Workforce age profile effects on job resources, work engagement and organizational citizenship behavior

Abstract

Purpose

The issue of age in organizations has become increasingly salient given expanding age profiles, from millennials to baby boomers. The purpose of this article is to improve the understanding of how age affects individuals' work-related attitudes and behaviors, the authors take a life span perspective to investigate how age profiles moderate the relationship between job resources and work engagement and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB).

Design/methodology/approach

The authors collected responses from 270 employees of multinational firms operating in India and conducted multiple regression analyses to examine the hypotheses.

Findings

The authors found that age profiles are significant predictors of work engagement. Specifically, the relationship between development opportunities and work engagement was stronger for younger employees than for older employees. However, age profiles were neither positively related to OCB nor a moderator of the job resources–OCB relationship.

Originality/value

The findings provide empirical evidence of the life span perspective, suggesting that age profiles influence work engagement. This is pertinent for organizations offering employees development opportunities to enhance work engagement.

Citation

Zhang, L. and Farndale, E. (2022), "Workforce age profile effects on job resources, work engagement and organizational citizenship behavior", Personnel Review, Vol. 51 No. 1, pp. 194-209. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-02-2020-0095