Search

This paper examines age-related differences in work motivation in two samples of 9,388 and 2,512 individuals who completed a comprehensive motivation questionnaire for selection or development purposes. In the first sample, age differences were examined by controlling for gender and investigating whether relationships between age and motivation were non-linear. Statistically significant relationships between motivation and age were found for most motivation scales, explaining up to 12% of the variance in specific scales. The second sample was used to confirm these results and to determine whether differences on these motivation scales could be explained by additional demographic variables, which were not available in the first sample. When controlling for demographic variables, such as gender, managerial experience, and university education, the pattern of results was similar in the second data set although effects were smaller. Results generally support propositions from the literature, which suggest a shift in people's motives rather than a general decline in motivation with age: older employees were less motivated by extrinsically but more by intrinsically rewarding job features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Age discrimination may explain lower labour market chances of older and younger job seekers. What remains underresearched, however, is how older/younger job seekers might self‐select out from early recruitment procedures due to stigmatizing information in job ads. Building on theories of metastereotypes and the linguistic category model, two experimental studies investigated how personality requirements that older/younger job seekers hold negative metastereotypes about and the way in which these requirements are worded (behavioural vs. dispositional) affected their job attraction. Within‐participant mediation analyses showed that as expected, job attraction was higher for older (N = 123, aged 50 years or more) and younger (N = 151, 30 years or less) job seekers when requirements were worded in a behavioural way (e.g., 'You can be flexible'), compared with a dispositional way (e.g., 'You are flexible'). This relation was mediated by perceptions of challenge among younger but not older job seekers. Contrary to expectations, perceptions of threat did not explain the effects of negatively metastereotyped personality requirements on job attraction. Understanding how job seekers perceive information in job ads might help recruiters to design age‐sensitive recruitment policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we used the lifespan theories of selection optimization and compensation (SOC) and the socio-emotional selectivity theory (SST) to integrate the disengagement and activity perspectives on aging and to explain intra-individual changes in work motivation. A two-wave longitudinal survey study was conducted among 600 Dutch university employees to test relations between intra-individual changes in subjective general health, future time perspective (FTP), and generativity and development motives. In line with the two lifespan theories, two processes were found. First, consistent with the disengagement perspective on aging, losses in subjective general health negatively predicted open-ended FTP, and open-ended FTP was positively associated with an increase in growth motives. Secondly, consistent with the activity perspective on aging, losses in subjective general health positively predicted limited FTP, and limited FTP was positively associated with an increase in generativity motives. In addition, initial open-ended FTP predicted future open-ended FTP through a change in subjective general health. Finally, these relations were found to differ across age groups, and thus over the lifespan. More specifically, losses in subjective general health and increases in limited FTP particularly result in lower development motives and higher generativity motives among middle-aged workers, indicating that interventions aimed at preventing losses in health are probably most effective for maintaining development motives in this group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces JOOP's special section on expanding the boundaries of resource theories in occupational and organizational psychology. After an introduction of the most relevant resource theories and their current application in occupational and organizational psychology - key resource theories, conservation of resources theory, resource theory of social exchange, and selective optimization with compensation theory - the opportunities and challenges for future research are outlined, as well as the innovative trends emerging from the contributions in this special section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]