Subjective Age and Job Satisfaction: A Moderated Mediation Model of Job Burnout and Chronological Age.

Moazzam Ali,Muhammad Khalid Anser,Farooq Anwar,Muhammad Usman

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2020.00062

Abstract

Corresponding to the growing calls for theory-driven research on the age-job satisfaction association, the present study investigated direct and indirect (via job burnout) relationships between subjective age (felt age) and job satisfaction. The study also examined the moderating role of chronological age on both direct and indirect (via job burnout) relationships between subjective age and job satisfaction. Survey data were collected in three waves (2 months apart) from 355 employees in 62 firms operating in various service and manufacturing industry sectors in Pakistan. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling, PROCESS macro for SPSS, and bootstrapping technique. The results showed subjective age was negatively related to job satisfaction, both directly (β = −0.19, p < 0.001) and indirectly, via job burnout (β = −0.09, bootstrap 95% confidence interval limits did not overlap with zero; lower limit = −0.15, upper limit = −0.04). Interestingly, the interaction term (relative subjective age × chronological age) had a significant negative effect on the direct negative association between subjective age and job satisfaction (B = −0.12, p < 0.05) and a significant positive effect on the direct positive relationship between subjective age and job burnout (B = 0.14, p < 0.01), showing that chronological age moderated the direct relationships of subjective age with job satisfaction and job burnout, respectively. Importantly, the results showed that chronological age moderated the indirect association (via job burnout) between subjective age and job satisfaction [bootstrap estimate = −0.025, bias-corrected confidence interval (−0.06, −0.002)]. The present study contributed to the literature on the age-job satisfaction association by suggesting subjective age as an alternative vantage point to look at this link between age and job satisfaction. The findings carry useful practical implications that can help managers counter age stereotyping, employees' feelings of job burnout, and a low level of employees' job satisfaction.

Highlights

Employee job satisfaction has received much attention from researchers and practitioners because of its constructive influence on employees’ productivity and performance [1, 2]
As 355 respondents belonged to 62 organizations, we calculated the values of the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for the outcome variable and the mediator
It is important to note that the mean value of relative subjective age was 2.96 years, suggesting that, on average, the respondents felt that their subjective age was higher than their chronological age

Summary

Introduction

Employee job satisfaction has received much attention from researchers and practitioners because of its constructive influence on employees’ productivity and performance [1, 2]. Subjective Age and Job Satisfaction behaviors [4, 5]. The focus of management on job satisfaction is a vital aspect of managing human resources and employees’ behaviors and performance outcomes [6, 7]. A key concern relevant to our study is the way prior studies have treated age in the age-job satisfaction relationship. We argue that the chronological age offers an important but a restrictive view of the age-job satisfaction relationship. Despite important theoretical and practical implications, as noted in previous studies [15, 24] there is a surprising scarcity of studies on the subjective age-job satisfaction relationship

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Discussion

Conclusion