Nursing practice faces the challenges of succeeding with a great diversity of customers and managing a diverse workforce with a wide range of age differences. While age diversity can lead to increased creativity and a greater richness of values and skills, it can also lead to value clashes, disrespect of each other's viewpoints, and increased conflict. As a result, nurses frequently experience stress, work-life imbalance, and a withdrawal from commitment. We propose the injection of positive diversity mindsets (age diversity appreciation) as one remedy. Specifically, we suggest that age diversity appreciation is positively related to nurses' well-being (stress and work-life balance), and also positively related to their team commitment. We further hypothesize that nurses' trust in co-workers mediates the hypothesized relationships. Our survey data of 138 nurses in a large hospital in Germany supported our hypotheses. We discuss both theoretical and managerial implications of our findings in the context of age diversity and nursing work outcomes in hospitals.
© 2012 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.