Engaging the age-diverse workforce: the interplay between personal and contextual resources

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to advance research on work-related well-being and age by using a life-span approach to investigate the relationship between mastery goal orientation and work engagement during various age periods. We further tested whether a perceived motivational climate moderated the proposed relationships, and whether the nature of the moderation differed between age groups.

Design/methodology/approach: We utilized a two-wave, web-based questionnaire survey and collected data from 838 employees in the financial sector in Norway. Multiple regressions and PROCESS macro were used to test our hypotheses.

Findings: We found that both work engagement and mastery goal orientation differed across age groups and that the relationship between mastery goal orientation and work engagement was stronger for older than for younger ages. Our results further support the moderating role of a motivational climate. Whereas a perceived mastery climate moderated the relationship between mastery goal orientation and work engagement for older workers, a perceived performance climate moderated the suggested relationship for younger workers.

Originality: Our study extends research on work engagement in an age-diverse workforce by applying a life-span approach to the interplay between person and contextual elements in fostering work engagement. Furthermore, our study involved investigating factors that may inhibit or enhance the link between mastery orientation and work engagement for various age groups, which is important given work engagement’s link to central work outcomes.