Publisher
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Place of Publication
Chattanooga (Tenn.)
Abstract
As the workforce is currently comprised of five generations of workers across various life stages (SHRM, 2023) increased attention is needed from organizations to aid their employees throughout their lifespan (Hertel & Zacher, 2018). While HR practices directly related to age have been shown to successfully foster age-inclusive work environments (Fan et al., 2023), how these climates and age-inclusive HR practices impact the way different aged workers address their job tasks, and specifically engage in job crafting, has yet to be considered. Therefore, this study considers how age would impact job crafting behaviors, and this relationship would be moderated by age-inclusive HR practices and positive intergenerational climates. Data for this study were collected at three time points (6 weeks apart). Participants (N = 750) were initially recruited from CloudResearch Connect and were required to pass attention checks and careless responding indices, resulting in a total of 333 eligible full-time employees who provided data across all three waves. Age was recorded in timepoint 1, and participants then reported age-inclusive HR practices (Boehm et al., 2014; α = .90) and age-diversity climate (Boehm et al., 2014; α = .90) in timepoint 2, while job crafting (Slemp & Vella-Brodrick, 2013; task crafting, α = .86; relational crafting, α = .88; cognitive crafting, α = .93) dimensions were reported in timepoint 3. All scales used a 1 (Strongly Disagree/Very low intensity) to 5 (Strongly Agree/Very high intensity) scale. Findings indicate that younger workers engage the most in task and relational crafting when in the presence of age-inclusive HR practices. Positive age-diverse climates and age-inclusive HR practices were also found to interact to impact the relationship between age and relational crafting, where older workers in climates with age-inclusive HR practices and intergenerational climates engaged in the most relational crafting, indicating the importance of examining age-inclusive practices and climate in tandem. This study meaningfully contributes to job crafting literature by utilizing socioemotional selectivity theory (SST; Carstensen 1993) to understand crafting motivations amongst workers. Interestingly, our findings suggest that older workers may be less selective in their relationships when organizations offer a positive age-diverse climate and implement age-inclusive HR practices. For practice, our research emphasizes the need for organizational efforts targeted at increasing job crafting in older worker populations. Such efforts include increasing shared perceptions of age-neutrality throughout the organization, engaging in age-neutral activities, and promoting equal access to opportunities for all age groups.
Date
11-9-2024
Subject
Industrial and organizational psychology
Document Type
posters
Language
English
Rights
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Included in
Job crafting across ages: The role of intergenerational climate and age-inclusive HR practices
As the workforce is currently comprised of five generations of workers across various life stages (SHRM, 2023) increased attention is needed from organizations to aid their employees throughout their lifespan (Hertel & Zacher, 2018). While HR practices directly related to age have been shown to successfully foster age-inclusive work environments (Fan et al., 2023), how these climates and age-inclusive HR practices impact the way different aged workers address their job tasks, and specifically engage in job crafting, has yet to be considered. Therefore, this study considers how age would impact job crafting behaviors, and this relationship would be moderated by age-inclusive HR practices and positive intergenerational climates. Data for this study were collected at three time points (6 weeks apart). Participants (N = 750) were initially recruited from CloudResearch Connect and were required to pass attention checks and careless responding indices, resulting in a total of 333 eligible full-time employees who provided data across all three waves. Age was recorded in timepoint 1, and participants then reported age-inclusive HR practices (Boehm et al., 2014; α = .90) and age-diversity climate (Boehm et al., 2014; α = .90) in timepoint 2, while job crafting (Slemp & Vella-Brodrick, 2013; task crafting, α = .86; relational crafting, α = .88; cognitive crafting, α = .93) dimensions were reported in timepoint 3. All scales used a 1 (Strongly Disagree/Very low intensity) to 5 (Strongly Agree/Very high intensity) scale. Findings indicate that younger workers engage the most in task and relational crafting when in the presence of age-inclusive HR practices. Positive age-diverse climates and age-inclusive HR practices were also found to interact to impact the relationship between age and relational crafting, where older workers in climates with age-inclusive HR practices and intergenerational climates engaged in the most relational crafting, indicating the importance of examining age-inclusive practices and climate in tandem. This study meaningfully contributes to job crafting literature by utilizing socioemotional selectivity theory (SST; Carstensen 1993) to understand crafting motivations amongst workers. Interestingly, our findings suggest that older workers may be less selective in their relationships when organizations offer a positive age-diverse climate and implement age-inclusive HR practices. For practice, our research emphasizes the need for organizational efforts targeted at increasing job crafting in older worker populations. Such efforts include increasing shared perceptions of age-neutrality throughout the organization, engaging in age-neutral activities, and promoting equal access to opportunities for all age groups.
Department
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Dept. of Psychology