Age in the Workplace

The workforce across industrialized nations has become both older and more age-diverse, and this trend is expected to continue in the coming decades. These changes will have important implications for motivating and managing both individual employees and teams and because people are retiring later, it is important to address ways to sustain the wellbeing and productivity of workers. With a specifically international focus, this volume addresses these critical issues from the individual and psychological perspectives. Based primarily in empirical research, it covers a wide range of topics related to the aging workforce, including the motivation of older workers - to work and to retire; what organizations can do to attract and retain the talent of older workers; how to improve relations and productivity among age-diverse teams; how to design jobs to support older and younger talent; and how to better understand why older workers may choose to return to work. This volume includes contributions from the top psychological researchers in the field of the aging workforce. This book was originally published as a special issue of the European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology.

Donald Truxillo is a professor of Psychology at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, USA and a fellow of the American Psychological Association. His research examines how to support workers across the worklife span through job redesign and reducing age stereotypes. His has published in leading organizational psychology journals. Franco Fraccaroli is a professor of Work and Organizational Psychology at Trento University, Italy. He is Past President of the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology and Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. His research is devoted to the late career and transition to retirement and to psychosocial risks and quality of organizational life.

1. Research themes on age and work: Introduction to the Special Issue Donald M. Truxillo and Franco Fraccaroli 2. Goals and motivation related to work in later adulthood: An organizing framework Ruth Kanfer, Margaret E. Beier, and Phillip L. Ackerman 3. Antecedents and outcomes of targeting older applicants in recruitment Caren B. Goldberg, Elissa L. Perry, Lisa M. Finkelstein, and Amanda Shull 4. A lifespan perspective on psychological contracts and their relations with organizational commitment P. Matthijs Bal, Annet H. de Lange, Hannes Zacher, and Beatrice I. J. M. Van der Heijden 5. From ''getting'' to ''giving'': Exploring age-related differences in perceptions of and reactions to psychological contract balance Tim Vantilborgh, Jemima Bidee, Roland Pepermans, Jurgen Willems, Gert Huybrechts, and Marc Jegers 6. Differential effects of task variety and skill variety on burnout and turnover intentions for older and younger workers Sara Zaniboni, Donald M. Truxillo, and Franco Fraccaroli 7. Customer stressors in service organizations: The impact of age on stress management and burnout S. J. Johnson, L. Holdsworth, H. Hoel, and D. Zapf 8. Ageism at work: The impact of intergenerational contact and organizational multi-age perspective Caroline Iweins, Donatienne Desmette, Vincent Yzerbyt, and Florence Stinglhamber 9. Drivers of the expectation of remaining in the same job until retirement age: A working life span demands-resources model Susanne C. Liebermann, Jürgen Wegge, and Andreas Müller 10. Domain specific effects of commitment on bridge employment decisions: The moderating role of economic stress Yujie Zhan, Mo Wang, and Xiang Yao