(PDF) Aging in the Work Context

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Psychology of

Aging

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Chapter

263

DOI:

2011

10.1016/B978-0-12-380882-0.00017-6

Aging in the Work Context

Catherine E. Bowen , Martin G. Noack , Ursula M. Staudinger

Jacobs Center on Lifelong Learning and Institutional Development, Jacobs University Bremen, Bremen, Germany

INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, we discuss the interplay between work

and the psychological aspects of aging. There are of

course many ways in which people can “ work, ” that

is, be productive, in terms of their intellectual, emo-

tional, and motivational outputs (cf. Staudinger,

1996, 2008 ). We focus specifically on work in the

CHAPTER CONTENTS

Introduction 263

The Process of Aging in the Work Context 263

Work as an Important Developmental

Context: the Effect of Work Experiences

on Adult Development 264

Work and Cognitive Development 264

Work and Personality Development 265

Personality Growth and Adjustment 266

Work Experiences and Personality Adjustment 266

Work Experiences and Personality Growth 266

Aging and Work Outcomes 267

Fostering Positive Relationships

Between Aging and Work: Further

Training, Attitudes Toward Older Workers 268

Further Training 268

Attitudes Toward Older Workers 268

The Transition into and after Retirement 269

Retirement and Health 270

Post-Retirement Activities: Volunteering 271

Conclusions and Future Directions 272

References 272

form of paid employment and to a lesser extent on

post-retirement volunteering. The influence of the

employment context on adult development (e.g., cog-

nition, personality) has received increasing attention

as one of the major contextual influences of adult life.

Reciprocally, the relationship between age or aging,

respectively, and employment outcomes (i.e., produc-

tivity) has increased in importance for companies and

policy makers in light of falling birth rates and length-

ened life spans.

THE PROCESS OF AGING IN

THE WORK CONTEXT

As lifespan psychologists, we take the view that aging

is a lifelong process that does not suddenly begin (or

end) at any particular age. Also, the aging process is

multidirectional as well as multidimensional . In con-

trast to traditional conceptualizations of aging which

conceive of human development as characterized by

gains and advances in functioning up to a certain age

and then by losses, we take the view that development

at all times — including adulthood and even into old

age — is characterized by selective age-related adaptation

( Baltes, 1987 ). Individuals select (consciously or not),

where to direct and invest their resources, within the

various constraints posed by biology as well as their

social environment. Please note that “ selection ” refers

not only to conscious decisions such as whether or

not to work or which career to pursue, but also how

resources are invested within any given context. Here

we consider not only resource investment in outcomes

like task performance but also the wider notion of psy-

chological productivity ( Staudinger, 1996, 2008 ), which

turns our attention to the whole of an individual ’ s

intellectual and emotional, as well as motivational

outputs. According to this framework, intellectual

productivity refers to problem solving, creating and

| 17 |

Part SOCIAL AND HEALTH FACTORS THAT IMPACT AGING

| 3 |

264

sharing ideas, and giving advice. Emotional productiv-

ity consists of the ways that people contribute to their

own and other ’ s emotional well-being; for example,

through their vitality, lust for life, and good humor

even in the face of difficult life circumstances (i.e.,

resilience), or through their capacity for comforting

and sympathizing with others. Motivational produc-

tivity consists of the ways that people inspire others,

for instance, by being a role model or offering support

to others in the attainment of their goals. In addition

to different forms of productivity, different returns or

currencies of productivity can also be distinguished.

Money is the return most broadly discussed in our

society but other returns such as subjective well-being,

motivating others, and increasing social connected-

ness are crucially important but are less easily measur-

able. Acknowledging this wider psychological notion

of productivity and providing for contexts that facili-

tate its different facets may represent an important

contribution to developing a society for all ages.

How people direct their resources (again, consciously

or not) results in selective gains, maintenance in some

selected domains, and losses in others. As the effects of

individual “ choice ” and varying contexts accumulate

across adulthood (e.g., cumulative advantages and dis-

advantages, Dannefer, 2003 ), it is perhaps not surpris-

ing that between-person variability on any number of

outcomes tends to increase across adulthood until very

old age ( Nelson & Dannefer, 1992 ). In other words,

chronological age becomes less and less informative

with increasing age (e.g., Staudinger & Kocka, 2010 ).

While historically much of the research on work

and age has focused on cross-sectional comparisons

between age groups, to describe “ older workers ” as a

homogenous social group can be misleading given the

increasing diversity of age trajectories. Furthermore,

there is no dichotomy between “ older ” and “ younger ”

workers (see also Kessler et al., in press ). Therefore,

one of the aims of this chapter is to consider the work-

related research alongside theories and research on the

aging process as continuous, multidimensional, and

multidirectional. By taking a lifespan view, we would

like to emphasize that how people age is — within bio-

logically set limits — malleable and not determined.

WORK AS AN IMPORTANT

DEVELOPMENTAL CONTEXT: THE

EFFECT OF WORK EXPERIENCES

ON ADULT DEVELOPMENT

Work and Cognitive Development

Much research has been devoted to understanding

the role of the work context — specifically, the degree

of cognitive stimulation adults encounter within their

work environments — in predicting concurrent and

later patterns of cognitive functioning. Overwhelmingly,

the most common hypothesis informing research on

the relationship between the work context and cog-

nitive development is some derivation of the use-it-

or-lose-it or the disuse hypothesis ( Denney, 1984 ).

According to this theory, changes in cognition typically

observed with increasing age are at least in part caused

by disuse of certain skills and abilities. Earlier consid-

erations of the use-it-or-lose-it/disuse hypothesis typi-

cally did not differentiate between the need to practice

skills to maintain competence from the need to be

continuously faced with new, optimally discrepant

cognitive challenges to support cognitive development

throughout adulthood and old age (lack of new chal-

lenge hypothesis). This latter aspect has received more

attention in more recent work that also incorporates

the neurophysiological level.

