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Although a substantial body of research has examined the effects of job characteristics on job attitudes, there is a paucity of work on individual difference moderators of these relationships. Based in selective optimization with compensation theory and socio-emotional selectivity theory, the purpose of this paper is to show that age moderated the relationship between task variety and two key job attitudes, job satisfaction and engagement.

Data were collected through self-report questionnaires (n=152), using a time-lagged design with two waves (two to three weeks between T ₁ and T ₂).

The authors found that task variety had a stronger relationship with job satisfaction and work engagement for younger workers compared to older workers.

Although there was good age variance in the sample, it had fewer late-career workers and more workers who are in their early and mid-career.

To have workers of all ages satisfied and engaged at work, we need to understand which work characteristics are the best for them. For example, it may be a competitive gain for organizations to challenge younger workers with different tasks, and to challenge older workers in ways that utilize their experience.

The study addresses a societal issue related to profound demographic changes in the age composition of the workforce, gaining a better knowledge of differences between workers of different ages to promote effective interventions and policies.

This is the first study to show that task variety differentially affects worker satisfaction and engagement depending on the age of the worker.

The purpose of this study is to validate, in an Italian sample, a multidimensional training motivation measure (T‐VIES‐it) based on expectancy (VIE) theory, and to examine the nomological network surrounding the construct.

Using a cross‐sectional design study, 258 public sector employees in Northeast Italy (participating in a range of employer‐sponsored training programs) filled out the T‐VIES‐it and questionnaires on goal orientation, job support for learning, and intention to transfer learning gained through training to the workplace. To validate the T‐VIES‐it and test its nomological network confirmatory factor analysis and structural equations models were used.

Results showed acceptable confirmatory factor analysis fit indices and psychometric properties of the T‐VIES‐it. Acceptable fit indexes were also found for the structural equations models tested. The modified model showed significant relations between learning goal orientation and the three dimensions of training motivation; and between the expectancy subscale and job support and intention to transfer.

The paper highlights that the T‐VIES‐it is a validated multidimensional assessment of training motivation, and the first its kind in Italian. The scale should provide value in training evaluations and in research related to training motivation.

Interest in psychological resilience has grown rapidly in the last couple of decades (Britt, Sinclair, & McFadden, 2016; King & Rothstein, 2010; Youssef & Luthans, 2007). Psychological resilience occurs when a person can “recover, re-bound, bounce-back, adjust or even thrive” in the face of adversity (Garcia-Dia, DiNapoli, Garcia-Ona, Jakubowski, & O’flaherty, 2013, p. 264). As such, resilience can be conceptualized as a state-like and malleable construct that can be enhanced in response to stressful events (Kossek & Perrigino, 2016). It incorporates a dynamic process by which individuals use protective factors (internal and external) to positively adapt to stress over time (Luthar, Cicchetti, & Becker, 2000; Rutter, 1987). Building on the dual-pathway model of resilience, we integrate adaptive and proactive coping to the resilience development process and add a heretofore unexamined perspective to the ways in which resilience changes over time. We propose that resilience development trajectories differ depending on the type of adversity or stress experienced in combination with the use of adaptive and proactive coping. We outline the need for future longitudinal studies to examine these relationships and the implications for developing resilience interventions in the workplace.

This paper aimed to investigate how older and younger workers are perceived in terms of Big Five personality and task and contextual performance. Based on the intergroup bias phenomenon, the authors also examined whether respondent age would moderate these effects.

Participants (n=155) completed a paper survey in which they were randomly assigned to rate either a “typical” younger employee or a “typical” older employee. They filled out questionnaires containing measures of perceived personality factors and perceived job performance of an older or younger worker.

As predicted, older and younger workers were perceived differently in terms of certain Big Five personality factors and organizational citizenship behavior. These perceived differences generally reflected actual age-related differences on these variables. However, respondents' age moderated many of these effects, such that respondents' perceptions favored their own age group.

These studies illustrate that dimensions such as perceived Big Five personality and job performance may be useful for examining workplace age stereotypes. They also illustrate that respondent age may affect these perceptions of older and younger workers.

This study goes beyond previous studies focused on the examination of general age bias. Indeed, this is the first study that examines perceptions of personality and performance dimensions of older and younger workers in a field setting. Such perceptions may have an impact on the decisions that managers make regarding older and younger workers (e.g. selection, promotions).

Dashang refers to a reward given voluntarily to street performers in return for their performance. Some social media platforms have created a way to integrate this as a function, referred to as the dashang feature, to allow users to reward live performers online as well. Over the last few years, this function has become extremely popular among social media users, as it recreates the nostalgic experience of watching street performances. Platforms now consider it indispensable, as it has become a source of substantial revenue (commission on rewards earned by performers). However, not all users reward performers. For each user who pays, there are many more who lurk on the platform. This study examines the reasons for these differences using the Big Five personality perspective and justice theory.

We develop an empirical model using the Big Five theory and justice theory and test it using empirical data collected through a survey of WeChat users.

The results indicate that distributive justice, interpersonal justice and informational justice are essential factors in relation to social media users' use of the dashang feature. It is also found that personality type affects these three factors.

This study makes three key contributions. First, it examines the factors that influence users' voluntary use of the dashang feature using the lenses of the Big Five theory and justice theory. Second, this study extends previous results on perceived justice to examine use of the dashang feature in social media. Third, this study applies these theories to the study of consumer behavior by exploring the role of user characteristics in social media use.

In this chapter the relationship between job design and older workers is considered. Starting from a conceptual definition of what the concept job and work design is, we consider theoretic approaches to the study of job design over the last decades, including recent frameworks, measurement, and research. We follow this with a specific focus on the topic of job design for older workers. We argue that the rules of “good job design” are not applicable to all workers, focusing specifically on the issues of age and career stage. We next show through a theoretical model and some empirical research that some job characteristics may be more suitable or beneficial for people in older age groups or later stages of their careers (e.g., Truxillo, Cadiz, Rineer, Zaniboni, & Fraccaroli, 2012). Empirical support for the role of age in job design is considered. We conclude by defining some avenues for future research, including the identification of additional factors that may determine how age and job characteristics affect worker behavior, attitudes, and well-being.