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doi: 10.1111/1748-8583.12000

How the impact of HR practices on employee wellbeing and performance changes with age
Dorien T.A.M. Kooij, Department of Human Resource Studies, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Tilburg University David E. Guest, Mike Clinton and Terry Knight, Department of Management, School of Social Science & Public Policy, Kings College London Paul G.W. Jansen and Josje S.E. Dikkers, Department of Management and Organization, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, VU University Amsterdam Human Resource Management Journal, Vol 23, no 1, 2013, pages 1835

With changing retirement ages and an aging workforce, interest is growing on the potential contribution of relevant bundles of HR practices in eliciting well-being and performance among aging workers. Drawing on theories on lifespan development and self-regulation, we distinguished two bundles of HR practices: development HR practices that help individual workers reach higher levels of functioning (e.g. training), and maintenance HR practices that help individual workers maintain their current levels of functioning in the face of new challenges (e.g. performance appraisal). Further, based on lifespan theories, we expected and found that the association between development HR practices and well-being (i.e. job satisfaction, organisational commitment and organisational fairness) weakens, and that the associations between maintenance HR practices and well-being, and between development HR practices and employee performance, strengthen with age. In addition, a third bundle of job enrichment HR practices emerged that elicited higher job performance among aging workers. Contact: Dr Dorien T.A.M. Kooij, Department of Human Resource Studies, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Tilburg University, Warandelaan 2, 5037 AB, Tilburg, The Netherlands. Email: t.a.m.kooij@uvt.nl
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INTRODUCTION s workforces are aging around the world, research on the impact of HR practices on worker outcomes of aging workers is expanding (Rau and Adams, 2005; ArmstrongStassen, 2008). These studies focus, in particular, on HR practices tailored to older workers. Armstrong-Stassen and Ursel (2009), for example, found that training and development practices tailored to older workers increase older workers intention to remain via perceived organisational support. However, not much is known about how and why general HR practices (i.e. not older employee-specic; Taylor and Walker, 1998) inuence aging workers (Conway, 2004). Multiple studies have shown that these general HR practices, such as training and performance appraisal, have a positive inuence on employee well-being (in terms of happiness and relationships) and performance (Van de Voorde et al., 2011). However, as work-related motives have been found to change with age (Kooij et al., 2011), it might be that the inuence of HR practices also changes with age (Kooij et al., 2010). Therefore, in this study, we examine whether and how the associations between HR practices and employee well-being and performance change with age. In line with lifespan theories, such as the selection, optimisation and compensation (SOC) theory (Baltes et al., 1999), we argue that work-related motives, and thus the utility of HR practices, change with age. Therefore, we
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Please cite this article in press as: Kooij, D.T.A.M., Guest, D.E., Clinton, M., Knight, T., Jansen, P.G.W. and Dikkers, J.S.E. (2013) How the impact of HR practices on employee well-being and performance changes with age. Human Resource Management Journal 23: 1, 1835.

Dorien T.A.M. Kooij, David E. Guest, Mike Clinton, Terry Knight, Paul G.W. Jansen and Josje S.E. Dikkers