Biologically speaking, these two aspects of the

hypotheses; that is, disuse and the lack of new chal-

lenges, are consistent with human and animal studies

showing that exposure to complex, mental challenges

resulting from activity engagement and environmen-

tal conditions can stimulate changes in the brain that

are beneficial for cognitive functioning — specifically,

the generation of new dendritic branches and more

synapses (e.g., van Praag et al., 2000 ). These processes

create more “ cognitive reserve, ” which enhances the

brain ’ s ability to compensate for age-related decline

(e.g., Kramer et al., 2004 ). According to the scaffolding

model of cognitive functioning (e.g., Park & Reuter-

Lorenz, 2009 ), the brain adaptively uses compensatory

scaffolding (finding alternative pathways, building

new pathways) in response to challenge (when the

“ normal ” pathway is blocked). While this process

is not unique to any particular age, as the number of

“ neural insults ” increases as the result of the biologi-

cal aging process (e.g., brain volume shrinks, loss of

dopaminergic receptors), scaffolding processes become

more important for maintaining cognitive functioning

toward later phases of the life span.

Despite the intuitive appeal of the use-it-or-lose-it/

optimal challenge hypotheses, this literature has been

criticized on the basis of methodological concerns

that render many of the findings inconclusive (e.g.,

Ghisletta et al., 2006; Salthouse, 2006 ). For instance,

support for the use-it-or-lose-it/optimal challenge

hypotheses has typically been based on cross-sectional

studies that cannot appropriately distinguish between

the selection effects that attract more able people to

more stimulating activities and environments from

any causal effects of cognitive stimulation on cognitive

functioning. Furthermore, many studies have failed to

account for important covariates such as gender, socio-

economic status, and health (see Salthouse, 2006 for a

review of the problems in this literature).

Recent analyses have made more conclusive sugges-

tions about possible causal links between cognitive

Chapter AGING IN THE WORK CONTEXT

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265

stimulation at work and cognitive development.

Building on their seminal work, Schooler and col-

leagues used structural equation modeling on longitu-

dinal data to demonstrate that the self-directedness of

work (a combined measure of job complexity, routini-

zation, and the closeness of supervision) affected intel-

lectual functioning 20 years later more than intellectual

functioning affected self-directedness (these analyses

were controlled for age, gender, race, and education;

Schooler et al., 2004 ). Analysis of data from approxi-

mately 1000 World War II veterans revealed that higher

levels of intellectual demands and human interaction

at work (retrospectively assessed) were associated with

higher cognitive status after controlling for early adult-

hood intelligence, age, and education ( Potter et al.,

2007 ). Interestingly, results suggested that there was

an aptitude by context interaction such that individu-

als with lower initial intelligence in young adulthood

derived greater benefit from intellectually demanding

work. Longitudinal data from the Maastricht Aging

Study indicated that older people (average age 61,

range 50 – 85 years) with mentally demanding jobs

(currently or formerly) had lower risks of developing

cognitive impairment three years later (1.5% vs. 4% for

individuals with high and low mental work demands,

respectively). This relation was independent of intellec-

tual abilities at baseline as well as age, sex, education,

smoking, physical activity, alcohol, depression, family

history of dementia, and disease ( Bosma et al., 2003 ).

Similarly, a study of Swedish twins found that the

work complexity of an individual ’ s predominant life-

time occupation, and in particular, the complexity of

the work with other people and with data (as opposed

to things), predicted the incidence of dementia and

Alzheimer ’ s disease (AD) among adults aged 65 to 100

controlling for age, gender, and education ( Andel et al.,

2005 ). While the precise causal pathways responsible

for the relationship between cognitive stimulation in

the work context and cognitive development remain

unclear, overall evidence suggests that intellectual

engagement and cognitive stimulation, which can be

fostered by a cognitively stimulating work context, does

indeed promote more successful cognitive aging (see

also Hertzog et al., 2009 ).

In consideration of the biological mechanisms

thought to underlie the disuse and optimal challenge

hypotheses, we would like to suggest that distinguish-

ing between novel processing and other kinds of cog-

nitive stimulation may be useful in teasing out the

different mechanisms behind any possible effect of

cognitive stimulation (at work) and cognitive develop-

ment. In short, practice seems to help prevent the need

for scaffolding ( Park & Reuter-Lorenz, 2009 ), whereas

optimal levels of mental challenge support better scaf-

folding. Likewise, it would seem that more complex

jobs with regard to the skills practiced may support

the maintenance of a wider range of already estab-

lished pathways (i.e., crystallized abilities), whereas

it is particularly the encountering of novel situations

(at different levels of complexity) – at work and in

general – that supports the maintenance of fluid abili-

ties across adulthood (cf. Sternberg, 1985 ). In tentative

support of this argument, the results of a 6-year lon-

gitudinal study of older adults (mean age 68.5 years,

SD  7.61), found that novel information processing

was one of the few engagement domains (as opposed

to engagement in, e.g., social or passive information

processing activities) that significantly predicted less

longitudinal decline in one indicator of cognitive

speed (semantic decision) ( Bielak et al. 2007 ).

1 In

addition, retrospective self-reported novelty-seeking

behavior (sample items: learning a new skill, getting

a new experience) was negatively associated with the

development of AD relative to a control group after

controlling for education, occupational status, gen-

der, age, and ethnicity ( Fritsch et al., 2005 ). The nov-

elty perspective may also explain why the complexity

of social interactions encountered on the job, which

may be related to a higher likelihood of continuously

encountering novel aspects, seems to play a particu-

larly important role in cognitive development relative

to other aspects of complexity (e.g., motor skills, work

with data; Andel et al., 2005; Finkel et al., 2009; Kr ö ger

et al., 2008 ).

