Work-life balance psychological contract perceptions for older workers

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of work–life balance (WLB) inducements of the psychological contract on three work-related outcomes for a sample of Dutch older workers: psychological contract breach, turnover intentions and intentions to participate in development activities.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper employs polynomial regression and response surface methodology.

Findings

Results show that the volume at which fulfillment occurs is important in predicting feelings of psychological contract violation and intentions to engage in development activities but that this relationship is not straightforward for turnover intentions. Furthermore, under- and over-fulfillment have different relationships with intentions to participate in development activities than previous literature suggests. Additionally, gender moderates a number of the relationships in this study.

Originality/value

This study provides detailed insights regarding the dynamics between promised and delivered WLB inducements and outcomes for a sample of older workers instead of presenting generalized differences between several age groups.

Citation

Kraak, J.M., Russo, M. and Jiménez, A. (2018), "Work-life balance psychological contract perceptions for older workers", Personnel Review, Vol. 47 No. 6, pp. 1194-1210. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-10-2017-0300