Maturity Work in Organizations: Antecedents, Strategies, and Consequences of Trying to Appear Mature at Work

Abstract: In many contexts, appearing youthful is desirable, connoting attractiveness and vigor. In the workplace, however, youthfulness can carry stigma, signaling inexperience or unseriousness. To buffer against this stigma, we theorize that individuals may engage in maturity work—deliberate impression management strategies aimed at appearing more mature. In an initial mixed-methods study of 109 MBA students, we find that maturity work is both common and multifaceted. Qualitative analyses reveal strategies that are appearance-altering (e.g., dressing more formally, wearing glasses) and behavior-changing (e.g., using more professional language, avoiding youthful-signaling topics). Quantitatively, greater engagement in maturity work is associated with higher status insecurity and lower organizational belonging, suggesting important interpersonal costs of performing maturity. Building on these findings, we outline future research to develop a validated maturity work scale and to experimentally test when and for whom maturity work is beneficial.

Keywords: maturity work, impression management, age-related stigma, workplace ageism