Work and Personality

Development

In contrast to the hypothesis that personality past

young adulthood is “ set like plaster ” ( Costa &

McCrae, 1994, 2006 ), an increasing number of stud-

ies have demonstrated that personality continues to

develop across adulthood and even into old age (e.g.,

Donnellan & Lucas, 2008; Roberts & Mroczek, 2008;

Roberts et al., 2006a; Staudinger, 2005 ). The work

domain is thought to be one driver of adult personal-

ity change as adults learn and adapt to the demands

of working life (e.g., Hogan & Roberts, 2004; Roberts

et al., 2005; Schooler et al., 2004 ). The work context

socializes adults by demanding certain behaviors and

characteristics, for example, conscientiously complet-

ing tasks, attuning to others ’ needs and limiting social

conflict. Over time these behaviors and characteris-

tics become automatic and can subsequently “ spill

over ” into other life domains. The extent to which an

individual invests in his or her work role is thought

to moderate the extent to which these socialization

effects take place (cf. Ryff & Essex, 1992 ). In addition

to a socialization effect, a selection effect also seems

to play a role. The very characteristics that attract

1 Note though, that examples of novel information processing

included completing income tax forms or playing bridge. It is

questionable how “ novel ” this kind of processing actually is.

While the brain must handle new data in such situations, the

metacognitive structure of the task stays the same.

Part SOCIAL AND HEALTH FACTORS THAT IMPACT AGING

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266

certain people to certain jobs (or particular contexts

more generally) are the same characteristics most

likely to change over time; for example, people who

are more open to start with also tend to prefer jobs

that are related to the encounter of continuously new

situations, and thus increase in openness over time

(e.g., Roberts & Robins, 2004 ). Importantly, the role

of the work context as a driver of personality develop-

ment tempers exclusively biological explanations of

adult personality change (e.g., McCrae et al., 1999 ).

Personality Growth and Adjustment

When considering adult personality change, we have

found it helpful to distinguish between two trajectories

of positive personality development, that is, personal-

ity adjustment and personality growth ( Staudinger &

Bowen, 2010 ; Staudinger & Kessler, 2009; Staudinger

et al., 2005; Staudinger & Kunzmann, 2005 ). Personality

adjustment refers to successful adaptation to contextual

demands arising from history-graded, age-graded, and

idiosyncratic developmental contexts ( Staudinger &

Kessler, 2009 ). Indicators of personality adjustment

include subjective well-being as well as the indicators

of social adaptability like the Big Five ( Costa & McCrae,

1992 ) traits neuroticism/emotional stability, consci-

entiousness, and agreeableness. Noting that positive

personality development has other dimensions that

are not captured by positive feelings or everyday com-

petence, we have defined personality growth to involve

advances in self and world insight and increases in the

complexity of emotion regulation (degree of affective

differentiation, tolerance of the coactivation of posi-

tive and negative emotions) as well as the motivation

to optimize not only one ’ s own well-being, but also

that of others (cf. Staudinger & Kessler, 2009 ). All three

components need to be simultaneously realized for

personality growth to occur. An important correlate

and/or antecedent of personality growth is the Big Five

dimension of openness to new experience indicating

an individual ’ s interest to pursue the kind of novel,

challenging contexts that increase the likelihood to be

confronted with new experiences, which in turn are

prone to challenge extant insights into self and life.

Loevinger ’ s (1997) measure of ego development is a

performance indicator of personality growth.

Work Experiences and Personality

Adjustment

Many indicators of personality adjustment have been

related to work experiences. Earlier research demon-

strated that working and succeeding in work robustly

leads to increases in adjustment-related personality

dimensions such as self-confidence, norm adherence,

independence, and responsibility ( Clausen & Gilens,

1990; Elder, 1969; Kohn & Schooler, 1978; Roberts,

1997 ). More recent longitudinal findings have also

shown that increases in work satisfaction are assoc-

iated with increases in measures of emotional stabil-

ity ( Roberts & Chapman, 2000; Roberts et al., 2003;

Scollon & Diener, 2006 ). Two recent studies by Roberts

and colleagues (2003, 2006b) have linked increases in

personality adjustment in young adulthood to invest-

ment in and rewards from the work context. Job sat-

isfaction, social status, and financial reward as well

as the degree to which individuals reported investing

in their jobs moderated the degree to which typical

developmental patterns in indicators of personality

adjustment took place between ages 18 and 26. For

example, young adults in jobs that provided higher

status, more satisfaction, and more financial security

decreased faster in neuroticism and increased faster in

communal positive emotionality (cf. agreeableness;

Roberts et al., 2003 ). In contrast, young adults who

invested less in their work role tended to increase in

neuroticism and maintain initial levels of constraint

(cf. conscientiousness), contrary to typical develop-

mental patterns in young adulthood (Roberts et al.,

2006b ). Although only young adults participated in

the two studies previously cited, we find the results

relevant as aging is a lifelong process that does not sud-

denly begin after one has reached advanced age.

Control beliefs are important predictors of adjust-

ment across the life span, including health (e.g.,

Chapter 11, this volume). The degree of freedom with

which an employee is allowed to self-determine his or

her job content or approach (i.e., job autonomy and

work control) has important influences on more global

control beliefs ( Huyck, 1991; Kivett et al., 1977; Kohn &

Schooler, 1973; Wickrama et al., 2008 ). Longitudinal

analysis of middle-aged men indicated that changes

in work control affected changes in personal control,

which in turn predicted self-reported health ten years

later — independent from baseline levels of work

control and global personal control ( Wickrama et al.,

2008 ). Low work control has been directly associated

with indicators of (lacking) adjustment such as depres-

sion ( Mausner-Dorsch & Eaton, 2000 ) as well as physi-

cal health ( Wickrama et al., 2005 ).

