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As demographic changes impact the workplace, governments, organizations, and workers are looking for ways to sustain optimal working lives at higher ages. Workplace flexibility has been introduced as a potential way workers can have more satisfying working lives until their retirement ages. This chapter presents a critical review of the literature on workplace flexibility across the lifespan. It discusses how flexibility has been conceptualized across different disciplines, and postulates a definition that captures the joint roles of employer and employee in negotiating workplace flexibility that contributes to both employee and organization benefits. Moreover, it reviews how flexibility has been theorized and investigated in relation to older workers. The chapter ends with a future research agenda for advancing understanding of how workplace flexibility may enhance working experiences of older workers, and in particular focuses on the critical investigation of uses of flexibility in relation to older workers.

Scholarly and general interest in sustainable careers is flourishing. Sustainable careers are focused on the long-term opportunities and experiences of workers across dynamic employment situations, and are characterized by flexibility, meaning and individual agency. The current paper analyzes and challenges the underlying ideological assumptions of how sustainable careers are conceptualized and advocates the inclusion of the ecological meaning of sustainability and the notion of dignity into the sustainable careers concept.

Using Slavoj Žižek's (1989, 2001) conceptualization of ideology as fantasy-construction, the authors explore how the use of sustainable careers is influenced by fantasies about the contemporary workplace and the role of the individual in the workplace. This is a conceptual method.

The authors argue that the concept of sustainable careers is grounded in the neoliberal fantasy of the individual. The paper concludes by presenting an alternative concept of sustainable careers grounded in a dignity-perspective on sustainability, which offers an alternative theoretical understanding of sustainable careers in the contemporary workplace, sharpening its contours and usefulness in theorizing careers.

This paper is the first to systematically analyze the use and conceptualization of sustainable careers in the literate and to expose the ideological underpinnings of the concept. Propositions are developed to be explored by future research.

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.

The aim of this paper was to investigate the role of emotion regulation and age in reactions to psychological contract breach towards positive and negative affect. The authors expected that in the context of contract breach, reappraisal emotion regulation mitigate the negative relation with affect. Moreover, based on lifespan theory, suppression emotion regulation was expected to be important for younger workers, because older workers have learned how to express themselves appropriately at the workplace. Consequently, suppression would mitigate the relations of contract breach with well‐being only among younger workers, while it strengthened the relation for older workers.

Data were collected among 163 employees working in various Dutch organizations. Moderated regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses.

Reappraisal mitigated the relation of contract breach with positive affect, and suppression mitigated the relations of contract breach with positive affect only among younger workers, while for older workers with high suppression the relations were accentuated. It was also found that contract breach was more strongly related to negative affect for younger workers than for older workers.

Reactions towards psychological contract breaches are influenced by the emotion regulation strategies people employ. Especially reappraisal is important to maintain optimal levels of affect, while suppression is detrimental especially for older workers.

This paper is the first study in which emotion regulation strategies are investigated in the context of psychological contract breaches. The paper presents novel insights into how reactions to contract breaches are modified through emotion regulation strategies and age.

This study aims to explore generational differences in the psychological contract of hospitality employees and work outcomes such as commitment and turnover intention.

Data were collected in 20 hotels (n=359) from a four‐star hotel chain in The Netherlands using a self‐administered questionnaire. Data were analysed using MANOVA and post‐hoc analysis.

Findings suggest that opportunities for development and challenge, variation and responsibility are more important to younger generations of hospitality workers. Generation X placed high value on work‐life balance, autonomy and job security. No differences were found for work atmosphere, salary and task description. Significantly lower commitment and higher turnover intention was also found for Generation Y.

The findings provide insight into generational differences in expectations that hospitality workers have of their employers. This helps managers in developing management styles as well as human resource policy to better address these expectations.

This study is one of the first to explore the psychological contract in a hospitality context and contributes empirical evidence to the body of knowledge on generational differences.

This research aims to shed light on organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) of different generations of hospitality workers in relation to their psychological contract. The psychological contract, which describes employees' implicit expectations of their employer, is related to a range of work-related outcomes such as commitment, turnover intention and OCB. Yet, virtually no studies have explored the psychological contract or OCB in a hospitality setting. These topics were approached from a generational context as a new generation of employees is entering the workplace with a reportedly different approach to work. Data were collected through face-to-face surveys on site from a sample (N=111) in 7 hotels of an international hotel chain. Findings provide evidence of generational differences in the content of the psychological contract, as well as the process through which the psychological contract impacts OCB. In particular, findings indicate that hospitality managers will increasingly have to consider motivating their staff through satisfaction of intrinsic needs for development, job content, and a pleasant working atmosphere. This was found to be particularly true for Generation Y, the youngest generation of workers.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether research and practice on task design and work teams could benefit from a more nuanced perspective on task (inter)dependencies among team members. Prior research often overlooked that task interdependence captures the average exchange of resources, while asymmetrical task dependence captures the inequalities within an individual's work relationships. To date, no study on work teams has combined the two aspects.

