Work design and aging

The workforce is expected to age in the coming decades in most industrialized countries (Eurostat 2013; Toossi 2012); this is a result of decreased birthrates, later retirements due to financial need, and raising of the retirement age in many countries because of longer lifespans (Vaupel 2010). As a result of these changes, people are working later in life, often well into their 60s and even 70s. In this entry, the extant literature on job design for workers over the work lifespan is described. Specifically, two types of job design research are differentiated: research on physical aspects of the workplace to accommodate people as they age (a more ergonomic approach) versus job redesign that addresses psychological changes (e.g., cognitive ability, personality) that take place over the work lifespan. The focus in this entry is primarily on psychological job design, integrating lifespan development theories, age-related models of work motivation, and models of job design to describe how characteristics of the workplace can interact with worker age to affect job attitudes and behaviors. The few empirical studies that have examined psychological job design and age are cited. This entry concludes with a discussion of the several additional moderators that may further affect the interplay of age and job characteristics and concludes with a discussion of the practical challenges involved in implementing job redesign for workers of different ages in actual work settings.