Work Experiences and Personality

Growth

Generally , the development of personality growth has

received much less attention than personality adjust-

ment, a pattern likewise reflected in the work litera-

ture. In a rare study that investigated the relationship

between the work context and personality growth,

women ’ s ego development over time was assoc-

iated with uninterrupted, successful work experiences

( Helson & Roberts, 1994 ). Some studies have investi-

gated work and the development of general wisdom.

General wisdom has been defined as an expertise in

the fundamental pragmatics of life permitting excep-

tional insight and judgment involving complex and

Chapter AGING IN THE WORK CONTEXT

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267

uncertain matters of the human condition including

its developmental and contextual variability, plastic-

ity, and limitations (e.g., Baltes & Staudinger, 2000 ).

Contextual conditions thought to facilitate the devel-

opment of general wisdom include extensive exposure

to and experience with a wide range of human condi-

tions and mentor-guided practice in dealing with dif-

ficult life issues ( Charness, 1989; Salthouse, 1991 , see

also Staudinger et al., 2006 ). With some exceptions

(e.g., theologian, judge, clinical psychologist), such

conditions are not characteristic of most work con-

texts. In two cross-sectional studies, clinical psycholo-

gists displayed higher levels of general wisdom-related

performance than comparison groups from nonso-

cial service academic professions ( Smith et al., 1994;

Staudinger et al., 1992 ). Still, it is important to note

that advances in general wisdom (i.e., world-insight)

may not necessarily correlate with advances in personal

wisdom (i.e., self-insight), which is more relevant for

our discussion of personality growth (cf. Mickler &

Staudinger, 2008 ).

Trajectories of personality growth in recent cohorts

tend to stagnate after young adulthood ( Staudinger &

Bowen, 2010 ; Staudinger & Kessler, 2009 ). However, we

underline that the developmental trajectories we cur-

rently observe are in part the product of the contexts

in which current cohorts are aging. Theoretically, more

universally applicable features (as opposed to the strin-

gent contextual characteristics described in the previ-

ous paragraph) of the workplace could also facilitate

personality growth. For example, positions with super-

vising responsibilities may be conducive to above-

average confrontation with dilemma situations that

need to be resolved. Changing work contexts across

the life span such that novel experiences are a contin-

uous part of the work life (irrespective of the level of

qualification) may foster the reconsideration of earlier

life experiences. In addition, contextual demands to

critically consider alternative viewpoints – for instance,

within diverse work teams – may stimulate a broaden-

ing of self- and world-insight (cf. Staudinger & Bowen,

2010 ). In particular, the workplace has the potential

to provide an arena for intergenerational interactions

that under certain conditions can stimulate personality

growth. Experimental research has shown that interac-

tions between older and younger adults in which older

adults share their expertise can stimulate advances in

indicators of personality growth (i.e., emotional com-

plexity), as well as improve older adults ’ fluid cogni-

tive functioning ( Kessler & Staudinger, 2007 ).

AGING AND WORK OUTCOMES

Demographic changes including the rising median age

of workers and the need to increase the proportion of

older workers in the labor force have stimulated many

studies on the relationship between age and various

work outcomes such as performance. Within the organ-

izational literature, researchers distinguish between task

performance and “ non-core ” dimensions of work per-

formance such as attendance, innovation, and helping

behaviors (i.e., organizational citizenship behavior ). On

the one hand, the well-documented decreases in fluid

cognitive abilities and physical strength have given rise

to concerns about the ability of older adults to main-

tain task performance. On the other hand, it has often

been argued that older workers ’ greater experience can

improve performance or at least compensate for age-

related declines in some areas of functioning.

A recent meta-analysis of 380 studies found that

age was largely unrelated to core task performance as

indicated by supervisor-ratings, self-ratings, and objec-

tive measures ( Ng & Feldman, 2008 ). Indeed, a wide

range of research supports the idea that older adults

can successfully compensate for decrements in cog-

nitive mechanics by drawing on pragmatic resources

(e.g., B ä ckman & Dixon, 1992 ). This idea is sup-

ported by the results of a recent study of manufactur-

ing employees, which demonstrated that the negative

effect of age was canceled out by a positive effect of

job tenure on objective task performance as indicated

by the number of errors (in this study the authors

controlled for the selectivity bias of early exit from the

labor force; B ö rsch-Supan & Weiss, 2007 ).

On an individual level, the relationship between

age and task performance is likely mediated by many

factors. In particular, the extent to which task per-

formance is affected by age seems to be mediated by

occupational demands on fluid abilities, job-related

knowledge, motivation, and physical strength (e.g.,

Kanfer & Ackermann, 2004; Warr, 2001 ). All else

held equal, age has little and most likely even posi-

tive effects on job performance within occupations

that depend more on crystallized abilities and social

demands (e.g., salesperson, teacher), which are nor-

matively stable well into old age, rather than within

occupations that depend more upon more fluid abili-

ties (e.g., air traffic controller) or physical abilities (e.g.,

manual laborer; Skirbekk, 2008 ). Indeed, professional

experience, in the sense of practice (see above ) does

not seem to compensate for age-related changes in the

cognitive mechanics. For instance, practice as an archi-

tect or as a graphic designer did not appear to transfer

to a compensation of age-related declines in spatial

visualization and visual memory performance, respec-

tively ( Lindenberger et al., 1993; Salthouse, 1991 ). Age

decrements tend to be smaller when more complex

cognitive processes can be supported by environmen-

tal cues and aids, such as personal memos and com-

puter programs that remind people of the appropriate

steps to be taken to tackle a problem ( Warr, 2001 ).