would expect that the relationships between HR practices experienced by employees on the one hand, and both employee well-being (i.e. job satisfaction, organisational commitment and organisational fairness) and employee performance (i.e. job performance) on the other hand, are moderated by age (see also Peccei, 2004). With this study, we aim to contribute to the literature on HR practices for aging workers in two ways: rst, by introducing two bundles of HR practices relevant for aging workers, and second, by providing and testing a theoretical rationale or underlying mechanism that might explain why certain HR practices are more or less strongly associated with the well-being and performance of aging workers. HR practices, employee well-being and performance HR practices have been argued and found to elicit both employee well-being and performance (Appelbaum et al., 2000; Guest, 2002, 2011). More specically, scholars argue that HR practices (whether labelled high-performance or high-commitment HR practices) result in heightened performance through increased discretionary effort by providing opportunities to participate, and by enhancing skills and motivation. This line of reasoning is supported by the ability, motivation and opportunity (AMO) model of performance, which proposes that individual performance is a function of the individuals abilities, motivation and opportunity to contribute (Appelbaum et al., 2000). Furthermore, HR practices result in positive work-related attitudes and behaviour through the norm of reciprocity (Guest, 2002). This line of reasoning is supported by social exchange (Blau, 1964) and signalling theories (Bowen and Ostroff, 2004) that propose that HR practices affect employees by supporting them or by functioning as signals of the organisations intentions towards them. Here, the general assumption is that individual workers view HR practices as a personalised commitment to them, an investment in them and as recognition of their contribution, which they reciprocate through positive attitudes towards the organisation and positive behaviour. In studies on the associations among HR practices, employee well-being and performance, well-being has been conceptualised in a variety of ways (Van de Voorde et al., 2011). According to Danna and Griffin (1999), employee well-being takes the whole employee into consideration. Similarly, Grant et al. (2007) and Warr (1987) dene work-related well-being as the overall quality of an employees experience and functioning at work. Therefore, employee well-being refers to employees overall experience or affect towards both the job and the organisation. Grant et al. (2007) distinguish psychological well-being (i.e. happiness) which focuses on the subjective experiences of individuals, physical well-being (i.e. health) which refers to objective physiological measures and subjective experiences of bodily health, and social well-being (i.e. relationships) which refers to the quality of ones relationships with other people and communities. As Van de Voorde et al. (2011) found that HR practices have a positive inuence on psychological (happiness) and social (relationship) well-being, but not on physical (health) well-being, we include psychological well-being (i.e. organisational commitment and job satisfaction) and social well-being (i.e. organisational fairness) (Grant et al., 2007) in this study. These outcome variables are important for understanding the inuence of age. Kooij et al. (2010) found that the associations of HR practices with satisfaction and commitment change with age. Furthermore, Maurer et al. (2003) found that supervisors often hold stereotypical views on older workers, which might result in discriminatory decisions with respect to promotions or training, and thus inuence the association between HR practices and organisational fairness. Finally, although recent research reveals that employee performance in general does not decrease with age (Ng and Feldman, 2008), many stereotypical views on older workers performance (Maurer et al., 2003) exist. Therefore, employee performance is an
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How the impact of HR practices changes with age

important outcome in this study, operationalised as self-rated job performance. As these work outcomes are particularly affected by employees perceptions of HR practices, we focus on HR practices as experienced by employees (Guest, 1999). In line with AMO, social exchange and signalling theories, recent studies (e.g. Liao et al., 2009) demonstrated that HR practices can elicit both employee well-being and performance. However, as work-related motives change with age (Kooij et al., 2011), we expect that the utility of HR practices designed to full these motives, and thus the associations between HR practices and worker outcomes, will change with age. HR practices, employee well-being and performance: age as a moderator In order to formulate hypotheses on the moderating effect of age, we distinguish two theoretically meaningful HR bundles. According to MacDuffie (1995), HR bundles should consist of interrelated and internally consistent HR practices built around an organisational logic (see also Guest et al., 2004). In line with Toh et al. (2008), we distinguish between bundles of HR practices by the shared goals of the specic HR practices. We extract these goals from the SOC (Baltes et al., 1999) and regulatory focus theories (Higgins, 1997). SOC theory is a theory on successful lifespan development that proposes that individuals have different life goals to which they allocate their resources: growth (i.e. reaching higher levels of functioning), maintenance (i.e. maintaining current levels of functioning in the face of new challenges) and regulation of loss (i.e. functioning adequately at lower levels). These lifespan goals are often translated (e.g. Ebner et al., 2006) into goal orientations, with a focus on either promotion or on prevention as distinguished by the regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 1997). According to Higgins (1997), aspirations and accomplishments involve a promotion focus, whereas responsibilities and safety involve a prevention focus. Drawing on these theories and studies, we distinguish two HR bundles: development (promotion) and maintenance (prevention) HR practices (see also Kooij et al., 2010). Based on the denitions of promotion and prevention in regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 1997), and of growth and maintenance in SOC theory (Baltes et al., 1999), we conceptualise maintenance HR practices as those related to protection, safety and responsibility that help individual workers maintain their current levels of functioning in the face of new challenges, or return to previous levels after a loss (such practices include performance appraisal), and development HR practices as those related to advancement, growth and accomplishment that help individual workers achieve higher levels of functioning (e.g. training). Similarly, Kuvaas (2008) denes the perception of developmental HR practices as the degree to which employees perceive that their developmental needs are being supported by the organisations HR practices. As age-related losses, in physical abilities for example, specically occur in later age, the SOC theory further argues that as individuals age, they will allocate fewer resources towards growth, and more resources towards maintenance and regulation of loss (Baltes et al., 1999). This proposition is supported by Freund (2006), who, using an experimental design, found that the regulatory focus shifts from being primarily on promotion in young adulthood to maintenance and prevention in later adulthood (see also Kanfer and Ackerman, 2004; Ebner et al., 2006). As a result, work motives change with age. De Lange et al. (2010) found, for example, that older workers are more focused on mastery-avoidance goals than younger workers, and Kooij et al. (2011) found that growth work motives decrease with age, whereas security and intrinsic work motives increase as workers age. As mentioned, these changing motives affect the utility of HR practices. Kinnie et al. (2005), for instance, found that workers with different needs respond differently to the HR practices
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Dorien T.A.M. Kooij, David E. Guest, Mike Clinton, Terry Knight, Paul G.W. Jansen and Josje S.E. Dikkers

