Proactive personality and training motivation among older workers: A mediational model of goal orientation
European Journal of Training and Development
ISSN: 2046-9012
Article publication date: 1 September 2015
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims at examining the relationship between proactive personality and training motivation among older workers (aged over 55 years) in a context characterized by the growing ageing of the global population. First, the authors hypothesized that proactive personality predicts the motivation to learn among older workers and that this relationship is mediated by goal orientation. In particular, the authors hypothesized that learning goal orientation may mediate the relationship between proactive personality and learning motivation.
Design/methodology/approach
The employees of an Italian bank completed an online questionnaire. AMOS 17 was used to carry out confirmatory factor analysis, and the SPSS macro was used to test the meditational model.
Findings
The results confirmed both the hypotheses, demonstrating the influence of proactive personality on training motivation of older workers, as mediated by goal orientation and, in particular, by learning goal orientation.
Practical implications
From an applicative point of view, this study may have implications for organizations that aim to increase the employability of older people by encouraging them to undertake more training. In particular, interventions aimed at increasing learning goal orientation could contribute in strengthening proactive personality that, in turn, may affect levels of training motivation.
Originality/value
Even if proactive personality has already been found as a predictor of learning motivation, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present study demonstrates that the relationship between proactive personality and training motivation is mediated by goal orientation among older workers.
Keywords
Citation
Setti, I., Dordoni, P., Piccoli, B., Bellotto, M. and Argentero, P. (2015), "Proactive personality and training motivation among older workers: A mediational model of goal orientation", European Journal of Training and Development, Vol. 39 No. 8, pp. 681-699. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJTD-03-2015-0018
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited