Gedrag & Organisatie

Drawing on the Selection-Optimization-Compensation theory and the Job Demands-Resources model this study addresses the following research questions: (1) are there mean differences in the perceived levels of particular job characteristics between employees from different age groups; and (2) to what extent does the relationship between job characteristics and work outcomes (i.e., job strain and work enjoyment) differ across age groups? Data were collected from a sample of 15,464 employees, of which 3,850 were younger than 35 (young group), 7,273 were between 36 and 45 (middle group), and 4,341 were older than 45 (old group). Significant age differences were found in the levels of job characteristics: Young employees are most positive about their relationships with their colleagues and direct supervisor, and report to have the lowest levels of workload; employees from the middle group report to have the highest levels of role conflict; employees from the oldest age group perceive to have the highest levels of autonomy, and perceive more than other employees to be confronted with hindering changes at work. In addition, the strength of the relationship between job characteristics and work outcomes differed across age groups, although differences were rather small. From this we conclude that HR management should focus on creating high-quality jobs for all employees, young and old.

Building on theoretical frameworks like the Job Demands Control model we tested whether the relationship between workload and employees’ experiences of opportunities for workplace learning is of an inverted u-shaped nature. Furthermore we researched whether autonomy moderates this relationship. We predicted that at moderate levels of autonomy rising workload was associated with increasing learning opportunities at low levels of workload, but with decreasing learning opportunities at high levels of workload. Also, we predicted that low autonomy prevents positive effects of moderate workload from materializing whereas high autonomy makes high workload less destructive to the learning process. We found support for these ideas in a large and heterogeneous sample of Flemish working adults (FWM, 2010). These results integrate conflicting prior findings and extend Karasek’s (1979) active learning hypothesis. They also have clear implications for job redesign practices aiming to promote workplace learning opportunities.

Workplace bullying leads to negative consequences and should be prevented. Studies investigating antecedents of bullying showed however two shortcomings. First, they mainly focused on targets, so little is known about perpetrators. Second, they rarely used theoretical frameworks to structure the antecedents. Therefore, this study aims to apply the Job Demands-Resources (JDR) model to being a perpetrator of bullying. We hypothesized that job demands related positively and job resources related negatively to being a perpetrator of bullying. We assumed an interaction effect between demands and resources and expected exhaustion to mediate the relationship between demands, resources and being a perpetrator. The results (N = 706) showed a significant interaction: job resources buffered the positive relation between job demands and being a perpetrator. No evidence was found for the direct effects and for exhaustion as a mediator. In summary, the JDR model is a valuable framework to explain being a perpetrator of bullying: job demands and resources interact in the prediction of being a perpetrator. Future studies may focus on other mediators that could explain this relationship.

This paper investigates employees’ preferences for working after their retirement age and the (personal and organizational) factors that are related to those preferences. The study was conducted among 474 employees of three elderly care organizations. The results demonstrated that there are four after retirement work-profiles, namely: a work-profile in which the employee prefers to (1) work less; (2) keep the existing work-profile more or less the same, (3) modify the content of their work, (4) change the work context. Further analyses demonstrated that with increasing age, preferences to change the content of the work or the context of the work decrease. Contrarily, employees with a higher education have the preference for a work-profile with modified work content and have higher preference to work in another work context after their retirement. Further, the results displayed that employees who experience an accommodative organizational climate want to modify their job tasks and prefer to work somewhere else. Contrastingly, employees that experience a development organizational climate and psychological contract fulfillment want to modify their work involvement as little as possible.

In this article we discuss the use of IRT for the development and application of noncognitive measures in personnel selection and career development. We introduce the basic principles of IRT and we discuss the usefulness of IRT to evaluate the quality of items and tests to assess the measurement precision of a candidate’s trait level, and to investigate item and test bias. Furthermore, we describe several applications of IRT, including computerized adaptive testing and the development of item banks in an automated testing system. Finally, a list of software programs is provided to stimulate the use of IRT models.