COVID-19 has a direct impact on the employment of older people. This adds to the challenge of ageism. The World Health Organization has started a worldwide campaign to combat ageism and has called ...for more research and evidence-based strategies that have the potential to be scaled up. This study specifically aims to identify solutions to combat the adverse effects of COVID-19 on the global ageing workforce. We present 15 case studies from different countries and report on what those countries are doing or not doing to address the impact of COVID-19 on ageing workers. We provide examples of how COVID-19 influences older people's ability to work and stay healthy, and offer case studies of what governments, organizations or individuals can do to help ensure older people can obtain, maintain and, potentially, expand their current work. Case studies come from Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Germany, Israel, Japan, Nigeria, Romania, Singapore, Sweden, South Korea, Thailand, United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (US). Across the countries, the impact of COVID-19 on older workers is shown as widening inequalities. A particular challenge has arisen because of a large proportion of older people, often with limited education and working in the informal sector within rural areas, e.g. in Nigeria, Thailand and China. Remedies to the particular disadvantage experienced by older workers in the context of COVID are presented. These range from funding support to encouraging business continuity, innovative product and service developments, community action, new business models and localized, national and international actions. The case studies can be seen as frequently fitting within strategies that have been proven to work in reducing ageism within the workplace. They include policy and laws that have increased benefits to workers during lockdowns (most countries); educational activities such as coaching seniorpreneurship (e,g, Australia); intergenerational contact interventions such as younger Thai people who moved back to rural areas and sharing their digital knowledge with older people and where older people reciprocate by teaching the younger people farming knowledge. Global sharing of this knowledge among international, national and local governments and organizations, businesses, policy makers and health and human resources experts will further understanding of the issues that are faced by older workers. This will facilitate the replication or scalability of solutions as called for in the WHO call to combat ageism in 2021. We suggest that policy makers, business owners, researchers and international organisations build on the case studies by investing in evidence-based strategies to create inclusive workplaces. Such action will thus help to challenge ageism, reduce inequity, improve business continuity and add to the quality of life of older workers.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Only a few birds besides domestic pigeons and poultry can be described as domesticated. Therefore, keeping a pet bird can be challenging, and the human-avian relationship will have a major influence ...on the quality of this cohabitation. Studies that focus on characterizing the owner-bird relationship generally use adapted cat/dog scales which may not identify its specific features. Following a sociological approach, a concept of human-animal relationship was developed leading to three types of human-animal relationship (impersonal, personal, and close personal). This concept was used to develop a 21-item owner-bird-relationship scale (OBRS). This scale was applied to measure the relationship between pet bird owners (or keepers) (
= 1,444) and their birds in an online survey performed in Germany. Factor analysis revealed that the relationship between owner and bird consisted of four dimensions: the tendency of the owner to anthropomorphize the bird; the social support the bird provides for the owner; the empathy, attentiveness, and respect of the owner toward the bird; and the relationship of the bird toward the owner. More than one quarter of the German bird owners of this sample showed an impersonal, half a personal, and less than a quarter a close personal relationship to their bird. The relationship varied with the socio-demographic characteristics of the owners, such as gender, marital status, and education. This scale supports more comprehensive quantitative research into the human-bird relationship in the broad field of human-animal studies including the psychology and sociology of animals as well as animal welfare and veterinary medicine.
The growing age diversity in organizations in most industrialized economies provides opportunities to motivate both older and younger workers by enabling them to benefit from each other through ...knowledge transfer. In this study, we integrate self-determination theory with socioemotional selectivity theory to argue that the alignment between workers' age and their roles in knowledge transfer can generate motivational benefits for them. More specifically, we argue that receiving knowledge from coworkers (i.e., actor knowledge receiving) is more closely aligned with younger workers' goal priorities, whereas having coworkers receive one's knowledge (i.e., partner knowledge receiving) is more closely aligned with older workers' goal priorities. We expect that these motivational benefits manifest in younger and older workers' need fulfillment at work, which can shape their subsequent intention to remain with the organization. We used an actor-partner interdependence model to test our hypotheses with time-lagged data from a sample of 173 age-diverse coworker dyads and found support for most of our hypotheses. The age-specific motivational perspective that we adopt has implications for self-determination theory and research on knowledge transfer and mentoring.
