Abstract
To meet the demographic changes, organizations are challenged to develop practices that retain older workers and encourage them to postpone retirement. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of human resources (HR) practices in retirement preferences of older workers. Drawing on theories on lifespan development and social exchange, we suggest that organizations can facilitate longer working lives by implementing bundles of HR practices that are sensitive to age-related changes in workers’ skills, preferences, and goals – i.e., age-diversity practices. We posit that age-diversity practices are positively related to work engagement that, in turn, relates to the preference for retiring later. We further suggest that work ability moderates the relationship between age-diversity practices and work engagement. Finally, we propose a moderated mediation model in which the mediated relationship is moderated by work ability. A sample of 232 older Portuguese workers completed a questionnaire. Hypotheses were tested by using structural equation modeling (SEM). Findings show that work engagement completely mediates the relationship between age-diversity practices and the preference for early or late retirement. Moreover, this mediating relationship is more important for those workers who experience low work ability. Results further demonstrate that the effect of age-diversity practices on the preference for retiring later via work engagement is stronger for lower levels of work ability. This study highlights the organizational role in promoting longer and healthier working lives through the implementation of age-supportive HR practices.
Highlights
People are living longer today than ever before, while fertility rates are dropping and life expectancy is increasing worldwide
In accordance with social exchange theory (SET), we argue that age-diversity practices, perceived by workers as an organizational investment in them, induce workers to reciprocate through increasing levels of work engagement that, in turn, will lead to a desire to retire later
In response to the calls for identifying the factors that facilitate the extension of working lives (Burke and Ng, 2006; Vendramin et al, 2012), this study explored processes of mediation and moderation linking age-diversity practices to the preference for early or late retirement, in a sample of older workers
Summary
People are living longer today than ever before, while fertility rates are dropping and life expectancy is increasing worldwide. In Portugal, individuals aged 65 years or over will become a much larger share, rising from 21% (2016) to 35% (2070) of the population (European Commission, 2017). While young people tend to enter the labor force later due to longer schooling, older individuals have increased their participation in the labor market, contributing to a graying workforce (Alley and Crimmins, 2007; European Commission, 2017). In the European Union (EU), the working-age population renewal ratio was below 100 in 2013, with 97 people aged 20 to 29 years per 100 people aged 55 to 64-year-old (Statistics Portugal, 2015). According to Statistics Portugal (2015), in 2013, Portugal was the third country in the EU-28 with the lowest working-age population renewal ratio (86 people aged 20–29 years per 100 people aged 55–64-year-old)
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