Waarover praten zij? Het functioneringsgesprek met oudere en jongere medewerkers over ontwikkeling en comfort

What are they talking about? Developmental and comfort topics in the job evaluation conversations of older and younger employees What are they talking about? Developmental and comfort topics in the job evaluation conversations of older and younger employees In this study, we examined the relationship between employees’ age and the topics they discussed with their supervisor in a job evaluation conversation. The reports of the job evaluation conversations of 85 employees were coded as ‘developmental’ (the conversation included developmental topics) or ‘comfort’ (the conversation included topics related to the facilitation of an employee’s work). In addition, we measured employees’ implicit beliefs (entity or incremental), experienced developmental support, and their training and development willingness. The results show that the job evaluation conversations of older employees included significantly fewer developmental topics than those of younger employees. Job level rather than age was associated with discussing comfort topics during job evaluation conversations. As expected, older employees – and particularly those with entity beliefs – experienced less developmental support from their supervisors than younger employees. We found a significant, positive association between employees’ experienced developmental support from the supervisor and their training and developmental willingness.