When age matters: The role of teacher aging on job identity and organizational citizenship behaviours

The increasing aging of the work population, on one hand, and the increasing rates of work instability and unemployment among young people, on the other hand, make the maintaining of an engaged and highly performing workforce a great challenge for both researchers and practitioners. A crucial role may be played by job identity. The present paper aims at examining age differences on job identity and how patterns of personal and social identities in specific age group are differentially related to the organizational citizenship behaviours. Participants were 515 teachers (85.4% women) divided into settling-in adults (aged 24-39 years), prime working years (aged 40-54 years), and approaching retirement employees (aged 55-64 years). Analyses of variance revealed that identity commitment and organizational identification were higher in older teachers, while group identification was higher in younger employees. Regression analyses were used to test whether various facets of job identity had a different effect on organizational citizenship behaviours in the various age groups. Implications and future research agenda are discussed.