Aging and Work in the 21st Century by Kenneth S. Shultz Gary A. Adams

Author:Kenneth S. Shultz,Gary A. Adams
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781351683470
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)
Published: 2018-08-27T00:00:00+00:00

Recommendations for Future Research and Theorizing

Probably the most consistent take-away point from previous research is that older workers are likely to value work and express generally positive attitudes toward work that satisfies motives and needs that are important to them. However, evaluation of the existing body of work in this field makes it clear that there is substantial room for rigorous research that contributes to our understanding of the role that worker age plays in the development and consequences of important work attitudes and the manner in which work motivation processes are affected by aging processes.

The review of existing theoretical and empirical work in this domain reveals several kinds of contributions that could make a real difference to our ability to make sense of the complex relationships between age and worker attitudes and motivations.

• First, and most basic, is a continued need for additional theoretically grounded empirical research that includes worker age as a focal issue. By virtue of its status as a demographic marker, worker chronological age is one of the most commonly included variables in most studies of work attitudes and work behavior. However, it is typically treated as a noise variable that is statistically controlled rather than treated as an important and interesting worker characteristic that forms the centerpiece of a study. As a result, we are often left trying to stitch together patterns of relationships involving age, often based on the observation of simple correlational associations extracted from studies and analyses that do not take into consideration the variety of contextual features that contribute to those relationships. Placing age front and center from the standpoint of theorizing and research design could do much to reduce the piecemeal nature of our knowledge.

• A related need is for additional research that takes on the challenge of assessing age in meaningful ways. Undoubtedly, some of the conflicting findings that abound in the published research can be traced to differing, and often arbitrary, classifications of workers as older or younger. Thoughtful operationalizations of age variables that flow from extant information about the nature and meaning of age are needed. There have been repeated calls for recognition that “calendar age” is only one aspect of the multifaceted concept of age; several studies described in this chapter have highlighted the value that concepts such as subjective age, relative age, and future time perspective can have for our understanding of how workers of all ages think about and respond to this very personal but context-bound characteristic that is an ever-changing part of our lives and our identities. Conceptualizations and empirical research that incorporates these alternate ways of thinking about and assessing age can help to advance our understanding of how age fits into the landscape of work attitudes and motivations.

• From the standpoint of methodology, research designs that speak more directly to the kinds of questions being addressed in studies concerned with aging and work attitudes are needed. Longitudinal designs and multiple cohort designs that include measures of the kinds of constructs relevant

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