As opposed to the overall null relationship between

age and task performance, age has generally been

positively associated with a range of work-related

Part SOCIAL AND HEALTH FACTORS THAT IMPACT AGING

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268

outcomes beneficial for employers ( Ng & Feldman,

2008 ). Specifically, age was related to increased

attendance, safety performance, and organizational

citizenship behaviors (e.g., helping colleagues, not

complaining about trivial matters, trying to improve

group performance) and negatively associated with

counterproductive work behaviors (e.g., workplace

aggression, substance use, tardiness). Interestingly, the

relationship between age and organizational citizen-

ship behaviors was stronger in longitudinal studies

than in cross-sectional studies, indicating that develop-

mental effects and not only cohort differences underlie

the relationship ( Ng & Feldman, 2008 ). As organiza-

tional citizenship behaviors seems to benefit group

and organizational effectiveness ( Podsakoff et al.,

2000 ), the positive correlation between age and organ-

izational citizenship behaviors represents one poten-

tial benefit of employing older workers.

The research reviewed in this section underlines the

importance of considering multiple dimensions of what

is considered “ productive ” performance. Overall, older

workers ’ productivity can be expected to reveal itself in

a contribution to the whole group in the form of expe-

rience passed on to others and contribution to a less-

stressful and supportive climate, rather than individual

task performance (e.g., Kessler et al., in press ). Still,

we emphasize that group-level trends (old vs. young)

say little about how individuals — given the increasing

variability in developmental trajectories with increasing

age — will age within individual work contexts.

FOSTERING POSITIVE

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN AGING

AND WORK: FURTHER TRAINING,

ATTITUDES TOWARD OLDER

WORKERS

Two factors have been particularly prominent in the

recent literature concerning factors that moderate the

ability of societies, companies, and individuals to foster

positive relationships between aging and the work con-

text: further training and attitudes toward older workers.

Further Training

Lifelong learning and thereby bolstering participa-

tion rates in further education has been offered as

one solution to the challenge posed by an aging work-

force. Intervention research has shown that adults of

all ages can benefit from training in terms of increased

levels of cognitive functioning (e.g., Ball et al., 2002 ).

Indeed, a representative, 24-year longitudinal study of

American men revealed a positive association between

participation in post-educational training of any kind

and cognitive functioning (Short Portable Mental

Status Questionnaire) in older adulthood, independ-

ent of the respondent ’ s formal education, race, age,

income, occupational status (blue/white collar), and

health ( Wight et al., 2002 ). This study suggested that

further training can have a compensatory effect: In old

age, those with initially low levels of formal education

who received subsequent training had comparable

levels of cognitive functioning as those with the high-

est initial levels of formal education. Training also has

positive effects for firms. It has also been associated

with higher organizational commitment and job sat-

isfaction ( Mikkelsen et al., 1999 ) as well as productiv-

ity increases on the industry and firm levels (Dearden

et al., 2005; Zwick, 2002 ).

Further training can help ameliorate and prevent

employees ’ (especially older employees ’ ) knowledge

from becoming outdated. This may be especially

important for updating employees ’ technological

skills. Technology clearly has become an integral part

of the workplace, but age has been found to be nega-

tively related to both technology use and breadth of

computer use (e.g., Czaja et al., 2006 ). In this study,

technology use was mediated by self-efficacy and anx-

iety, signaling that training, particularly with regard

to technology, needs to focus on building confidence

in addition to skill.

Current rates of participation in adult education

vary widely across the Organisation for Economic Co-

operation and Development (OECD) member coun-

tries (e.g., from  10% to over 35%; OECD, 2009a ).

Importantly, in all countries, the most qualified adults

participate in more training than the less qualified.

This indicates a pattern of accumulated disadvantage

(e.g., Dannefer, 2003 ), such that those with fewer edu-

cational qualifications also subsequently participate

less in the learning activities, which could potentially

compensate for initially lower qualifications (cf. Wight

et al., 2002 ). Furthermore, the discrepancy between

the participation rates of older relative to younger

employees has been the focus of much attention.

Sweden is the only country in the OECD in which 55

to 64 year olds participate in as much training as 25 to

34 year olds ( OECD, 2009a ). In most other countries,

the participation rates of older working age adults are

well below half that of younger working age adults.

Multiple factors are thought to underlie the age dis-

crepancies, including ageist attitudes of managers

who make training decisions and older workers ’ atti-

tudes (e.g., reduced self-efficacy, reduced motivation),

as well as higher costs and reduced incentives for both

the firm and the older employee to invest in further

training (e.g., Wooden et al., 2001 ) .

Attitudes Toward Older Workers

Despite a lack of evidence that age is systematically

and generally related to job performance (e.g., Ng &

Feldman, 2008 ), older workers continue to face

Chapter AGING IN THE WORK CONTEXT

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269

negative attitudes (e.g., Gordon & Arvey, 2004 ). Often

just as workers are entering the zenith of their careers,

they are already considered less flexible, less ener-

getic, and at greater health risk as well as slower, less

creative, and disinterested in training, but also more

reliable and loyal (see Posthuma & Campion, 2009

for a review of age stereotypes in the workplace).

Negative attitudes about older workers are thought to

affect recruitment patterns as well as promotion and

training decisions.

