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Research themes on age and work: Introduction
Donald M. Truxillo1 and Franco Fraccaroli2
1Department of Psychology, Portland State University, Portland, OR, USA
2Department of Cognitive Science and Education, University of Trento, Trento, Italy
The workforce is ageing in most industrialized countries, with people working longer and fewer younger workers entering the workforce. These trends can be attributed to a number of factors: increased lifespans and subsequent increases in the retirement age; lower birth rates; and high levels of youth unemployment, particularly in Europe. These trends have resulted in the development of a broad range of workplace challenges associated with age, such as larger numbers of older and younger people working together, organizations needing to find ways to motivate and accommodate workers across the work-life span, and the emergence of new forms of retirement such as bridge employment.
These changes have many implications for individuals, employers, governments, and societies, and they have become a focus of study in a number of academic disciplines such as economics, demography, and ergonomics. Recently, the number of age-related studies in the field of work and organizational psychology has also increased, resulting in several books, journal Special Issues, and conferences. Specifically, age has moved from being a statistical control variable in work and organizational psychology research to a central focus of study.
The development of this Special Issue originally grew from an EAWOP small group meeting on age in the workplace, expanding from there to an open call for journal articles. The results of the call were far beyond our expectations, with well over 50 formal submissions. Our goal in this editorial is to introduce the articles in this Special Issue, contextualizing them within the field of workplace ageing and giving a âbirdâs eyeâ view of the current research landscape. The articles in this Special Issue show the diversity of research that work and organizational (W/O) psychologists around the world are conducting on age and the ways in which W/O psychology can help address the challenges of an ageing and age-diverse workforce.
EXPLANATORY VARIABLES FOR CHRONOLOGICAL AGE
Chronological age is a useful variable for researchersâand useful for government and organizational decisionmakers as wellâbecause it can be easily measured. However, chronological age is in many ways simply a marker for other factors such as health, life stage, cognitive change, motivation, expectations, and generational status. There is a need to go beyond simple chronological age for a deeper understanding of what age means in the workplace and the explanatory variables underlying age. Bal, de Lange, Zacher, and Van der Heijden (this issue, 2013) do just this, digging deep into the chronological age construct to better understand the complexity of chronological age. Specifically, they look at the indirect effects of age to the extent that it represents a personâs future time perspective (FTP), and how age and FTP interact with contract fulfilment to explain the employeeâs relationship with the organization in terms of normative and continuance commitment. Similarly, Liebermann, Wegge, and MĂźller (this issue, 2013) note the importance of considering younger workers specifically, and develop a variable they call expectation of remaining in the same job until retirement (ERSJR) using a demandsâresources model. They also examine differences in blue-collar and white-collar workers and older and younger workers in terms of the determinants of ERSJR.
WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT EXPECTATIONS, NEEDS, AND GOALS OF OLDER AND YOUNGER WORKERS?
A workerâs place in the lifespan can be important for understanding his or her work motivation and what he or she wants from the job. This may be due to the physical and psychological changes that come with age as well as differences in what workers want from the work and nonwork realms. Work motivation remains central to understanding age-related differences in work behaviour and attitudes. Kanfer, Beier, and Ackerman (this issue, 2013) develop an integrative model of adult goals related to work and differentiate motivation to work, motivation at work, and motivation to retire. These authors also identify individual and contextual factors that may affect these goals and provide directions for future research. Vantilborgh et al. (this issue, 2013) illustrate that there may be differences in the way that older and younger persons view psychological contracts. In particular, these authors emphasize the importance of considering chronological age in order to understand the expectations of older and younger volunteers in terms of relative outcomes for the person versus the organization. Zaniboni, Truxillo, and Fraccaroli (under editor Vicente Gonzalez-Roma; this issue, 2013) used two time-lagged samples to show that older and younger workers may react differently to the same job characteristics. Interpreting their findings through the lenses of socioemotional selectivity theory and selection, optimization, and compensation theory, they found that younger workers experienced better outcomes (lower burnout and turnover intentions) with increased task variety, whereas older workers had better outcomes with increased skill variety.
ARE THERE DIFFERENCES IN SOME JOB-RELATED SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES?
Another question to consider is the strengths that peopleâof all agesâbring to the workplace in terms of skills and competencies. In this vein, Johnson, Holdsworth, Hoel, and Zapf (this issue, 2013) examined age differences in stress management strategies as a response to customer stressors among retail workers. Their findings suggest that older workersâ use of emotional control and active coping generally had a more positive effect on emotional exhaustion and cynicism compared to younger employees. Specifically, the article shows that older workers may be more competent in managing coping strategies compared to younger workers, and that this may lead to a more positive customer experience.
HOW ARE OLDER AND YOUNGER WORKERS TREATED, AND HOW CAN WE REDUCE AGEISM AND GENERATIONAL CONFLICT?
