Active aging at work: Contributing factors and implications for organizations☆
Introduction
Continuously low or shrinking birth rates, the aging of the baby boomer generation, and rising life expectancies and retirement ages are causing unprecedented population and workforce aging around the globe. These developments have spurred an increased interest in the topic of active aging. The World Health Organization defines active aging as “the process of optimizing opportunities for health, participation, and security in order to enhance quality of life as people age.” As a policy framework, active aging is now endorsed widely by organizations such as the United Nations, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the European Commission.
In the work context, active aging means that as workers age, they maintain or improve (1) their physical, mental, and social well-being; (2) continue to show high levels of work engagement and performance; and (3) experience fair treatment and employment security. As a consequence, older workers are not only able and motivated to work past traditional retirement ages, they also continue to be happy and productive members of the workforce.
Based on research evidence accumulated over decades, we outline individual, job, team, organizational, non-work, and societal factors that contribute to active aging at work. That is, we take the view that aging workers can actively influence their development and environment, and that aging workers are themselves influenced by their environment. We conclude by outlining implications for organizations that want to implement age-inclusive human resource (HR) management practices, including recruitment and retention activities, career management, training and development, work design and health and performance management, managing the transition to retirement and bridge employment, and combating negative age stereotypes.
Section snippets
Factors contributing to active aging at work
Aging is a continuous process that lasts from conception until death. Because there is immense variability in how people age, most researchers do not specify a cut-off age to define when someone is “old” or an “older worker.” Instead, the terms “younger” and “older” worker are used here – and more generally in organizational science – for descriptive purposes only. For practical reasons, organizations and governments often define “older workers” as those individuals aged 40, 45, or 50 years and
What can organizations do to foster active aging at work?
Organizations can foster active aging at work by implementing age-friendly and age-inclusive HR practices that address the factors discussed in the previous section. These practices help create an organizational environment in which workers of all ages can achieve their full potential without discrimination. We suggest that HR practices that are particularly beneficial for older workers are also beneficial for workers of other ages; thus, age-friendly and age-inclusive HR practices contribute
Conclusion
With increasing age, workers become more heterogeneous in their levels of well-being, engagement, and performance. Active aging is an important goal for individuals, organizations, and society. Over decades, a large body of research evidence has accumulated on individual, job, team, organizational, non-work, and societal factors that contribute to active aging at work. It is now possible to derive evidence-based implications for organizations. Age-inclusive HR strategies help older workers
Selected bibliography
Comprehensive reviews of research on aging at work are provided in: Hertel, G., & Zacher, H. (in press) Managing the aging workforce. In N. Anderson, D. S. Ones, C. Viswesvaran & H. K. Sinangil (Eds.), Handbook of Industrial, Work, & Organizational Psychology (Vol. 2). New York: Sage. Truxillo, D. M., Cadiz, D. M., & Hammer, L. B. (2015). Supporting the aging workforce: A research review and recommendations for workplace intervention research. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and
Hannes Zacher is a Professor of Work and Organizational Psychology at Leipzig University, Germany, and an Adjunct Professor at Queensland University of Technology, Australia. He received his M.S. from the Technical University of Braunschweig and his Ph.D. from the University of Giessen. In his research program, Hannes investigates aging at work, career development, and occupational well-being; proactivity, innovation, and entrepreneurship; and pro-environmental employee behavior. His research
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Hannes Zacher is a Professor of Work and Organizational Psychology at Leipzig University, Germany, and an Adjunct Professor at Queensland University of Technology, Australia. He received his M.S. from the Technical University of Braunschweig and his Ph.D. from the University of Giessen. In his research program, Hannes investigates aging at work, career development, and occupational well-being; proactivity, innovation, and entrepreneurship; and pro-environmental employee behavior. His research is published in journals such as the Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Management, and Psychology and Aging. He is an associate editor of Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology and currently serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Group & Organization Management, and Work, Aging and Retirement. (Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Hannes Zacher, Institute of Psychology, Leipzig University, Neumarkt 9-19, 04109 Leipzig, Germany. Email: [email protected]).
Dorien T. A. M. Kooij is an Associate Professor at the Department of Human Resource Studies of Tilburg University, the Netherlands. She received her M.A. from the University of Amsterdam and her Ph.D. from the VU University Amsterdam. Her research focuses on aging at work, and in particular on HR practices for older workers, on how work motivation changes with aging, and on job crafting. She has published in international peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of Organizational Behavior, Work & Stress, and Psychology and Aging. She currently serves on the editorial boards of Group & Organization Management and Work, Aging and Retirement.
Margaret E. Beier is an Associate Professor at Rice University in Houston, TX, USA. She received her B.A. from Colby College and her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Margaret’s research examines the influence of individual differences in age, gender, abilities and motivation as related to success in educational and organizational environments. Her work has been published in Psychological Bulletin, the Journal of Applied Psychology, and the Journal of Business and Psychology. She is a fellow of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychologists (SIOP).
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This research was funded by a grant from the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS) awarded to the first author, and by a VENI grant (016.145.218) of the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research awarded to the second author. We thank the editor of Organizational Dynamics, Dr. Gary Latham, and an anonymous reviewer for helpful feedback on an earlier version of this article. A version of this paper was published online by the Alliance for Organizational Psychology (AOP).