they experience, and that this is linked to their affective commitment. Using a similar line of reasoning, Gong et al. (2009) proposed that middle managers needs determine the nature of their commitment (i.e. affective or continuance commitment), as a repayment, to the systems of HR practices of the rm. Hence, age-related changes in motives will inuence the utility of HR practices, and thus the relationship of these HR practices with employee well-being. Indeed, several studies (Conway, 2004; Kooij et al., 2010) found that associations between HR practices and worker attitudes change with age. As goal focus and employee work motives are expected to change, from a focus on promotion and a predominance of growth motives in young adulthood to a focus on maintenance and prevention, and a predominance of security motives as one ages (Kanfer and Ackerman, 2004), we expect the relationship between development HR practices and well-being to weaken, and the relationship between maintenance HR practices and well-being to strengthen, with age. In line with this reasoning, Finegold et al. (2002) found that satisfaction with opportunities to develop was more strongly related, and satisfaction with job security was less strongly related, to commitment and intention to remain in younger workers (i.e. aged under 30) than in older workers (i.e. aged over 45).
Hypothesis 1: The association between development HR practices experienced by employees and employee well-being weakens with age, such that this association is stronger among younger workers than older workers. Hypothesis 2: The association between maintenance HR practices experienced by employees and employee well-being strengthens with age, such that this association is weaker among younger workers than older workers.

On the other hand, some scholars (notably, Maurer, 2001; Farr and Ringseis, 2002; Armstrong-Stassen and Ursel, 2009) argue that HR practices aiming at development are particularly important for the performance of older workers. Farr and Ringseis (2002), for example, argue that training and development activities aimed at learning new skills are important to prevent obsolescence and constriction, which particularly occur among older workers. Furthermore, enriched job tasks (such as opportunities to serve as mentors or specialised technical experts) might increase older workers abilities, skills and opportunities to participate when hierarchical advancement is no longer likely. Thus, although the association between development HR practices and employee well-being weakens with age due to decreasing growth motives, the association between development HR practices and performance strengthens because development HR practices can combat age-related obsolescence and constriction.
Hypothesis 3: The association between development HR practices experienced by employees and employee performance strengthens with age, such that this association is weaker among younger workers than older workers.