Although the increasing age diversity of todayâs workforce provides opportunities for employers, it presents challenges as well. Research continues to examine how older and younger workers are perceived by each other and how to reduce stereotyping and conflict. Goldberg, Perry, Finkelstein, and Schull (this issue, 2013) take a highly practical approach to these issues by examining which factors influence whether HR professionals target older workers in hiring. The authors identify positive organizational diversity climate and recruitment sources as factors affecting what HR professionals actually do regarding older and younger workers. Such studies on the phenomenon of age stereotyping then beg the question: What can organizations do to reduce ageism in the workplace and any generational conflict that may ensue? Iweins, Desmette, Yzerbyt, and Stinglhamber (this issue, 2013) answer this call by examining perceptions of older workers and ways to mitigate ageism at work. Across two studies, they find that intergenerational contact and an organizational multi-age perspective attenuated ageism and common stereotypes of older workers, and that procedural justice may be an explanatory factor in these effects.
RETIREMENT AND BRIDGE EMPLOYMENT
The nature of the final phases of the work-life span is evolving as workers live longer, remain healthier, and face economic challenges that require them to continue working beyond the statutory retirement age. One example is the emergence of bridge employment, or continuing work of some kind beyond retirement. Thus, understanding which workers will choose bridge employment and why they do so is a critical issue. In their article, Zhan, Wang, and Yao (this issue, 2013) differentiate âcareerâ from âorganizationalâ bridge employment as dependent variables, that is, bridge employment that occurs within the existing career, and bridge employment that involves working with the preretirement employer. Zhan et al. use the principle of compatibility and the theory of planned behaviour to show that organizational and career commitment predict career and organizational bridge employment, respectively, and that the effects of commitment are moderated by a key contextual factor, economic stress.
FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS
Each article in this Special Issue describes areas for future research. In addition, having reviewed these articlesâas well as many others as a result of the call for articlesâwe offer a few directions for future research.
First, broadly, is research on what people of different ages want from work, what they expect from work, and what they need from work. What do older and younger people expect in terms of the relationship between their work and life spheres? How might jobs be redesigned at the micro and macro levels to best fit the needs of workers (e.g., Truxillo, Cadiz, Rineer, Zaniboni, & Fraccaroli, 2012), and how might workers craft their jobs as they age? An interesting question is how such factors might tie in with the idea of happiness and life satisfaction at different life stages (Diener & Suh, 1997). The answers to these questions are likely to be drawn from a wide range of theoretical perspectives such as motivation (e.g., Kanfer & Ackerman, 2004; Kooij, De Lange, Jansen, Kanfer, & Dikkers, 2011), adult lifespan theories (e.g., Baltes & Baltes, 1990; Carstensen, Isaacowitz, & Charles, 1999), career theory (e.g., Arthur, Hall, & Law, 1989), and models that consider the interplay of work and nonwork arenas. Comprehensive lines of research on topics such as age-related expectations of work and age-related motivation are needed (see Hertel et al., 2013).
Relatedly, much of the work thus far has been descriptive in nature, while more prescriptive research work on interventions and age is needed, such as on which HR practices benefit older and younger workers (see Kooij, Jansen, Dikkers, & de Lange, 2010). Accordingly, research is needed to provide very specific recommendations to HR professionals on how to deal with age, legally and fairly, across all HR functions, including recruitment, selection, compensation, and training.
With the increasing age diversity comes the issue of how older and younger workers are perceived by others and themselves. Specifically, what are the older worker stereotypes (Posthuma & Campion, 2009) and how might they be changing? How do older and younger workers perceive themselvesâand how do they believe that others perceive them (e.g., Finkelstein, Ryan, & King, 2012). Given the demonstrated importance of age diversity climate to organizational health (Kunze, Boehm, & Bruch, 2011), how can organizations nurture a positive climate?
Research on age implies that older and younger workers differ in some essential ways: Meta-analytic research has shown that in fact there are some differences between older and younger workers on certain attitudes (Ng & Feldman, 2010) and performance dimensions (e.g., Ng & Feldman, 2008), although the stereotyped differences between the age groups are generally unsupported (Ng & Feldman, 2012). However, the explanatory mechanisms for any performance and attitude differences deserve deeper examination, including factors such as cohort, biology, career stage, and life stage. A deeper understanding of these explanatory variables (e.g., future time perspective; Zacher & Friese, 2009) could do much to enhance the performance and attitudes of older and younger workers.
Finally, improvements in health care have led to a longer lifespan, and thus the retirement age in many countries continues to drift upwards. Research that unpacks the different forms of retirement and partial retirement, their antecedents, and outcomes, can do much to benefit societies, governments, organizations, and individuals (e.g., Wang, 2007).
In conclusion, facing the issues related to the ageing workforce offers an exciting new focus for the field of work and organizational psychology, and it is imperative that we stay ahead of the curve to address this challenge. Furthermore, because of the complexities involved, we will need to be cognizant of the perspectives available from other disciplines that can help us in our work. But the consequences for workers, for employers, and for society are so significant that we must accept this challenge.
REFERENCES
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Bal, P. M., De Lange, A., Zacher, H., & van der Heijden, B. I. J. M. (2013). A lifespan perspective on psychological contracts and their relations with organizational commitment. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 22, 279â292.
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Liebermann, S., Wegge, J., & MĂźller, A. (2013). Drivers of the expectation of remaining in the same job until retirement age...
