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Dorien Kooij (VU)Paul Jansen (VU)Annet de Lange (RUG)Josje Dikkers (VU)

The impact of HRM policy and practices on the work motivation and labor market participation of older workers

In the old people’s home: - ‘Ah, a new resident!’- ‘No, no, I’vecome to work here’

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Introduction: background and aim

• Dutch population and potential workforce are aging

• How to motivate these older workers?

Two studies: 1. Literature review on age-related factors

and motivation2. Meta-analysis on the association

between HRM practices, age and individual worker outcomes

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Research design: conceptualizations (1)

• HRM: employee experience of five HR-meta practices: - staffing- performance management- development- employee influence- work systems

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Research design: conceptualizations (2)

• HRM outcomes or work-related attitudes:- affective commitment- continuance commitment- satisfaction- perceived organizational support- intention to stay

• Age:- calendar age- organizational tenure

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Research framework

Age

H1 (+) H2 (?)

Figure 1 ‘Research framework’

Employee experience of HR practices

Work-related attitudes

H3 (?)

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Method: Meta-analysis

• Search resulted in 38 studies (samples) from 33 articles

• Effect size = correlation corrected for statistical artefacts of measurement and sample error

• Q-statistic tests for homogeniety

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Results: Hypothesis 1Association between HR practices and work-related attitudes

Relation k N Mean r

Confidence Interval

Q

All HR meta-practices – work related attitudes

32 18.965 .421 .357 .480 502.2559***

Employee experience of HR practices

Work-related attitudes

Age

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Results: Hypothesis 2Association between age and HR practices

Relation k N Mean r Confidence Interval

Q

Tenure – performance management

14 9.631 .080 .013

.146 89.6897***

Employee experience of HR practices

Work-related attitudes

Age

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Relation Qb and Qw

Age gr

k N Mean r

Confidence Interval

All HR meta-practices – work related attitudes

Qb 5.7930# Y 10 7.650 .398 .297 .490

Qw 25.8091 M 7 3.562 .521 .414 .614

O 10 5.303 .343 .234 .445

Results: Hypothesis 3 (1)Moderating effect of age

Employee experience of HR practices

Work-related attitudes

Age

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Relation Qb and Qw

Ten gr

k N Mean r

Confidence interval

Employee influence – work related attitudes

Qb 7.4640* S 5 2.814

.507 .369 .394

Qw 10.9913 M 6 4.273

.254 .103 .689

L 2 632 .510 .270 .666

Results: Hypothesis 3 (2)

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Main conclusions (1)

1. Positive association between employee experience of HR practices and work-related attitudes

2. Ambiguous association between age and employee experience of HRM

3. Age and tenure significantly influence the relation between employee experience of HR meta-practices and work-related attitudes

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Main conclusions (2)

Opposite moderating effects for age and tenure

The patterns found apply to almost all HR practices

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Discussion: Practical and theoretical implications

Practical implications:• Focus on employee experience of HR

practices

Theoretical implications:• Incorporating employee experience of HR

in research and theories is important• More research on HR, age and work-

related attitudes is needed

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Thank you for your attention!

Questions or remarks?