METHOD Participants Data for this quantitative study were collected through a survey among employees of three organisations in the UK public sector (n = 21,104). Within these organisations, the structure of HRM is rather conventional, with an HR director supervising HR advisers and functional HR managers (e.g. staffing). To ensure an even age distribution in our sample, we selected 800
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employees at random within eight age groups: <20, 2124, 2529, 3034, 3539, 4044, 4549, >50. Our selected sample (of n = 6,400) was mostly male (88.4 per cent), with a broad range of job positions (e.g. in administration, engineering, logistics, medical services, etc.) and an average organisation tenure of 14.0 years [standard deviation (SD) = 11.0]. With respect to educational level, 23.2 per cent of the respondents had National Vocational Qualication (NVQ) 1/2 level or equivalent, 23.5 per cent had NVQ 3 level or equivalent, 14.7 per cent had NVQ 4/5 level or equivalent, 18.7 per cent had a bachelors degree, and 16.5 per cent had a masters degree. The average age was between 30 and 34 years. Finally, 42 per cent of the respondents had a management position. Measures HR practices HR practices were measured with eight items. Boxall and Macky (2009) note that HR practices refer both to work practices (i.e. practices related to how the work is organised) and employment practices (i.e. practices used to recruit, develop and motivate employees). Based on the AMO model (Appelbaum et al., 2000) and earlier reviews on HR practices (Boselie et al., 2005; Combs et al., 2006), we included eight work and employment HR practices that inuence the ability (e.g. training), motivation (e.g. performance appraisal) and opportunity to perform (e.g. information sharing). An example item is During the past 12 months have you had a formal performance appraisal? (all items can be found in the Appendix). Following the majority of studies on HR practices (Boselie et al., 2005), we measured the presence of HR practices, reected in employees experiences, with the answer alternatives yes, no or not sure. In line with suggestions by Boselie et al. (2005), we pre-specied our HR bundles by conceptually distinguishing between bundles of development and maintenance HR practices based on the SOC and regulatory focus theories. As noted earlier, maintenance HR practices are HR practices related to protection, safety and responsibilities that help individual workers maintain their current levels of functioning in the face of new challenges or return to previous levels after a loss. The HR practices included in this bundle are a formal performance appraisal, career advice, as much information as needed to do the job and a chance to give ideas for improvement. As such, we consider information on ones performance, and on ones job tasks, career advice and opportunities for participation as job resources that help employees deal with the new challenges they might face as they age (see also Demerouti et al., 2001). For example, performance appraisal gives aging workers, who might experience deterioration in their working memory, information about how this deterioration inuences their performance. Development HR practices are those HR practices related to advancement, growth and accomplishment that help individual workers achieve higher levels of functioning. The HR practices included in this bundle are formal training to improve operational skills, formal training to develop knowledge and skills for future jobs, a challenging job, and a job that makes full use of training, knowledge and skills. Earlier studies on development HR practices (e.g. Zaleska and de Menezes, 2007; Kuvaas, 2008) also included training and a challenging job in their development bundles. We expect that the HR practices within these HR bundles reinforce each other (i.e. a challenging job is more likely to make full use of training, knowledge and skills; Chadwick, 2010), and as such are positively synergistic (Delery, 1998). According to Chadwick (2010), the presence of positive synergistic bundles of HR practices can be tested by covariation methods, such as conrmatory factor analysis (CFA). Therefore, to test the distinction between development and maintenance HR practices, we performed CFA (Jreskog and Srbom, 1996) using Lisrel 8.80 on a wider subsample of n = 16,053 with an even distribution of age (29,
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Dorien T.A.M. Kooij, David E. Guest, Mike Clinton, Terry Knight, Paul G.W. Jansen and Josje S.E. Dikkers

3039, 40). Because CFA cannot be performed with dichotomous variables, we rst calculated tetrachoric correlations based on the cross-tabulations between all HR practices experienced by employees (Glckner-Rist and Hoijtink, 2003; Uebersax, 2006). We tested a two-, one- and three-factor model (see upper part of Table 1). These analyses revealed a better t for the proposed two-factor model than for a one-factor model [Dc2 (1) = 3226.29], but a better t for a three-factor model than for the proposed two-factor model [Dc2 (2) = 5815.39]. The chi-square is high (signifying bad t) in all models, but this may result from the large number of observations used in this study. Therefore, we follow Hu and Bentler (1998) in using multiple indices of t, including the comparative t index, non-normed t index and goodness of t index (all three preferably close to 0.95), and the root mean square error of approximation and standardised root mean residual (respectively, preferably 0.06 and 0.08 or lower). These t indices signify a good t in the three-factor model. Following CFA, a third HR bundle emerged. This HR bundle consists of HR practices related to having a job that is challenging, and that makes full use of training, knowledge and skills (which were initially identied as development HR practices). Therefore, we denote this HR bundle as the job enrichment HR bundle (see also the job characteristics model; Hackman and Oldham, 1976), leaving the development bundle containing two items concerned with formal training and development (which is common in HR research; Combs et al., 2006). The maintenance bundle remains unchanged. The total number of yes responses in an HR bundle was taken as a measure of the employee experience of that HR bundle (see also MacDuffie, 1995). As the perceived goal or content of the same HR practice might differ for employees in different age groups, we also performed a multigroup CFA on three age groups (29, 3039, 40). We tested models in which factor loadings (Model 1), error variances (Model 2) and factor covariances (Model 3) were subsequently set invariant across the three age groups (see middle part of Table 1). Although the model in which factor loadings, error variances and factor covariances varied across age groups was signicantly better than models in which factor loadings, error variances or factor covariances were set invariant across the three age groups [respectively, D c2 (10) = 148.4 p < 0.001; D c2 (26) = 248.5 p < 0.001; D c2 (38) = 454.8 p < 0.001], the other t indices showed that these parameters were highly similar for all three age groups. Moreover, the t indices of the three-factor model were acceptable in each age group (see lower part of Table 1), and this model was signicantly better than a two- or one-factor model in each age group. Therefore, we decided to continue with the three-factor model. Organisational commitment Organisational commitment was measured with a four-item version of the Allen and Meyer (1990) eight-item affective commitment scale (e.g. I feel like part of the family in the organization). Answer alternatives ranged from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). Reliability coefficients (bold) are reported in Table 2. Job satisfaction Job satisfaction was a global measure with three items based on Warr et al. (1979) (e.g. All in all, I am satised with my current job). Answer alternatives ranged from very dissatised (1) to very satised (5). Organisational fairness Organisational fairness was measured with three items (Sweeney and McFarlin, 1997) (e.g. In general, disciplinary actions taken in the organization are fair). Answer alternatives ranged from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). Job performance Job performance was measured with a three-item scale based on Petit et al. (1997) (e.g. Compared to other colleagues with a similar job position, how would you rate your
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TABLE 1 CFA testing a two-, one- and three-factor model of the HR practices for the whole sample, and the three-factor model across three age groups
c2 df Dc2 19 20 17 51 61 77 89 17 17 17 0.96 0.93 0.92 0.93 0.88 0.87 0.96 0.95 0.95 0.04 0.05 0.05 0.95 0.94 0.94 0.94 0.94 0.91 0.93 0.93 0.94 0.93 0.93 0.93 0.05 0.06 0.06 0.06 0.11 0.10 0.09 0.09 0.10 0.11 0.11 0.84 0.80 0.93 0.77 0.71 0.89 0.89 0.86 0.95 0.09 0.10 0.05 0.16 0.18 0.11 CFI NNFI GFI SRMR RMSEA Chi-square difference test Ddf