Data were obtained from 262 individuals working in 67 work teams. Multilevel and bootstrapping analyses were used.

Drawing from interdependence theory and power-dependence theory it was argued, and subsequently found, that asymmetrical task dependence interacts with task interdependence, and affects the job satisfaction of individuals and their affective commitment to their team.

A key practical implication is that both asymmetrical task dependence and task interdependence should be taken into account when optimizing intra-team task dependencies, for instance when (re-)designing jobs or teams.

This study contributes to research on asymmetrical task dependence within work teams, by investigating its interaction with task interdependence, its effects on the affective reactions of workers, and its effects on the individual level of analysis.

The aim of this paper is to investigate how social exchanges modify the relationship between psychological contract breach and work performance. It aims to present two concurrent hypotheses, based on theoretical interaction effects of social exchanges (conceptualized as social exchange relationships, POS, and trust).

Data were collected from a sample of 266 employees in a service sector company in the USA. Regression analysis was used to explore the moderating effects of social exchanges on the relationships between psychological contract breach and work performance (operationalized as in‐role behaviors and organizational citizenship behaviors).

It was found that the negative relationship between psychological contract breach and work performance was moderated by social exchanges, such that the relationship was stronger for employees with high social exchange relationship, perceived organizational support, and trust.

The data were collected cross‐sectionally, and thus causal inferences have to be made with caution. Moreover, the data were collected from a single source. The study shows that the relations between contract breach and outcomes are moderated by the existing relationship between employee and organization.

Although organizations may invest in long‐term relationships with their employees, psychological contract breaches have a profound impact on work performance. Therefore, organizations should diminish perceptions of contract breach; for instance by providing realistic expectations.

The paper provides new theoretical insights on how social exchange can have two distinct effects on the breach‐outcomes relations. It shows that social exchanges moderate the relations between contract breach and work performance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of ethical leadership on the financial professionals’ loyalty by focusing on the mediating effects of perceived psychological contract fulfillment (PPCF) and organizational identification (OI).

A questionnaire survey was used in this research.

Financial professionals in Taiwan were recruited for the sample. The results revealed that the professionals’ experiences of ethical leadership positively associated with their loyalty toward their companies. The results further showed that the PPCF and OI significantly mediated the relationship.

Few studies have examined how ethical leadership could stimulate financial professionals’ loyalty. The findings of this study may provide some implications for those involved in the practice of leadership and employee loyalty programs. On the other hand, the focus of Taiwan is unique and helps improve the generalizability of previous studies on the relationship between ethical leadership and employee identification.

Purpose: The purpose of this chapter is to explore the use of employer branding as a key strategy in talent management, in an effort to retain employees in the context of the Irish hotel industry.

Methodology/Approach: This chapter was part of a wider body of research, and combines this discussion with a sequential mixed-method approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 hotel general managers in Cork City/County, and these were combined with 417 employee questionnaires conducted in the same hotels.

Findings: This chapter finds that hoteliers in Ireland are aware of the necessity to tackle the area of employee retention, are conscious of the importance of positive employer branding to aid in decreasing employee turnover, but that many are just at the genesis of their journey in the area of talent management. Indeed, many hotels have not yet implemented a talent management plan into their organisation and need to be more innovative in their approach to talent management through positive employer branding.

Practical implications: Employees strongly believe that those hotels which possess a positive employer brand have more committed employees, while those with negative reputations in terms of their employment affect an employee’s intentions to leave the business. Therefore, employers must put strategies in place to enhance their employer brand if they are to attract and retain employees.

Social implications: The chapter makes recommendations to hotel managers as to how employer branding can be utilised as part of their overall talent management strategy to increase employee retention in a challenging employment market, improving overall performance, and leading to sustained competitiveness. The areas of talent management, employer branding, and employee retention are interlinked, and it is imperative that hotels implement strategic initiatives in these key areas.

Originality/value of paper: This chapter contributes to the overall talent management area, offering further guidance to operators who are embarking on this strategic direction. It supports the link between talent management and employer branding.