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CEKLJ, FFLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PEFLJ, UPUK
In this research, we examine how high-quality contact can facilitate employees’ coworker support and explain why the benefits of high-quality contact are contingent upon age. First, we employ a ...social mindfulness lens to decipher the motivational mechanisms of high-quality contact with coworkers on providing coworker support via coworker-oriented perspective taking and empathic concern. Second, we utilize socioemotional selectivity theory to overcome the current age-blind view on workplace interactions and examine the indirect moderating effect of age via future time perspective on the link between contact quality, social mindfulness, and coworker support. We tested our hypotheses based on data from a sample of 575 employees collected in three waves. Results showed that both coworker-oriented perspective taking and empathic concern mediated the positive effects of contact quality on coworker support. The effect of contact quality on coworker-oriented empathic concern was stronger for older employees with a more constrained future time perspective as compared to younger employees with a more extensive future time perspective. Overall, we extend research on aging, workplace interactions, and support behavior by linking the literature on these topics using a social mindfulness lens and by adding employee age and age-related mechanisms as important boundary conditions that qualify the outcomes of positive workplace contact.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
To determine whether elevated serum polyclonal free light chain (FLC) levels predict mortality in a population of individuals with chronic kidney disease (CKD).
From January 2, 2006, through July 31, ...2007, we recruited a cohort of 848 people with CKD who were not receiving renal replacement therapy and did not have monoclonal gammopathy. We measured serum kappa FLC and lambda FLC isotype levels to determine combined FLC (cFLC) levels. The cohort was prospectively followed up for a median of 63 months (interquartile range, 0-93 months). Cox regression analysis was performed to determine variables predictive of mortality.
High cFLC levels were an independent risk factor for death (hazard ratio HR, 2.71; 95% CI, 1.98-3.70; P<.001). Other independent risk factors were age (HR, 1.79; 95% CI, 1.52-2.10; P<.001), South Asian ethnicity (HR, 0.33; 95% CI, 0.14-0.64; P=.02), preexisting cardiovascular disease (HR, 1.59; 95% CI, 1.09-2.31; P=.02), and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (HR, 1.13; 95% CI, 1.00-1.28; P=.04). Neither estimated glomerular filtration rate nor albuminuria was an independent risk factor for death.
High cFLC levels independently predict mortality in people with CKD.
The nature of the consequences of knowledge hiding, defined as an intentional attempt to withhold knowledge that has been requested, and the mechanisms through which knowledge hiding affects outcomes ...are undertheorized. In this research, we propose that knowledge hiding can evoke guilt and shame in the knowledge hiding perpetrator. We zoom into the three types of knowledge hiding – evasive hiding, playing dumb, and rationalized hiding – and predict that the more deceptive knowledge hiding types, namely evasive hiding and playing dumb, evoke stronger feelings of guilt and shame than rationalized hiding. We further argue that guilt and shame trigger differential emotion‐based reparatory mechanisms, such that guilt induces the motivation to correct one's transgressions through organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB), whereas shame induces the tendency to withdraw after hiding knowledge, as reflected in lower levels of OCB. We test the proposed positive indirect relation between knowledge hiding and OCB via guilt, and the proposed negative indirect relation via shame in a scenario‐based experiment and a two‐wave field study. The studies provided support for most of our hypotheses. We discuss how the proposed emotion pathway can facilitate nuanced theorizing about consequences of knowledge hiding for different types of negative emotions and subsequent compensatory work behaviours.
Practitioner points
Hiding knowledge from colleagues can lead to experiences of guilt and shame. Playing dumb (in contrast to evasive hiding and rationalized hiding) in particular elicits these negative emotional experiences. Practitioners should therefore aim to prevent knowledge hiding, and especially playing dumb, in organizations.
Guilt and shame elicit differential action tendencies in knowledge hiding perpetrators, which entails that negative emotions as a result of playing dumb can sometimes lead to positive behavioural consequences.
To effectively manage the consequences of knowledge hiding, practitioners should try to elicit constructive negative emotions (guilt) rather than destructive emotions (shame) as a reaction to employees' knowledge hiding. This can facilitate employees' compensation for their transgressions through organizational citizenship behaviour, rather than withdrawal from the situation.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
To get their work done and achieve their daily work-related goals, employees seek knowledge from their coworkers. While the benefits of knowledge seeking have been established in the literature, we ...have yet to understand the potential downsides of daily knowledge seeking. We adopt a cognitive perspective to carve out the negative effect of daily knowledge seeking, while controlling for its established positive effect via perceived learning. Based on cognitive load theory, we argue that daily knowledge seeking produces intrinsic cognitive load that can hinder daily goal attainment through the experience of knowledge overload and subsequent resource depletion. However, the relational context in which knowledge seekers interact with knowledge sources represents an important contextual boundary condition. Coworker contact quality can mitigate the effect of knowledge seeking on knowledge overload because high coworker contact quality reduces extraneous (i.e., ineffective) and increases germane (i.e., productive) cognitive load that knowledge seekers experience when navigating the social interaction with knowledge sources. Under this condition, cognitive capacity is freed up and knowledge overload is less likely to occur. Based on an experience sampling study in which we collected data across 10 working days from 189 German employees, we found support for our hypotheses. An employee's knowledge seeking had a negative indirect effect on goal attainment via knowledge overload and subsequent resource depletion, however, the downsides of daily knowledge seeking became less pronounced when coworker contact quality increased. We discuss the implications of our findings for research on knowledge seeking and resource exchange behaviors.