Model

How the impact of HR practices changes with age

3226.29 5815.39

1* 2*

Two-factor model 10365.11* One-factor model 13591.40* Three-factor model 4549.72* Three-factor model across three age groups M0 3233.32* M1 (factor loadings equal) 3381.74* M2 (plus error variances equal) 3481.86* M3 (plus factor covariances equal) 3688.14* Three-factor model in three age groups Age group 1 864.40* Age group 2 1170.01* Age group 3 1198.90*

148.42 248.54 454.82

10* 26* 38*

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* p < 0.001. CFI, comparative t index; NNFI, non-normed t index; GFI, goodness of t index; SRMR, standardised root mean residual; RSMEA, root mean square error of approximation; CFA, conrmatory factor analysis.

TABLE 2 Means (M), standard deviations (SD), correlations and reliability coefficients (bold) of key variables
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

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Mean

SD

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Gender (M = 0, F = 1) Educational level Hierarchical level Age Development HR Maintenance HR Job enrichment HR Commitment Satisfaction Fairness Job performance 0.03* -0.03* -0.18*** 0.02 -0.04** -0.04** -0.03* -0.04** -0.02 -0.11*** 0.57*** 0.33*** -0.04** 0.15*** 0.02 0.14*** 0.09*** 0.13*** -0.01 0.48*** -0.11*** 0.23*** 0.09*** 0.26*** 0.16*** 0.27*** -0.06*** -0.28*** 0.18*** 0.07*** 0.24*** 0.19*** 0.13*** 0.19*** 0.20*** 0.23*** 0.09*** 0.14*** 0.13*** -0.03* 0.33*** 0.31*** 0.35*** 0.35*** 0.14*** 0.26*** 0.44*** 0.27*** 0.11***

0.12 2.72 0.42 4.50 0.99 2.64 1.43 3.48 3.65 3.40 3.34

0.32 1.50 0.49 2.29 0.82 1.16 0.76 0.95 0.96 0.86 0.82

0.88 0.64*** 0.44*** 0.17***

0.86 0.42*** 0.21***

0.67 0.04**

0.91

n = 6,400. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001.

Dorien T.A.M. Kooij, David E. Guest, Mike Clinton, Terry Knight, Paul G.W. Jansen and Josje S.E. Dikkers

