Motivating the Aging Workforce: A New Perspective

Traditionally, the role of motivation in the work place has been tailored to the average worker. In a lot of motivational research, the common focus revolves around how to motivate employees to be the best and most productive version of themselves. As today’s workforce is becoming increasingly dominated by an aging population of workers, the image of the average worker changes. The average age of retirement is on the climb and as a result recent literature in Industrial/Organizational Psychology has begun to focus upon how to how effectively motivate the aging and elderly portion of the workforce. In addition, recent research has begun to focus on how to properly motivate employees to maintain an optimal level of performance as they age. The

Valentine et al. (1998) were interested in understanding the association between job attitudes and intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. To test this relationship, they analyzed the results of the National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Market Experience—Old Cohort which was a survey sent out to 3358 people between the ages of 45-59. The sample was divided into groups by individuals who either mentioned intrinsic motivations to work, extrinsic motivations to work, or both extrinsic and intrinsic motivations. The researchers then randomly selected 500 respondents from each of the three groups and compared the levels of job satisfaction between the three. They found that the level of job satisfaction was higher for individuals who mentioned either intrinsic or both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for working. These findings show that the findings of Deci (1971) are also applicable in the world of development/life-span motivation and they highlight the importance of motivating older employees

Cohn (1979) was interested in determining how age may change or mediate the results of previous studies related to motivation and satisfaction at work. He hypothesized that there would be a negative relation between a worker’s age and their satisfaction levels from work. To test his hypothesis, Cohn sent a series of questions related to worker satisfaction and economic satisfaction to over 500 workers ranging from 21-64. He found that worker satisfaction declined significantly over age. The data suggests that the satisfaction with pay, job security, and interest in the work are not the cause for the decline in worker satisfaction. Rather, the findings suggest that as a worker ages the levels of satisfaction are being transferred into the consequences of work. These findings suggest that it is not the type of work or quality of work that are important, instead, it is the degree to which this work continues that determines satisfaction from work. The further implications of these findings offer the potential to mediate the effect of decreasing satisfaction from work if employers can decrease the consequences of working as an employee