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The age diversity climate construct is gaining greater attention in the organizational literature due to the demographic changes in the workplace. While the few existing studies on age diversity climate (ADC) are rather encouraging, this construct is still at an early stage of conceptual and operational development. This chapter helps to advance this field of research by analyzing the conceptual issues stemming from the theoretical definition and empirical measurement of the ADC construct. We first review and compare ADC with other age-focused climate concepts, highlighting overlapping and diverging factors regarding their conceptual framework and operationalization. Subsequently, we consider several open issues related to the operationalization of ADC, including the level of analysis, the choice of referent, and the dimensions of analysis. We conclude the chapter by outlining possibilities for future research on ADC.

This paper sheds light on the mechanisms through which age diversity climate affects employees’ positive attitudes and behaviours. Specifically, the study examines: a) the mediating role of affective commitment in the relationship between age diversity climate and organisational citizenship behaviour, and b) the moderating effect of employees’ focus on future occupational opportunities on the link between age diversity climate and affective commitment. Applying regression analyses to a sample of 326 employees from a multinational pharmaceutical company, we found that affective commitment fully mediates the relationship between perceived age diversity climate and organisational citizenship behaviour. Furthermore, the results revealed that employees’ focus on opportunities is negatively correlated with their chronological age and positively correlated with affective commitment. However, contrary to our hypothesis, employees’ focus on opportunities did not moderate the link between age diversity climate and affective commitment. The results have implications for both theory and practice, suggesting that endeavours to maintain and sustain an inclusive age diversity climate should be regarded as critical.