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current overall performance?). Answer alternatives ranged from below average (1) to right at the very top (5). Age Age was measured by asking employees to which age category they belonged (<20, 2024, 2529, 3034, 3539, 4044, 4549, 5054, >55). Control variables Control variables included gender (0 = male, 1 = female), educational level [ranging from (1) NVQ 1/2 level to (5) a masters degree] and hierarchical level (1 = management position). We control for these variables because they may be signicantly related to the outcome variables in this study (e.g. Sweeney and McFarlin, 1997; Zaleska and de Menezes, 2007; Kuvaas, 2008). Statistical analyses To test our hypotheses, we used regression analyses with two-way interaction effects. Following Aiken and West (1991), the independent variables were standardised, signicant interactions were plotted with one SD below and one above the mean, and we calculated the simple slopes of the interaction effects one SD below and one above the mean. RESULTS Means, SDs, correlations and reliability coefficients (bold) for the key variables are reported in Table 2. Table 2 reveals that all three bundles of HR practices are positively correlated with organisational commitment, job satisfaction and organisational fairness, and that maintenance and job enrichment HR practices are positively correlated with job performance, whereas development HR practices are negatively correlated with job performance. Further, in line with previous research (Ng and Feldman, 2008, 2010), age is positively correlated with all worker outcomes, and with maintenance and job enrichment HR practices, but negatively correlated with development HR practices. HR practices, employee well-being and performance: age as a moderator Table 3 reports the results of the regression analyses with the interaction between age and the different bundles of HR practices as predictors of employee well-being and performance. This table reveals that Hypotheses 1 and 2 are both supported. Thus, the associations of development HR practices with commitment, satisfaction and organisational fairness weaken, and the associations of maintenance HR practices with commitment, satisfaction and organisational fairness strengthen with age (see Figures 1 and 2 for an illustration of the interaction effect of age on the associations between development and maintenance HR practices and organisational fairness, which was identical for the interaction effects on commitment and satisfaction). These results were further conrmed by simple slope tests. The slopes of the associations between development HR practices and commitment, satisfaction and organisational fairness were higher for employees with low age (i.e. one SD below mean age) or younger workers (respectively, B = 0.10, p < 0.001; B = 0.11, p < 0.001; B = 0.10, p < 0.001) than for employees with high age (i.e. one SD above mean age) or older workers (respectively, B = 0.06, p < 0.001; B = 0.05, p < 0.001; B = 0.03, p < 0.001). In contrast, the slopes of the associations between maintenance HR practices and commitment, satisfaction and organisational fairness were lower for younger workers (respectively, B = 0.15, p < 0.001; B = 0.16, p < 0.001; B = 0.15, p < 0.001) than for older workers (respectively, B = 0.20, p < 0.001; B = 0.22, p < 0.001; B = 0.25, p < 0.001).
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TABLE 3 Regression analyses with HR bundles and age as predictors of well-being and performance
Satisfaction R 0.07 -0.03* -0.01 0.17*** 195.09*** 0.14*** 0.07*** 0.20*** 0.33*** 138.22*** -0.04** 0.03** 0.01 0.18 216.26*** 0.25 -0.05*** 0.08*** -0.01 0.23*** 0.16*** 152.25*** 0.19 0.05*** -0.02 0.05*** 0.00 0.07*** 0.18 305.72*** 0.25 209.17*** 0.19 0.24*** -0.03* 0.12*** 0.08*** 67.57*** 0.10 -0.01 -0.03* 0.28*** 61.11*** 0.03 161.478*** 0.07 -0.11*** 0.04** -0.09*** 90.76*** 0.09
2

Commitment F 153.20*** b F R F R
2

Organisational fairness b
2

Job performance b F 35.59 R2 0.02

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Gender (M = 0, F = 1) Educational level Hierarchical level

-0.02 -0.02 0.27***

0.15*** 0.08***

Age Development HR practices Maintenance HR practices Job enrichment HR practices

0.19*** 0.16***

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-0.03*

0.03**

Age development HR practices Age maintenance HR practices Age job enrichment HR practices

-0.02

Note: These results were similar when organisation tenure was controlled for, although the inuence of age on organisational fairness was no longer signicant. n = 6,400. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001.

Dorien T.A.M. Kooij, David E. Guest, Mike Clinton, Terry Knight, Paul G.W. Jansen and Josje S.E. Dikkers

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FIGURE 1 Interaction between age and development HR practices in relation to organisational fairness

FIGURE 2 Interaction between age and maintenance HR practices in relation to organisational fairness
5 4.5
Organisational Fairness

4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 Low Maintenance HR High Maintenance HR Low Age High Age

With respect to the interaction between age and the different HR bundles as predictors of employee performance, Table 3 reveals that Hypothesis 3 is supported. Thus, the association between development HR practices and job performance strengthens with age. Figure 3 and simple slope tests reveal that the slope was negative for younger workers (B = -0.06, p < 0.001) and insignicant for older workers. Further, the association between job enrichment HR practices and job performance strengthens with age (see Figure 4). Simple slope tests conrmed that the slope was lower for younger workers (B = 0.03, p < 0.01) than for older workers (B = 0.10, p < 0.001).