The endorsement of such attitudes appears to vary

somewhat between countries. An international survey

of 6,320 private sector employers in 21 countries indi-

cated that there were considerable differences between

countries in the age at which an employee was consid-

ered old, ranging from 44 years in Turkey to 60.4 years

in Japan ( Harper et al., 2006 ). Interestingly, these dif-

ferences were unrelated to the population ’ s median

age, despite appearances given the two countries

cited. Employers were asked to compare older and

younger workers on a range of stereotypical charac-

teristics (e.g., loyal, flexible, technologically oriented).

On the whole, employers did not generally regard

older employees less positively than younger work-

ers, although employers did indeed tend to assign

individual traits to either older (e.g., reliable, loyal) or

younger workers (e.g., flexible, quick learners). Still,

there was variation between countries: Employers ’ age

attitudes were most positive in the UK and the United

States (interestingly two countries with strong anti-

age discrimination laws that may result in a stronger

social desirability bias), and most negative in Turkey

and Saudi Arabia.

Age stereotypes do not only vary between societies.

Initial evidence from work on age climate – a construct

capturing organization-specific age stereotypes –

found that companies differed significantly with

regard to how older employees within the company

were regarded ( Noack & Staudinger, 2010a ). Age cli-

mate is assessed by asking respondents to indicate the

extent to which adjectives related to work-related age

stereotypes (e.g., productive, flexible, reliable) cor-

respond with the image of older employees in their

company. Responses are averaged to create an indi-

cator of how favorably older employees are regarded

within the company. The differences between compa-

nies ’ age climates concurred with differences in their

personnel, knowledge, and health management prac-

tices regarding older workers. For example, in produc-

tion companies with a more favorable age climate,

older workers were hired directly from the labor mar-

ket, tended to participate frequently in further educa-

tion, and were offered preventive health training. On

the individual level, more positive perceptions of the

company ’ s age climate coincided with higher levels

of affective organizational commitment — indicat-

ing the emotional attachment to, identification with,

and involvement in the organization — among the

company ’ s older workers ( Noack et al., 2010c ) as well

as lower turnover intentions among employees of all

ages ( Bowen & Staudinger, 2010 ). Furthermore, for

workers age 40 and above, less positive perceptions

of the age climate went along with lower self-reported

work ability ( Noack & Staudinger, 2010b ).

Creating work environments that optimize work

and developmental outcomes necessitates an inte-

grated age management strategy that includes simulta-

neous attention to relevant issues like further training

and age attitudes, alongside dynamic personnel prac-

tices that are cognizant of the fact that individuals ’

abilities, interests, and needs change over the course

of their career. Because aging is a continuous, lifelong

process, companies need to create work environments

that support human development across the life span,

as opposed to beginning interventions only once an

employee has reached the age of 45 or 50 ( Staudinger,

2007; Staudinger et al., 2008 ). For example, to most

effectively use further training as a mechanism to

buffer or compensate for cognitive decline, training

should not be restricted to higher ages, although this

is probably currently and for some years to come the

life period that needs the most attention, given the

rather low participation of over 55 years olds rela-

tive to younger adults ( OECD, 2009a ). Rather, train-

ing should become an integral part of (working) life

across the life span, so that individuals do not fall out

of the education loop. Indeed, previous further train-

ing predicts current participation in future training

(e.g., Maurer et al., 2003 ). Likewise, fostering positive

images of aging as well as a sense of internal control

over attaining positive developmental outcomes needs

to begin early on in the life span.

THE TRANSITION INTO AND

AFTER RETIREMENT

Given the many ways in which working contributes

to adult development, retirement (i.e., exit from the

paid work context) also deserves some attention in

our discussion of work and aging. Importantly, retire-

ment is a transitional process as opposed to a sud-

den change in life. The process begins with thoughts

about retirement, the development of a desire to

retire, later followed by the decision and finally the

actual act of retirement ( Beehr, 1986 ).

Beginning in midlife, employees begin to place more

emphasis on intrinsic rewards from work, such as a

feeling of accomplishment, of learning and experienc-

ing new things, and of doing something worthwhile

( Penner et al., 2002 ). In a survey by the American

Association of Retired Persons (AARP), 84% of older

employees (45 – 74 years) indicated a desire to work

even if they were financially set for life, and 69%

said they planned to work into their retirement years

Part SOCIAL AND HEALTH FACTORS THAT IMPACT AGING

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270

( Montenegro et al., 2002 ). Older employees ’ reasons

for continuing to work are wide ranging, including not

only extrinsic benefits such as increased financial secu-

rity and health care benefits, but also enjoyment and a

sense of purpose as well as social participation ( Hedge

et al., 2006 ).

Older adults are increasingly seeking some sort

of bridge employment that allows for gradual (as

opposed to sudden) transition out of the work con-

text. On the individual level, age and stress exper-

ienced at pre-retirement jobs seem to be predictive

of choosing full retirement over bridge employment

( Gobeski & Beehr, 2009 ). Full retirement can offer

an escape from unpleasant work roles (e.g., Barnes-

Farrell, 2003 ). Higher levels of education and bet-

ter health led older workers to decide for continued

involvement in paid work ( Wang et al., 2008 ). While

most employees who plan to work after retirement

hope to build on their accumulated expertise by

remaining in a line of work that is similar to their cur-

rent occupation ( Hedge et al., 2006 ), more than half

of the retirees who take bridge jobs change occupa-

tion and/or industry, often accepting reduced wages

and status in return for the flexibility of a bridge job

(e.g., Feldman, 1994; Shultz, 2003 ). Whether an older

worker seeks bridge employment in the same or a new

line of work depends on the costs and benefits assoc-

iated with that line of work. When intrinsic job charac-

teristics, like autonomy, task identity, task significance,

feedback, and skill variety were high in his or her pre-

vious line of work, the likelihood for continuing in a

job similar to the career job was also high ( Gobeski &

Beehr, 2009 ). In contrast, higher job-related strain was

predictive of taking a non-career bridge job.