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CEKLJ, FFLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PEFLJ, UPUK
In this paper, we investigate the risks and side effects of workplace friendships for coworkers. Combining the dialectical perspective on workplace friendships with a self-regulatory perspective, we ...argue that workplace friendships can lead to incivility directed toward coworkers because employees experience inter-role conflict between their role as “employee” and their role as “friend”, and subsequent resource depletion. We further suggest that employees with higher workplace friendship self-efficacy are better able to manage these risks and side effects. We tested our hypotheses in two studies with time-lagged data (Study 1: 451 employees, Study 2: 499 employees) using structural equation modeling. Study 1 showed that workplace friendships are positively related to incivility via inter-role conflict and subsequent resource depletion. Workplace friendship self-efficacy buffered the indirect relation between workplace friendships and incivility. Study 2 partly replicated and extended the findings from Study 1. We found support for the serial mediation effect of workplace friendship on incivility via inter-role conflict and resource depletion and we were able to extend Study 1 by disentangling the targets of incivility. In particular, employees instigated incivility toward other coworkers rather than their workplace friends. However, the moderating effect of workplace friendship self-efficacy did not replicate. Our findings contribute to the literatures on workplace friendships and role conflicts.
•Workplace friendships can lead to incivility at work.•Employees instigated incivility toward other coworkers rather than their workplace friends.•Inter-role conflict and resource depletion explain these detrimental effects.•Employees with higher workplace friendship self-efficacy seem better able to manage these detrimental effects
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Summary
Increasing age diversity in the workplace has led to growing research attention to the knowledge transfer between older and younger employees. The existing literature on age‐diverse knowledge ...exchange has mostly focused on knowledge transfer from older to younger employees as a means of knowledge retention. In this study, we change perspectives by aiming to understand how and when older employees' knowledge seeking from younger coworkers is related to their successful aging at work (i.e., the motivation and ability to continue working). Grounded in the self‐regulatory process model of successful aging at work, we predict two countervailing pathways: a positive self‐enhancing path via perceived learning and a negative self‐protective path via embarrassment. In a time‐lagged study with 764 older employees, we found that their knowledge seeking from younger coworkers was positively related to motivation to continue working and workability via perceived learning and negatively related to workability via embarrassment. We further examined older employees' positive intergenerational affect as a boundary condition and found a buffering effect on the negative path to workability. This research shows that knowledge transfer from younger to older employees is a net contributor to successful aging at work and embarrassment can be mitigated by positive intergenerational affect.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to identify organizational support practices that facilitate repatriate knowledge transfer (RKT) in order to overcome the lack of strategic utilization of ...repatriate knowledge.
Design/methodology/approach
– In Study 1, 134 repatriates responded to an online questionnaire and evaluated the organizational support that their organizations provided to facilitate RKT. In Study 2, 22 repatriates and human resource managers were interviewed. Interviewees were asked to assess to which extent the use of seven high-performance work practices – selection and staffing, training, career development, job design, performance appraisal, compensation and rewards, and internal communication – before, during, and after international assignments facilitated RKT. They also explained how these practices were implemented in their organizations.
Findings
– The results of Study 1 showed that organizations primarily provide administrative repatriation support, while more strategic and knowledge transfer-related support is missing. Study 2 indicated that certain support practices are more important for the utilization of repatriate knowledge than others. Knowledge-related debriefing sessions after repatriation and targeted internal communication mechanisms were seen as important enablers of RKT. In contrast, selection and financial rewards were not seen as relevant facilitators of RKT.
Originality/value
– Research on RKT reports that organizations still lack the right tools to harvest repatriate knowledge. This study indicates which organizational support practices appear to be most important for the facilitation of RKT, and provides some guidance regarding their implementation.
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