Abstract
The demographic trends (i.e., low birth rates and increasing longevity) pose challenges with regard to the increase of the average employee age along with a lack of skilled personnel on the labor market. Society, organizations, and individuals are confronted with the question on how to prolong working lives in the future. Based on socioemotional selectivity theory, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between respectful leadership and older workers’ desired retirement age. In particular, we took a closer look at job satisfaction, subjective health, and work-to-private life conflict as underlying mechanisms. Further, we tested for the moderating role of occupational self-efficacy as an auxiliary condition for the assumed relationships of respectful leadership. We tested our hypothesized model using data from 1,130 blue- and white-collar workers aged 45–65 years. The results of structural equation modeling indicated that respectful leadership was positively related to older workers’ desired retirement age and that this relationship was mediated by subjective health and work-to-private life conflict but not by job satisfaction. The findings add to the literature on resources in retirement decision-making; notably, they highlight the importance of leadership behavior for older workers’ motivation and socioemotional needs.
Highlights
Demographic trends such as low birth rates and increasing longevity pose challenges with regard to the increase of the average employee age along with a lack of skilled personnel on the labor market
With regard to the predictor variables, respectful leadership, job satisfaction, subjective health, and occupational self-efficacy were positively correlated with desired retirement age, whereas work-to-private life conflict was negatively correlated with desired retirement age
Subjective health, work-to-private life conflict, and desired retirement age were regressed on these variables
Summary
Demographic trends such as low birth rates and increasing longevity pose challenges with regard to the increase of the average employee age along with a lack of skilled personnel on the labor market. Organizations, and individuals are confronted with the question of how to develop conditions to prolong working lives in the future. As jobs often include demands that have negative impacts on older workers’ health or conflict with their changing abilities and non-work obligations, many of them aspire to retire early (Topa et al, 2009). Scholars have emphasized that pressuring people to continue working for financial reasons only may result in negative consequences such as lower levels of well-being (Frins et al, 2016). Maintaining older people’s ability and motivation to work is an essential condition for the extension of working lives.
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