The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on older workers:The role of self-regulation and organizations

We live in an unusual time, which effects all of us in different ways. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, some people are working harder than ever, some people have lost their job, some people can only work from home, and some people have to reinvent how they work (Kniffin et al., 2020). Older 50+ workers might even be more affected by the pandemic compared to younger workers because they are labeled as vulnerable and as being at risk in terms of Covid-19 (Ayalon et al., 2020). However, emerging studies on the impact of Covid-19 suggest that older workers respond more effectively to measures that counter Covid-19 (Losada-Balter et al., 2020). This is in line with the lifespan developmental perspective, which theorizes and demonstrates that older adults generally are very capable of adapting and very effective in dealing with the aging process (Baltes and Baltes, 1990; Freund, 2008). Multiple studies show that older adults engage in various self-regulation strategies aimed at continuously maintaining or restoring person-environment fit (e.g., Kooij et al., 2020; Taneva and Arnold, 2018; Zacher, Kooij, & Beier, 2018a) thus helping them to age successfully at work. In this commentary, I will take a more positive perspective on older workers and discuss the self-regulation strategies that older workers engage in and how organizations can stimulate this. I will end my commentary with some suggestions for future research

Future time perspective:A systematic review and meta-analysis

The ability to foresee, anticipate, and plan for future desired outcomes is crucial for wellbeing, motivation, and behavior. However, theories in organizational psychology do not incorporate time-related constructs such as Future Time Perspective (FTP), and research on FTP remains disjointed and scattered, with different domains focusing on different aspects of the construct, using different measures, and assessing different antecedents and consequences. In this review and meta-analysis, we aim to clarify the FTP construct, advance its theoretical development, and demonstrate its importance by: (a) integrating theory and empirical findings across different domains of research in order to identify major outcomes and antecedents of FTP, and (b) empirically examining whether and how these variables are moderated by FTP measures and dimensions. Results of a meta-analysis of k = 212 studies reveal significant relationships between FTP and major classes of consequences (i.e., those related to achievement, well-being, health behavior, risk behavior, and retirement planning), and between antecedents and FTP, as well as moderating effects of different FTP measures and dimensions. Highlighting the importance of FTP for organizational psychology theories, our findings demonstrate that FTP predicts these outcomes over-and-above the big five personality traits and mediates the associations between these personality traits and outcomes

The influence of human resource practices on perceived work ability and the preferred retirement age: A latent growth modelling approach

Organisations are challenged to extend working lives of older workers. However, there is little empirical evidence available on how organisations should do this. This study aims to fill this gap by testing the effect of Human Resource (HR) practices on perceived work ability and the preferred retirement age. Based on the Conversation of Resources theory, we expected that the use of HR practices has a positive effect on perceived work ability and preferred retirement age. We have conducted latent growth curve modelling to test our hypotheses amongst 12,444 employees aged 45 and older at four time points. The results indicate that developmental practices are positively related to work ability, whereas maintenance practices are negatively related to work ability and the preferred retirement age. Accommodative practices are negatively related to the intercepts of both outcomes but not to the slopes, whereas utilisation practices are not related to the outcomes at all.publishedVersio

Successful aging at work: The active role of employees

Since workforces are aging, governments, organizations, and researchers are increasingly interested in the topic of successful aging at work. In this article, I viewed successful aging at work from a sustainability perspective, and argued that a continuous person–job fit between the changing person and changing work is required for employees to be able to maintain their health, motivation, and work ability, and thus age successfully at work. Since one important way to achieve current and future fit is by engaging in proactive behaviors, I aimed to extend and specify the proactive behaviors proposed in lifespan psychology literature (e.g., selection) with proactive behaviors proposed in organizational psychology literature (e.g., job change negotiation) to identify proactive behaviors for successful aging at work. For example, job crafting can help aging workers to adjust their job to changing goals and motives, improving current person–job fit, and proactive career planning can help aging workers to set new career goals, improving future person–job fit