Although population aging requires that employees increasingly work beyond traditional
retirement ages, negative age stereotypes often portray older workers as
unwilling or unable to work longer. However, recent lifespan developmental research
suggests that there are significant individual differences in how fixed versus malleable
people perceive the aging process possibly affecting how they envision their
occupational future. We develop and test a theoretical model on the role of essentialist
beliefs about aging (i.e., the extent to which people believe that aging is an
immutable, genetically determined process) in shaping occupational future time perspective
and, in turn, motivation to continue working beyond retirement age. Specifically,
we hypothesized that older workers (40–65 years) who more strongly endorse
essentialist beliefs about aging will be less motivated to continue working beyond
retirement age, because they have a more constrained occupational future time perspective.
On the basis of a three-wave study (N = 617) and an experiment
(N = 358), we find evidence for our proposed indirect effect model, above and
beyond previously established control variables (e.g., age, income, health, and age
stereotypes). Our findings advance theorizing on work motivation in later adulthood
and have important organizational implications in the context of demographic
change.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:90757 |
| Date | 04 April 2024 |
| Creators | Weiss, Mona, Weiss, David, Zacher, Hannes |
| Publisher | Wiley |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion, doc-type:article, info:eu-repo/semantics/article, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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