample size of about 55 managers (give or take a few as not all managers completed all parts of the survey). Sample size aside they also suggest the findings could be indicative of Australian business culture but regardless, state further research is needed to either support or reject the findings of the paper.