DISCUSSION In this study, we introduced two bundles of HR practices for aging workers, and examined how their associations with well-being and performance change with age. The effects of age were as expected; the association between development HR practices and well-being weakens, and the association between maintenance HR practices and employee well-being strengthens with age.
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FIGURE 3 Interaction between age and development HR practices in relation to job performance

FIGURE 4 Interaction between age and job enrichment HR practices in relation to job performance

We use age as a proxy of changes in goal focus, and argue that aging individuals will apply regulation processes to accommodate age-related gains and losses over the lifespan (Warr, 2001; Kanfer and Ackerman, 2004). More specically, aging individuals will focus less on promotion and allocate fewer resources towards growth, but will focus on prevention and allocate their resources towards maintenance and regulation of loss (Baltes et al., 1999). Therefore, workrelated motives, and thus the utility of HR practices, will change with age. Development HR practices become less, and maintenance HR practices become more important for the workrelated well-being of aging workers. Furthermore, also in line with our hypothesis, we found that although the presence of development HR practices as experienced by employees decreases with age, the association between development HR practices and employee performance strengthens with age. However, simple slope tests revealed that development HR practices are negatively related to the job performance of younger workers and unrelated to the performance of older workers. Kuvaas (2008) also found no association between development HR practices and job performance
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in general, and a negative association when perceived organisational support, affective commitment, or procedural and interactional justice were low. Based on these ndings, Kuvaas (2008) concluded that employees perceiving a low quality employeeorganisation relationship (e.g. with low affective commitment) are more likely to respond opportunistically to development HR practices. Thus, rather than repaying the organisation for development HR practices, younger workers may respond to them in ways that full their own interests rather than those of the organisation, and so reduce performance levels. Other explanations might be that younger employees who had formal training in the past 12 months are still struggling with how to apply what they have learned, or that by offering training to younger employees, the organisation signals to these employees that their performance is below standard performance levels. In addition, it might be that aging workers do not suffer from obsolescence and constriction at all (i.e. self-rated performance increases with age), or that maintenance and job enrichment HR practices are sufficient to prevent and remediate this. Finally, we found that the association between job enrichment HR practices and job performance strengthens with age. As aging employees are increasingly motivated by intrinsic motives (e.g. Kooij et al., 2011), such as helping others, they might increasingly value enriched job tasks, such as the possibility to serve as a mentor, and reciprocate through higher levels of performance. Limitations and future research First, although the bundling of HR practices based on the worker-centred contingency of aging is innovative, the distinction between the different bundles of HR practices is somewhat ambiguous. Instead of nding two bundles of HR practices, as expected, we found three bundles of HR practices. As Boselie et al. (2005) noted, there is no accepted theory for classifying various practices into different bundles or categories. So, as with other categorisations of HR, one could argue that some HR practices t other bundles as well. For example, Zaleska and de Menezes (2007) operationalised development practices as training received, development opportunities and career management, and Kuvaas (2008) operationalised developmental HR practices as career development, training opportunities and performance appraisal. Therefore, future studies should examine the goals of different HR practices as experienced by employees. We have limited ourselves to one sector for our study, which is dominated by male workers. Future research should test (the effects of) our HR bundles in samples drawn from different companies in different sectors, including those with a higher proportion of female employees. Additionally, future research should try to include more HR practices in the respective HR bundles. Two of our bundles included two HR practices and one HR bundle included four HR practices. Although this is common in HR research (Combs et al., 2006), adding HR practices to the HR bundles will strengthen future studies. Second, our study is cross-sectional, making conclusions about causality impossible. While one might expect HR practices to lead to employee well-being and performance, it could be that employees who are more satised may have a more positive view of their work, and thus the HR practices offered. However, our measure of HR practices experienced by employees with a yes/no scale reects objective employee experience of HR practices (see also Wright et al., 2001), and is conceptually very different than the more subjective outcomes, such as satisfaction. Nevertheless, future research should examine the impact of HR practices by using a longitudinal design.
