Abstract
Many older Americans have decided to remain in the labor market beyond the traditional retirement age, suggesting the need for companies to consider human resource initiatives to retain and support the aging workforce. Applying active aging concepts, which emphasize older adults’ active roles through participation in social and economic activities for healthy later life, to the workplace could be helpful for developing programs that enhance the health, well-being, and work outcomes of older workers. Despite the expected benefits of active aging at work for older workers’ overall well-being, little research has been conducted on what personal and team factors impact on outcomes of active aging at work; what mechanism exists in the links between factors and outcomes in the contemporary workplace. The current study tested the validity of an active aging framework using the Age and Generations Study data. We analyzed responses of 508 American workers aged 50 and older using structural equation modeling. Results showed that perceived self-efficacy was a strong predictor of engagement, mental health, and performance, whereas perceived leader equity predicted only engagement. Also, work engagement was powerful mechanism for promoting older adults’ mental health; engagement mediated the relationship between perceived self-efficacy and the relationship between leader equity and mental health. The findings highlight how important it is for employers to invest in human capital, suggesting human resource programs should focus on strategies that target older adults’ engagement through tailored self-efficacy programs and diversity leadership training programs. Such attempts would contribute to the well-being of older workers.
Highlights
While other measurements have demonstrated their strong psychometric properties in previous studies, the construct of each of the variables used in the current study needs to be ensured due to a different population that was surveyed in this study
Summary of Results The proposed conceptual model explicating the linkages among personal and team factors and outcomes of active aging at work was found to be psychometrically validated by the Structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses
Hypothesis 3c was supported by showing the significant mediating role of engagement in the relationship between team leader equity and mental health, whereas 3d was not supported as the relationship between team leader equity and performance was not significant
Summary
A longer life span of people has been accompanied by a fundamental question regarding how they can enjoy happiness and health throughout their extended years. From 1975 to 2015, as life expectancy at birth increased from 70.81 to 78.74 years, the number of Americans 65 and older increased from 22.6 to 47.8 million (National Center for Health Statistics, 2017). The concept of active aging emerged from European countries to support the quality of longer life among the European population (Walker, 2009). Considered a key factor in the process of optimizing opportunities for participation, health, and security (WHO, 2002), active aging is commonly discussed when aging is viewed in a positive light, accentuating autonomy and participation rather than as a decline or loss, adopting holistic and life course perspectives (Foster & Walker, 2015). That is, continuing involvement in social, economic, and political activities promotes individuals’ quality of life as well as mental and physical well-being, which can contribute to society and the economy (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2006)
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