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We develop a conceptual model, based on person-environment fit theory, which explains how employee age affects occupational strain and well-being. We begin by explaining how age directly affects different dimensions of objective and subjective P-E fit. Next, we illustrate how age can moderate the relationship between objective P-E fit and subjective P-E fit. Third, we discuss how age can moderate the relationships between P-E fit, on one hand, and occupational strain and well-being on the other. Fourth, we explain how age can impact occupational strain and well-being directly independent of P-E fit. The chapter concludes with implications for future research and practice.

The demographic shift and the rapid rate of innovations put age and employability high on policy makers’ and human resource managers’ agenda. However, the authors do not sufficiently understand the link between these concepts. The authors set out to investigate the relationship between age and employability and aim to identify motivational mediators of this relationship. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the roles of future time perspective and goal orientation.

The authors conducted quantitative, cross-sectional survey research (n=282) in three Dutch and Austrian organizations. The authors used structural equation modeling to investigate the relationships between chronological age, future time perspective, goal orientations, and employability.

Future time perspective and goal orientation strongly relate to employability. The authors found indirect relationships between age and employability via perceived remaining opportunities.

The results question the often simplistic use of chronological age in employability and human resource management research. Therefore, the authors call for more research to investigate the relationship between age and employability more deeply.

The findings contribute new insights for the career development issues of an increasingly older workforce. This shifts the focus from age, a factor outside our control, to motivation.

This study contributes evidence for the relationships of chronological age, future time perspective, and goal orientation with employability. It extends literature by criticizing the prevalent use of chronological age and investigating mediation effects.

In the context of workforce aging, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of occupational future time perspective (OFTP) in the relationship between work–family enrichment (WF-E) and two well-being outcomes (i.e. work engagement and emotional exhaustion). In addition, the moderating role of age on the relationship between WF-E and OFTP, and consequently, on the indirect effects of WF-E on work engagement and emotional exhaustion through OFTP, will be examined.

Cross-sectional survey research (n=263) was conducted in a public sector company in Belgium. Structural equation modeling and bootstrap analyses were performed to investigate the hypothesized relationships.

The dimension “remaining opportunities” of OFTP mediated the positive relationship between WFE and work engagement, and the negative relationship between WFE and emotional exhaustion. Chronological age moderated the positive relationship between WFE and the dimension “remaining time” of OFTP, with stronger effects among older workers.

This research has confirmed that OFTP is influenced by WFE and that WFE matters, especially for older workers. Future research should continue to study the effects of the work–family interface on older workers.

Age management practices should take WFE into consideration when managing an aging workforce. In particular, older workers may benefit from WFE to increase their perception of remaining opportunities at work, which, in turn, increase well-being.

This study contributes evidence for the role of personal resources (i.e. remaining opportunities) in the relationship between WF-E and well-being at work.

As the workforce is aging and becoming increasingly age diverse, successful aging at work has been proclaimed to be a desirable process and outcome, as well as a responsibility of both workers and their organizations. In this chapter, we first review, compare, and critique theoretical frameworks of successful aging developed in the gerontology and lifespan developmental literatures, including activity, disengagement, and continuity theories; Rowe and Kahn’s model; the resource approach; the model of selective optimization with compensation; the model of assimilative and accommodative coping; the motivational theory of lifespan development; socioemotional selectivity theory; and the strength and vulnerability integration model. Subsequently, we review and critically compare three conceptualizations of successful aging at work developed in the organizational literature. We conclude the chapter by outlining implications for future research on successful aging at work.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships of i-deals with the employability of older workers, and introduce two distinct theoretical processes through which these effects occur. On the one hand, a self-enhancement perspective postulates that i-deals enhance self-efficacy through which older workers become more employable. On the other hand, a lifespan perspective postulates that i-deals enhance older workers’ future time perspective through which they become more employable.

Data were gathered among 244 employees via an online questionnaire that had been sent to employees of 45 years or older at eight companies in the Netherlands.

Results showed that task and work responsibilities i-deals are strongly related to older workers’ employability, and that this relationship is mediated by future time perspective and self-efficacy. Location flexibility i-deals were positively related to employability. Financial i-deals and schedule flexibility i-deals were unrelated to employability.

This study introduces two novel ways through which i-deals for older workers can be studied: a self-enhancement and a future time perspective. Both can explain how older workers may enhance their employability by negotiating i-deals.

As the percentage of older workers will increase, there is a great need for organizations to focus on the employability of older workers. The present study shows that organizations are able to increase the employability of older workers by individual arrangements.

Individualization of work arrangements has been theorized to facilitate older workers’ employability, but the present study is the first to investigate how i-deals may contribute to greater employability.

Based on the socioemotional selectivity theory, this study aims to explore the differential influences of control and commitment human resource (HR) practices on employee job crafting as well as the mediating role of occupational future time perspective (OFTP).

