关键词: 工作中成功老龄化, 代际互动, 代际知识共享, 代际友谊

Abstract:

The concept of successful aging at work (SAW) offers new insights for organizations seeking to develop their elderly human resources. Extant studies have yet to conceptualize SAW clearly, neglected the influence of intergenerational factors, and little attention was paid to its outcome variable. To address these research gaps, we plan to conduct three correlated studies: Study 1 plans to draw on the perspective of intergenerational interaction and re-explore the concept and dimensions of SAW. We build a five-dimensions model of successful aging at work (i.e. career development, continuous goal engagement, work attachment, caring for younger generations, positive emotions maintaining), which is helpful for the development of a measurement scale for successful ageing at work that adapted to the Chinese context. By doing that, we will provide a new measurement for the empirical studies and move this line of research forward.

Study 2 plans to examine the relationship between intergenerational knowledge sharing and SAW, and further reveal the dual-path mediation mechanism of career adaptability and age-diverse friendship. Based on the perspectives of person-fit theory, we propose that intergenerational knowledge sharing, a way of intergenerational interaction between young and older employees, could help older employees maintain a continuous individual-environment fit (i.e. career adaptability and age-diverse friendship), which in turn can have a positive impact on successful aging at work. Moreover, the Actor-partner interdependence model (APIM) was constructed to test the actor and partner effects of intergenerational knowledge sharing on SAW. By doing that, we reveal the influence of intergenerational knowledge sharing on successful aging at work through career adaptability and age-diverse friendship, with the moderating effect of age-inclusive human resource practices in the above relationship, which provides new insights to the research on the mechanism of successful aging at work.

Although study 2 extend the research on the antecedents of successful aging at work, we know little about how older workers’ successful aging at work exert an influence their younger coworkers. Study 3 thus draw on the cognitive appraisal theory of stress to investigate the double-edged sword effect of SAW on younger employees’ work engagement. More specially, we propose that, on the one hand, older employees who have successfully aged can serve as role models for younger employees, prompting them to develop challenging stress perceptions, and then increase their work engagement. On the other hand, older workers who have successfully aged occupy higher positions and have more resources, which may lead to threatening stress perceptions among younger employees, which in turn has a negative impact on the work engagement of younger employees. In addition, we propose the moderating effect of learning goal orientation on the relationship between successful aging and self-efficacy. Employees with a high learning goal orientation are oriented towards personal development and skill acquisition, and they are more likely to challenge these older employees because they contribute to the achievement of their learning and growth goals. Age stereotypes is proposed to moderate the relationship between successful aging and relative deprivation at work. Based on the theory of stress cognitive assessment, we argue that younger employees with strong stereotypes about older employees are more likely to conduct a threat assessment of older employees who have successfully aged at work, because older employees occupy organizational resources and encroach the development of younger employee, resulting in a stronger sense of relative deprivation.

In conclusion, we plan to develop new scale of successful aging at work by drawing on a novel perspective-intergenerational interaction perspective. Then, we will elucidate the impact of intergenerational knowledge sharing on SAW and its underlying mechanisms. Finally, we plan to extend the literature on successful aging at work by examining its influence on their younger coworkers’ work engagement. Overall, we extend the investigation of the consequences of SAW, thereby contributing to the theoretical framework of SAW and promoting organizational diversity management.

Key words: successful aging at work, intergenerational interaction, intergenerational knowledge sharing, age-diverse friendship