Running the penultimate lap of the race: A multimethod analysis of growth, generativity, career orientation, and personality amongst men in mid/late career

Does generativity matter? A meta-analysis on individual work outcomes

Ongoing demographic changes and global population ageing require organisations to pay special attention to their employment policies. With working life extension and age management increasingly included in discussions about reactive versus proactive personnel policies, the term 'generativity' gains special importance as an approach to managing a generationally diverse workforce. Generativity can be understood as an attitude of openness towards the younger generations that focuses on exchanging values, knowledge, and experiences with them. It is a source of positive emotions and better social relationships, personal fulfilment, good energy, and aliveness. In the paper, generativity is discussed in the framework of two theories: the socio-emotional selectivity theory (SST) and successful ageing theory (SOC). The aim of this paper is to assess the relationship between generativity and individual work outcomes. We considered both in-role and extra-role outcomes analysed in the job context. Meta-analysis is conducted of studies that investigate generativity and its relationships with motivational outcomes (job satisfaction, engagement, work motivation, affective commitment, self-efficacy), cognitive outcomes (attitudes toward retirement, career success, self-control), personal outcomes (wellbeing, health, job strain), relational outcomes and extra-role behaviours (organisational citizenship behaviour and sustainable behaviour). The analysis examines 65 independent samples that included 30,540 individuals, and considers the role of three moderators-the cultural context, the measurement method and age. It demonstrates that generativity has significant and positive motivational, cognitive and extra-role behaviour outcomes for workers and that it improves their well-being.

The Upside of Negative Emotions: How Do Older Adults From Different Cultures Challenge Their Self-Growth During the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Background and Objective

The outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has raised increased challenges for older adults' personal growth in diverse cultural settings. The aim of this study was to analyze negative emotions and their role on older adults' self-growth in Mexico, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, during the COVID-19 pandemic. For this purpose, a cross-national qualitative research was carried out.

Methods

Data were collected from 338 community-dwelling participants aged 65 years and older, using a semi-structured interview protocol. Older adults were asked about negative emotions that significantly contribute to their self-growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Content analysis was used to identify key themes.

Results

Seven main negative emotions (fear, sadness, anger, grief, boredom, loneliness, and shame) significantly contributed to seven themes of self-growth, across the samples: sharing difficult experiences with others, supportive partner, spiritual practices, engagement with life, generativity, volunteering activities, and intimacy and sexual satisfaction. Sharing difficult experiences with others was most pertinent to Mexican (13.9%) and to Italian (3.0%) participants, and a supportive partner to Portuguese (12.1%), and to Spanish participants (6.5%).

Conclusion

The findings of this study indicate that negative emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to their older adults' self-growth. This study highlighted the cultural diversity of experiences during the pandemics and underlined the upside of negative emotions and its relation to older adults' self-growth during this period.

Becoming an expert: highly-experienced allied health professionals' relationships with their work

Purpose

Highly-experienced allied health professionals have the opportunity to perform at the expert-level by sharing knowledge and skills with more junior staff, with the aim of upskilling the workforce. The study explored the current motivators, aspirations and the role of work in the life of highly-experienced practitioners, revealing factors that hinder or support them to further develop their own expertise and be inspiring role-models and mentors for less experienced staff.

Design/methodology/approach

Taking a grounded theoretical research design, we report on interviews with 45 allied health practitioners with at least seven years of professional experience from different professions and across organisational sectors. Transcripts were coded iteratively in conjunction with reviewing the literature, and cases were categorised to form a conceptual typology of work orientation.

Findings

Four work orientations are characterised capturing the diversity of the allied health workforce, particularly in relation to two dimensions of personal fulfilment and future ambition. The relationship between the types and expert-level performance is discussed, leading to recommendations for support that can be implemented to develop and sustain expert-level performance within a community.

Originality/value

A new view of work orientation is introduced that relates expert-level performance with meaningful work. The findings highlight a diversity of work orientation for highly-experienced allied health professionals, that all require managerial awareness. Once recognised, the four types would benefit from different supports that could develop and maintain expert-level performance in those that seek it. Alternatives are also available for those that do not. Implications for workforce policy are discussed.

Individuals’ Career Growth Within and Across Organizations: A Review and Agenda for Future Research

The tremendous changes occurring in the work environment encourage new studies to update our knowledge about what determines ones’ career growth within and across organizations. Seven papers from a pool of submissions are presented in this special issue. We summarize how the seven papers included in this special issue contribute to our understanding beyond previous research and identify directions for future research. As a result of this special issue, we urge researchers to (a) identify other determinants of career growth, (b) enrich the theoretical framework connecting career growth with individuals’ attitudes and behaviors, (c) distinguish the roles of intrinsic and extrinsic career growth, (d) incorporate work context and career stage in future research, and (e) further explore the benefits of organizations’ investment on employees’ career growth in the new career era.

The role of felt obligation to mentor in mentor performance

Purpose

The authors introduce a new measure of felt obligation to mentor in order to explore generalized reciprocity in mentoring. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether felt obligation to mentor adds prediction to mentor job performance in combination with mentoring functions provided and mentor-assessed benefits and costs of mentoring.

Design/methodology/approach

Hypotheses were tested in a sample of firefighters in the Southwestern USA using moderated regression analysis.

Findings

Protégé reported mentoring functions provided predicted mentor performance, but neither mentoring benefits nor costs predicted mentor performance. Felt obligation to mentor interacted with mentoring functions reported such that mentor performance was highest when both mentoring functions provided and felt obligation to mentor were high.

Research limitations/implications

The results indicate that the new measure may prove to be of value for exploring generalized reciprocity in mentoring. Further, more research using mentoring benefits and costs is merited. Findings are limited by use of a new measure of felt obligation to mentor as well as the fact that the research was conducted in a setting in which employees were expected to serve as mentors.

Practical implications

Organizations may leverage felt obligation to mentor in order to support effective informal or formal mentoring relationships, whereas focusing on the benefits of mentoring may be a less valuable strategy.

Originality/value

The research offers a new measure to help to understand generalized reciprocity as a motivation to mentor as well as suggesting that more empirical attention should be given to the perceived benefits and costs of mentoring.

Learning Climate Perceptions as a Determinant of Employability: An Empirical Study Among European ICT Professionals

This study investigated the role of age in the relationship between perceptions of learning climate and self- and supervisor-rated employability among European Information and Communication Technology (ICT) professionals. The psychological climate for learning was operationalized by three indicators, namely the perceptions that employees have of the learning value of their job, supervisor support for learning, and the organizational support for learning. As hypothesized, a Structural Equation Model demonstrated that the relationship between age and perceptions of learning climate was negative. The model also showed a strong positive relationship between learning climate and self-reported and supervisor-rated employability. Furthermore, learning climate perceptions appeared important for employability irrespective of life or career stage. An explorative bootstrapping-based test suggested that older workers with managerial responsibilities profit less from psychological learning climate for self-reported and supervisor-rated employability than older workers at non-managerial levels. These findings have important implications for human resource practices that aim to increase lifelong employability.