Semester 2, 2019-2020
Type of courseJoint Seminars
DateMay 8, 2020
LocationTilburg University, room to be announced.
1 day
Maximum number of participants20
ECTS1 EC will be appointed for participation in the complete course
Staffprof. Dorien Kooij (Tilburg University)
In collaboration with WAOP (Werkgemeenschap van onderzoekers in de Arbeids- & Organisatiepsychologie), KLI offers 1-day seminars in which you can visit senior Work and Organizational Psychology professors to learn about their successful methodological and theoretical approaches. These seminars are specifically designed for PhD students in the Netherlands and Belgium. Each seminar will be organized by a different WAOP professor.
Attending a seminar will provide you with 1 ECTS per seminar, and you can follow as many as you want.
WAOP-members can register by sending an email to KLI.admin@uu.nl .
Joint Seminar 2/2, 2019-2020: Successful Aging at Work, by prof. Dorien Kooij (Tilburg University).
Due to continuously low or falling fertility rates, the aging of the baby boomer cohorts, as well as increasing life expectancy and retirement ages, populations and workforces are aging worldwide. The proportion of the world’s population older than 60 years will nearly double from 12% to 22% between 2015 and 2050 (WHO, 2015). Demographic change poses serious practical challenges for societies, organizations, and individuals. For example, workforce growth is slowing and starting to lag behind the total employment growth, leading to long-term worker shortages. The U.S. workforce is expected to increase by 7.7 million employees between 2014 and 2024, while 9.8 million job positions have to be filled in that same period (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015). Since labor market participation traditionally decreases from age 50 onwards (Eurostat, 2017), it is increasingly important to retain and motivate older workers. At the same time, older workers face a number of physical and mental challenges, such as decreasing physical health and fluid cognitive abilities, suggesting that it is equally important to maintain high ability to meet work demands. In sum, it is important to conduct research on successful aging at work in order to facilitate workers to be able and motivated to continue working in their late careers.
However, very little research has focused on successful aging at work and, hence, governments, organizations, and individual workers have little guidance on how to facilitate it. In addition, researchers and practitioners do not agree on what it means to age successfully at work. Moreover, although researchers have proposed some antecedents of it, a theoretical model that integrates the individual and contextual factors that might influence successful aging at work does not exist. Therefore, in this seminar, we will discuss conceptualizations and antecedents of successful aging at work. First, we will use lifespan developmental models and theories (e.g., Selection, Optimization, and Compensation model; Baltes & Baltes, 1990; Socio-emotional Selectivity theory, Carstensen, 1995) to discuss what happens when employees age and how this affects their work goals and outcomes. Second, we will discuss different conceptualizations of successful aging at work. Finally, we will discuss multilevel factors (e.g., job design, HR practices) that might influence successful aging at work, particularly focusing on the process, and on the active role of older workers themselves.