Company policies can affect the retirement process.

For instance, corporate restructuring and downsizing

by means of buyouts and layoffs has resulted in many

older workers tending to retire earlier from their long-

tenure, career jobs. Companies can also influence the

retirement transition by providing roles and opportu-

nities for older workers seeking bridge employment.

For instance, companies can retain retired employees

as internal consultants. Some companies recruit their

retiring managers into a filial enterprise that pro-

vides consulting service at a high level ( Deller et al.,

2008 ). Other companies create alumni-networks and

thus keep in touch with their retirees, which creates

a similar potential for back-recruiting (cf. Staudinger

et al., 2008 ). As one of the motives underlying post-

retirement activities seems to be generativity ( Deller

et al., 2009 ), offering retiring employees the position

of a mentor for incoming members of the company

is just one of many ways how retirees can contribute

to the work context.

Societal policies also affect the retirement process.

For example, before recent retirement policy changes,

the German federal government set strong incentives

for companies to lay off their older employees, or

rather, to send them into early retirement by heav-

ily subsidizing their severance pay. Even as recently

as 2005, Germany spent 0.06% of its gross domes-

tic product on early retirement programs with 1 in

450 workers in early retirement ( OECD, 2009b ).

Furthermore, German policy creates a disincentive for

older adults to continue working past pension eligi-

bility, since a large proportion of any earned salary is

deducted from state pension benefits. The situation is

quite different in the United States, where there are

no public incentives for early retirement. These policy

differences are reflected in changes of the labor force

participation rates of 55 to 64 year olds in the two

countries. In both countries, the labor force participa-

tion of the above 55 year olds increased continuously

from 1994 to 2008. However, the changes were much

more pronounced among older men (53.1 to 67.2%)

and women (28.3 to 50.6%) in Germany relative to

the older men (65.5 to 70.4%) and women (48.9 to

59.1%) in the United States, where participation rates

were already initially much higher ( OECD, 2009b ).

Retirement and Health

An important question regarding the transition into

retirement regards its potential impact on physical and

mental health (see Wurm et al., 2009 for a compre-

hensive review on the topic). With regard to physical

health, empirical findings from longitudinal studies

suggest that retirement per se neither harms nor ben-

efits health (e.g., Ekerdt et al., 1983; Mein et al., 2003;

Van Solinge, 2007 ). Pre-retirement unemployment, in

comparison, was found to have significantly negative

effects on physical health of participants in the Health

and Retirement Study ( Gallo et al., 2006 ). Similarly,

there does not appear to be a straightforward rela-

tionship between retirement and indicators of men-

tal health. Retirement has been found to be related

to fewer depressive symptoms in some studies (e.g.,

Reitzes et al., 1996 ), while other studies found that

the reduction of depressive symptoms was limited

to only individuals retiring from highly prestigious

positions (e.g., Mein et al., 2003 ) or found that retire-

ment weakly increased depressive symptoms ( James &

Spiro, 2006 ). Generally, bridge employment has been

found to be predictive of both retirement satisfaction

and psychological well-being ( Kim & Feldman, 2000 ).

Retirement may entail certain losses in terms of,

for example, income, social interactions, status, and

structure as well as meaning in life (cf. Havighurst

et al., 1968 ). But retirement may also entail new

opportunities, freedom, and independence after hier-

archy, time demands, and other work-related strains

cease (cf. Rosenmayr, 1983 ). The extent to which

retirement individually represents losses and gains

would seem to correspond with any potential changes

in overall physical and mental health. Indeed, a study

using data from the German Socioeconomic Panel

Chapter AGING IN THE WORK CONTEXT

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271

and growth mixture modeling identified three dis-

tinct trajectories of life satisfaction experienced dur-

ing the retirement transition ( Pinquart & Schindler,

2007 ). For most people, retirement predicted a small

increase in life satisfaction. The second trajectory was

characterized by an increase in life satisfaction imme-

diately following retirement, against the backdrop

of a relatively strong overall decline in life satisfac-

tion in the years prior to and following retirement.

This trajectory was particularly characteristic of reti-

rees who had been unemployed immediately prior

to retirement. The third trajectory was characterized

by immediate post-retirement decline followed by

a slow recovery. Relative to the first, most common

trajectory, people in the latter two classes had fewer

resources (e.g., socioeconomic status, physical health,

married) for adapting to retirement. Interestingly,

it seems that individuals may have a limited ability

to predict their well-being after leaving work. In one

study, older employees included in early retirement

schemes initially tended to anticipate retirement as a

reward. After one year, however, the majority of early

retirees wanted to return to work, mostly in a part-

time position and with more freedom in working

arrangements ( Aleksandrowicz et al., 2009 ).

In sum, there does not appear to be any general

causal relationship between retirement and either phys-

ical or mental health. The effect of retirement on health

seems to greatly depend upon individual preferences

and pre-retirement working conditions as well as the

individual ’ s ability and resources to adapt to the new

life stage. Changes in social status, social engagement,

meaning in life, financial security, and even physical

activity ( Berger et al., 2005; Slingerland et al., 2007 )

may accompany the retirement process and probably

to a great extent explain any effect of retirement on

health. It is therefore critical in considerations of the

effect of retirement on health to take into account post-

retirement opportunities as well as individual resources

(e.g., health, social network, openness to new exper-

ience) that can help people to mitigate any potential

negative changes as well as profit from new opportuni-

ties that may accompany the retirement process.