This study used a two-wave design to survey 53 HR managers and 339 employees of 53 Chinese firms. The hypotheses were tested by conducting multilevel structural equation modeling in Mplus 7.4.

The results show that control HR practices are negatively related to job crafting, while commitment HR practices are positively related to job crafting. Further, control HR practices are negatively associated with the remaining opportunities dimension of OFTP, whereas commitment HR practices are positively associated with remaining opportunities. However, both types of HR practices have no significant relationship with the remaining time dimension of OFTP. Finally, remaining opportunities mediate the relationships between both types of HR practices and job crafting.

Managers should be aware of how to promote or inhibit employee job crafting by implementing different HR practices.

This study contributes to the job crafting research by demonstrating that the relationship between HR practices and job crafting depends on the type of HR practices in use, as well as contributing to OFTP research by showing that different types of HR practices have differential relationships with the remaining opportunities dimension of OFTP.

Psychological capital (PsyCap) and future time perspective (FTP) are ambassadors of positivity among incumbent employees in organisations. However, remarkably little is known regarding the effectiveness of high-performance work systems (HPWS) in nurturing these constructs. The purpose of this study is to contribute and provide a complete frame of reference linking HPWS to PsyCap and FTP.

A synthesis analysis of existing literature was carried out to formulate managerial and practical propositions.

Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, affective events theory and Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, the present study proposes a research framework that links HPWS, FTP and PsyCap, with possible mediation effect of FTP in HPWS–PsyCap relationship and PsyCap in HPWS–FTP relationship.

Although this paper did not test the model empirically, it offers important practical implications in terms of PsyCap and FTP perception development through HPWS practices.

A set of propositions that explain the relationships between the study variables is presented to enrich the understanding with organisation’s HRM practices and its possible impact on employees.

The aging workforce is becoming an increasingly important topic in today’s labor market. However, most scientific research and organizational policies focus on chronological age as the main determinant of successful aging. Based on life span developmental theories – primarily socioemotional selectivity theory and motivational theory of life span development – the purpose of this paper is to test the added value of using subjective age – in terms of remaining opportunities and remaining time – over and above chronological age in their associations with motivation at work and motivation to work.

Workers from five different divisions throughout the Netherlands (n=186) from a taxi company participated in the survey study.

The results from the regression analyses and structural equation modeling analyses support the hypotheses: when subjective age was included in the models, chronological age was virtually unrelated to workers’ intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and motivation to continue to work for one’s organization. Moreover, subjective age was strongly related to work motivation. Specifically, workers who perceived many remaining opportunities were more intrinsically and extrinsically motivated, and those who perceived a lot of remaining time were more motivated across the board.

The findings indicate that subjective age is an important concept to include in studies focussing on successful aging, thereby contributing to life span developmental theories. Further implications for research and practice are discussed.

In the current war for talent employers are concerned about the idea that the best employees are more likely to leave the organization for another employer (i.e. the management paradox). This study tests this management paradox. The purpose of this paper is to advance our understandings of how employees’ occupational expertise is associated with job search intensity, through its assumed relationships with perceived internal and external employability in the internal and the external labor market. The authors thereby tested the research model across three different age groups (young, middle-aged, and senior employees).

The authors conducted a survey among 2,137 professional workers and applied multi-group structural equation modeling.

Perceived internal employability negatively mediated the relationship between occupational expertise and job search intensity, whilst there was a positive mediational effect of perceived external employability. Age had a moderating effect on the association between perceived internal employability and job search intensity.

The findings contribute to the scholarly literature on the management paradox, and the empirical work on employability and age.

Organizations can recoup their investments in expert workers’ employability and enhance their retention by providing opportunities for internal career development.

This study is original by including both internal and external employability. By doing so, the authors thereby shedding new light on how occupational expertise might explain job search and how this relationship differs depending on employee age, thereby using a large sample of respondents.

Interest in generational research has garnered a lot of attention, as the workplace is seeing multiple generations (i.e., the Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials) working side-by-side for the first time. However, it is unclear how multiple generations of workers interact with each other and affect the workplace. Although there is extant literature on generational differences, some scholars have argued that the effect sizes are small and the differences are not meaningful. The focal aim of this chapter is to present the current state of literature on generational research. We present the relevant conceptualizations and theoretical frameworks that establish generational research. We then review evidence from existing research studies to establish the areas of differences that may exist among the different generations. In our review, we identify the issues arising from generational differences that are relevant to human resource management (HRM) practices, including new workforce entrants, aging workers, the changing nature of work and organizations, and leadership development. We conclude with several directions for future research on modernizing workplace policies and practices, ensuring sustainability in current employment models, facilitating future empirical research, and integrating the effects of globalization in generational research.