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Third, the data were collected from a single source (i.e. employees) using self-reporting, which might lead to common method bias (Podsakoff et al., 2003). However, as method bias cannot inate interaction effects (Siemsen et al., 2010), this is not an issue in our article. Besides, as this study focuses on employees perceptions of HR practices and their work-related outcomes, it is not feasible to obtain measures of these constructs from alternative sources. Furthermore, as mentioned, we deliberately measured HR practices experienced by employees with an objective yes/no answer scale to reduce confounding with the dependent variables (particularly with satisfaction) (Wright et al., 2001). Nevertheless, the self-report measure on performance is problematic because self-report measures on performance might be inated relative to objective or supervisory measures of performance (e.g. Borman, 1991). Although this ination creates consistent bias, reducing effects in the context of this study, future studies should include more objective measures of performance. Finally, although our moderator effects were signicant according to conventional standards (p < 0.001), the effect sizes were very small (DR2 = 0.0020.006, which is outside the typical range of DR2 = 0.010.03; Champoux and Peters, 1987). However, according to Champoux and Peters (1987), the increment in R2 is an inadequate description of the magnitude of the moderator effect. They propose to use a measure of the rate of change in slope as an alternative method for assessing the magnitude of the moderator effect. The simple slope tests we performed reveal that the moderator effects are relevant. Furthermore, as interactive effects are harder to detect, especially in eld studies, McClelland and Judd (1993) propose that obvious methods for increasing statistical power are to accept higher rates of type I error (see also Aguinis et al., 2005), or to increase the number of observations, which was done in this study. Theoretical contributions The ndings of this study have three main theoretical implications. First, we have added to the literature on HR policy and practices for aging workers by demonstrating that, in addition to HR practices specically tailored to aging workers (Armstrong-Stassen, 2008; ArmstrongStassen and Ursel, 2009), general HR practices are important to elicit well-being and performance among aging workers. Furthermore, building on Kooij et al. (2010), we introduced two bundles of HR practices: development HR practices that help individual workers reach higher levels of functioning (e.g. training), and maintenance HR practices that help individual workers maintain their current levels of functioning in the face of new challenges (e.g. performance appraisal). These bundles are helpful in theorising about the effects of HR practices on aging workers well-being and performance. Hence, we have offered a theoretical rationale and underlying mechanism that might explain why certain HR practices benet aging workers, while others do not. That is, because of age-related losses, goal focus and work motives are likely to shift away from growth towards maintenance and regulation of loss as employees age, thus changing the utility of certain HR practices for them. Apparently, the age-related regulating processes proposed by lifespan theories are relevant for coping with losses in the workplace as well. Second, we contribute to this literature by shedding more light on the role of development HR practices for aging workers. Whereas the SOC theory suggests that development HR practices become less important for aging workers, other authors argue that development HR practices are particularly important for older workers. Both views have found some support (Armstrong-Stassen and Ursel 2009; Kooij et al., 2010). In this article, we explain these mixed ndings by showing that, with age, development HR practices become more important (or less detrimental) for performance, but less important for well-being. In sum, as growth motives decrease with age, aging workers attach less value to development HR practices, and their
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association with well-being decreases with age, but at the same time aging workers increasingly need development HR practices to combat age-related obsolescence and constriction, and their association with performance increases with age. Third and nally, an important contribution of this study is that we identied job enrichment HR practices as a distinct HR bundle, in addition to the development HR bundle. The HR practices in this bundle consist of a challenging job that makes full use of ones training, knowledge and skills. These HR practices involve informal learning on the job through job enrichment, and also utilisation of (previously underutilised) knowledge and skills. Enriched jobs might include tasks, such as opportunities to serve as mentors, advisers or specialised technical experts, that full motives that are increasingly important for aging workers (e.g. intrinsic motives of helping others or interesting work; Kooij et al., 2011). As we also found that the association between job enrichment HR practices and employee performance increases with age, whereas the association between job enrichment HR practices and employee well-being does not change with age, job enrichment HR practices seem very important to increase the performance of aging workers. Practical implications Our results provide support for the suggestion that organisations should differentiate the general HR practices they offer to workers in different age groups, or at least be aware that they are likely to have different effects. For example, as the presence of development HR practices is particularly benecial for the performance of aging employees, HR practitioners should make sure that they offer formal training to their aging workers. Moreover, HR practitioners should offer their aging employees job enrichment HR practices because these are important for both aging workers well-being and their performance. Therefore, HR managers should ensure that aging workers have challenging jobs that make full use of their training, knowledge and skills. REFERENCES
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APPENDIX Items Measuring HR Practices During the past 12 months have you . . . (a) Had a formal performance appraisal? (b) Received any career advice? (c) Received as much information as you need to do your job? (d) Had formal training to improve operational skills? (e) Had formal training to develop knowledge and skills for future jobs? (f) Had a job that is challenging? (g) Made full use of your training, knowledge, and skills? (h) Had a chance to give ideas for improvements?

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