Does age matter? Examining career commitment as a moderator in the relationship between age‐related HR/D practices and subjective career success for younger versus older academic staff

Abstract

Building upon the job demands-resources framework and employing an interactionist perspective, the purpose of this scholarly work was to investigate the relationship between age-related HR/D practices (being a contextual antecedent) and career commitment (being a personal antecedent), and the interaction between these two, on the one hand, and subjective career experiences, on the other hand. Moreover, elaborating on life-span developmental theories and earlier empirical work on aging at work, this study also examined whether this relationship was moderated by age category (younger workers [<50 years] vs. their older counterparts [≥50 years]). An online self-report questionnaire with thoroughly validated measures was distributed among academic staff employees (N = 139). The results partially supported the specific study assumptions. Concrete, age-related HR/D practices add significantly to academics' subjective career success. Contradictory to our expectations, we could neither find a main effect of career commitment nor for its interaction with age-related HR/D practices in the light of subjective career success. Results from the multigroup analyses indicate that, in reality, the above results may apply

With a little help from my friends: adopting a P-E fit perspective in understanding the value of organizational learning climate for sustainable employability

“…This outcome contrasts with the work of Hirschi et al (2018) who showed that career involvement was important for career success, operationalized in terms of salary and career satisfaction in several meta-analyses. However, in line with our findings, Van der Heijden et al (2021) also found no main effect of career commitment on subjective career success.…”

“…Moreover, similar to our scholarly work, Van der Heijden et al (2021) found that age differences played a significant role in the relationships between career commitment and career success outcomes. Our results also partly confirm Hypothesis 5 and indicate that age has an effect on the relationships between career commitment and developmental opportunities on the one hand and self-perceived employability on the other.…”

“…Career commitment refers to “ one’s attitude toward one’s profession or vocation” ( Blau, 1985 , p. 278) and indicates a motivational career resource ( Halbesleben et al, 2014 ) that is beneficial in attaining career goals ( Hirschi et al, 2018 ; Van der Heijden et al, 2021 ). Van der Heijden et al (2021) argued that employees who portray individual agency (who are actively participating in their own life and career) are better able to protect and further enhance their sustainable employability.…”

“…Career commitment refers to “ one’s attitude toward one’s profession or vocation” ( Blau, 1985 , p. 278) and indicates a motivational career resource ( Halbesleben et al, 2014 ) that is beneficial in attaining career goals ( Hirschi et al, 2018 ; Van der Heijden et al, 2021 ). Van der Heijden et al (2021) argued that employees who portray individual agency (who are actively participating in their own life and career) are better able to protect and further enhance their sustainable employability. In the current study, based on the premises of the SDT ( Ryan and Deci, 2000 ; Gagné and Vansteenkiste, 2013 ), we again argue that career commitment will be beneficial for the sustainability of an employee’s employability, as higher scores on career commitment, that represent a type of individual agency, will be related to higher scores on indicators of sustainable employability.…”

Longitudinal relationships among career adaptability, resilience, and career commitment in chinese nursing undergraduates: testing differences in career interest between cross-lagged models

“…MPlus 8.3 software was used to construct structural equation models for the latent variables in the Cross-lagged analysis, and the model was estimated using the robust weighted least square estimator (WLSMV) available [56], and holographic great likelihood estimation was used for the missing data [57]. Since age is a well-documented factor in career commitment [58,59], it was adjusted for in the model. The fit of all the models was evaluated using various indices as operationalized in Mplus in combination with the WLSMV estimator [60]: the WLSMV Chisquare statistic (χ 2 ), the Comparative Fit Index (CFI), the Tucker Lewis Index (TLI), the Root-Mean-Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) and its 90% confidence interval.…”