Chapter 11 - Lifespan Perspectives on Job and Work Design

Abstract

Workforce aging and increasing age-diversity have hastened the need for societies and employers to support workers across the lifespan. A relatively new and unexplored area of investigation is the intersection of aging and work design. In this chapter, we aimed to integrate lifespan development theory and work design models in order to catalyze further investigation into this nascent literature. To aid our integration, we provide a brief review of age-related changes over the life course, job and work design theory, age and work-related outcomes, and lifespan development theory. We then use the work design questionnaire framework to guide our synthesis of theory and research to describe how work design effectiveness may be influenced by lifespan development changes. We conclude our chapter by reviewing the limited aging and work design intervention research and identifying several areas for future research that could advance the field of aging and work design.