Post-Retirement Activities:

Volunteering

In recent years, more and more older adults have been

participating in volunteer activities. For instance, in

Germany, participation in volunteer activities rose from

31% in 1999 to 37% in 2004 among 60 to 69 year olds

( Gensicke et al., 2005 ). In Germany, the main areas of

voluntary engagement for individuals age 60 and above

are sports (e.g., trainer), religion (e.g., organizer of char-

ity events), care-taking (of very young and old-old non-

family members), structured leisure time activities (e.g.,

organizer of excursions for senior citizens), and culture

(e.g., manager or conductor of a choir) ( Gensicke et al.,

2005 ). Between 1999 to 2004, the areas of older adults ’

voluntary engagement became more diversified with a

small but rapidly increasing participation also in other

areas like citizens ’ initiatives, nature protection groups,

politics, and labor unions. Still, volunteer participation

rates vary widely between countries. In Europe, data

from the second wave of the Survey for Health, Aging,

and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) revealed that par-

ticipation rates among individuals age 50 and above

ranged between approximately 2 and 25% ( Hank &

Erlinghagen, 2009 ). Many more respondents had been

engaged in volunteer activities during the month pre-

ceding the interview in Northern European countries

as compared to Southern and Eastern European coun-

tries. This finding was interpreted to be consistent with

differences between the welfare state regimes of these

countries that seem to offer different incentives and

opportunities for civic engagement ( Hank & Stuck,

2008 ).

Data from the Berlin Aging Study (BASE) showed

that post-retirement social participation is cumula-

tive (e.g., Bukov et al., 2002 ) and demonstrates a high

degree of continuity across the life span (e.g., Hank &

Stuck, 2008; Maas & Staudinger, 2009 ). Individuals

who volunteered during adolescence and early adult-

hood had a significantly higher likelihood to also

volunteer as retirees. Educational and occupational

resources predict the intensity of social engagement,

over and above gender differences. In addition, age

(i.e., being younger than 75), current health status,

and having a stable partnership also seem to predict

social engagement ( Erlinghagen & Hank, 2006 ). Caro

(2009) illustrated that for older adults — especially

for the highly educated Baby Boomers — to contrib-

ute substantial amounts of their time to volunteering

they might need specific opportunities that draw upon

their individual experience and skills. Thus, systematic

recruitment, placement, and training of volunteers

may be helpful to fully profit from retiring workers ’

potentials and to provide older adults with meaning-

ful roles in their post-retirement life.

Importantly , volunteering has been found to have

positive consequences for older individuals. For exam-

ple, volunteer work was significantly and positively

related to quality of life in retirement and to retirement

satisfaction ( Kim &

Feldman, 2000 ). Similarly, longi-

tudinal data from the United States has shown that for

individuals aged 60 years and older, volunteering was

associated with higher levels of well-being ( Morrow-

Howell et al., 2003 ). In another study using U.S. panel

data, a moderate amount of volunteering (about two

hours per week) had a protective effect regarding older

adults ’ self-reported health ( Luoh & Herzog, 2002 ).

In this longitudinal study based on a representa-

tive sample of older adults, the authors controlled

for potential selectivity effects into volunteer activi-

ties by assessing objective health status at baseline.

Part SOCIAL AND HEALTH FACTORS THAT IMPACT AGING

| 3 |

272

A bi-directional relationship between health and vol-

unteering emerged: While earlier self-reported health

affected later volunteering activities, volunteering also

reciprocally positively affected later health status. Such

positive effects have been traced back to increases in

self-esteem, strengthening of social networks and pur-

pose in life ( Morrow-Howell et al., 2003 ). In a recent

experimental study, we demonstrated that older adult

volunteers who participated in competence training as

part of their volunteering activities, and also reported

above median internal control beliefs, demonstrated

continuous increases in openness to experience over

a period of 15 months, in contrast to nonvolunteers

as well as volunteers who did not receive the compe-

tence training ( M ü hlig-Versen & Staudinger, 2010 ).

These results show that volunteering, in combination

with certain internal resources (e.g., internal control,

strategies to master the situation), can reverse the typi-

cal adulthood pattern of decreasing openness to new

experience — an indicator of personality growth as

previously described.

CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE

DIRECTIONS

In this chapter we have reviewed evidence that for

better or worse, work experiences are one important

source for adult development. Most of the evidence

presented has referred to work in the sense of paid

employment and to some extent to work in the sense

of volunteering, although many of the mechanisms

and trends we have described are also more generally

applicable to other forms of productive activity. We

have also reviewed evidence that older workers and

adult development can positively contribute to the

work domain. This view becomes particularly apparent

when one considers “ productivity ” in a wider sense,

both within the work context (e.g., Ng & Feldman,

2008 ) as well as a notion of psychological productivity

( Staudinger, 1996, 2008 ).

In line with a contextualistic perspective (cf. Baltes

et al., 1980 ), we would like to emphasize that develop-

ment — as we currently observe it — is not set in stone.

The impressive plasticity of human development and

aging needs to be taken seriously with regard to the

construction of the work context and contexts more

generally. Optimizing developmental outcomes —

within the work and volunteer contexts, or in any con-

text more generally — can be aided by taking a lifespan

view of development as opposed to focusing only on

older adults. More systematic intervention knowledge

is needed to be in a position to construct work environ-

ments such that they not only prevent the exhaustion

of an individual ’ s productivity but also develop and

foster it across the life span. Of course, work is neces-

sary to afford our living. But work (or activity to use a

more neutral notion) also is one of the prime sources

of meaning and well-being in an individual ’ s life. A

society of longer lives may develop its potential to the

fullest only if it succeeds in creating work contexts that

support continued development into later adulthood.

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