Talk about generations is everywhere and particularly so in organizational science and practice. Recognizing and exploring the ubiquity of generations is important, especially because evidence for their existence is, at best, scant.
Our recent paper on generations published in Public Policy & Aging Report has been featured in an OUP blog post.
When seeking information about the influence of generations, policy makers are often faced with more questions than answers. One reason for this is the nearly ubiquitous nature of generations. Generations have been used to explain every- thing from shifts in broadly defined social phenomena (e.g., antiwar movements; Dunham, 1998) to the demise of marmalade (Gough, 2018). Likewise, owing to the fact that the modern workplace offers increasing opportunities for interactions among (relatively) older and younger coworkers, generations and especially generational differences have been used to describe a number of work-related phenomena, processes, and policies (for reviews, see Costanza, Badger, Fraser, Severt, & Gade, 2012; Costanza & Finkelstein, 2015).
To address the challenges imposed by demographic change, organizations have become increasingly interested in maintaining and improving employees’ work ability across the working life span. Based on signaling and social exchange theories, we present a study that investigates the indirect influence of age inclusive human resource practices (AIHRP) on work ability through age diversity climate (ADC).
It is common to broadly group people of different ages into “generations” and to speak of distinctions between such groups in terms of “generational differences.” The problem with this practice, is that there exists no credible scientific evidence that a) generations exist, b) that people can be reliably classified into generational groups, and c) that there are demonstrable differences between such groups.
With COVID-19 presenting as a global pandemic, we have noticed an emerging rhetoric concerning “the COVID- 19 Generation,” both anecdotally and across various media outlets.
Grounded in lifespan development theories that posit a positive influence of aging on emotion regulation, we examine how chronological age and political skill (i.e., a work-related interpersonal competency that functions as an emotion-relevant resource) jointly moderate the relationships between within-person levels of empathy and the use of emotional labor strategies across a workweek.
Career commitment refers to individuals' dedication to their career, profession, or occupation, and has been studied for nearly four decades.