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1 Introduction

Since workforces are aging across the world, an important challenge for organizations is to find policies and practices encouraging older workers to remain motivated, productive and healthy contributors to organizational performance. Because motives and abilities change as people age (e.g., Kanfer & Ackerman, 2004; Kooij, De Lange, Jansen, Kanfer, & Dikkers, 2011), the utility and thus the effects of Human Resource (HR) practices might also change with age (Kooij, Jansen, Dikkers, & De Lange, 2010; Kooij et al., 2013). In addition, several researchers (e.g., Armstrong-Stassen & Schlosser, 2011; Bal, Kooij, & De Jong, 2013) have questioned whether universally applied HR practices are suitable for older workers. Insights into how organizations might respond to this challenge can be found in Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM), a research field focusing on how the management of human resources contributes to employee and organizational performance. Two insights of SHRM are particularly relevant for managing older workers.

First, SHRM literature emphasizes that employees, including older employees, can be a source of sustained competitive advantage. Based on the Resource Based View (RBV; Barney, 1991), SHRM scholars argue that since human resources are valuable, inimitable, rare, and nonsubstitutable, they allow the organization to diversify from competitors and thus build a competitive advantage (Boxall & Purcell, 2011). Likewise, all employees, regardless of their age, can be seen as renewable assets that can continue to deliver a high rate of return over a long period provided they are adequately educated, trained, and managed, according to the conservation HR philosophy introduced by Yeatts, Folt, and Knapp (2000). Thus, in order to maintain or improve the strategic contribution of older workers, organizations are wise to tailor their HR practices to the needs of older workers.

A second relevant insight from the SHRM literature is that employee attitudes and behaviors are crucial in the HRM – organizational performance relation (Guest, 2002; Messersmith, Patel, & Lepak, 2011; Nishii & Wright, 2008). Meta-analyzing empirical studies on the HRM – performance relationship supports the idea that HR practices have an influence on organizational outcomes via employee outcomes, such as motivation and performance (e.g., Jiang, Lepak, Hu, & Baer, 2012). The most important framework relating HR practices to employee performance is the Ability Motivation and Opportunities (AMO) model (Appelbaum, Bailey, Berg, & Kalleberg, 2000). Central to the AMO model (Appelbaum et al., 2000) is the idea that HR practices positively influence employee performance by enhancing employee skills, competencies and abilities (A), by stimulating employee motivation and commitment (M), and by providing skilled and motivated employees with the opportunity to perform (O). In addition, there has been a growing trend to integrate key aspects of the Job Demands-Resources (JDR) model (Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner, & Schaufeli, 2001) with the HRM literature (Van Veldhoven, 2012). Since the JDR model links job demands and resources to health outcomes, it can provide a better understanding of the effect of HR practices on employee health. Following the JDR model, HR practices can lead to higher job demands (e.g., role overload; Jensen, Patel, & Messersmith, 2013), activating a health impairment process. Both models provide important insights in the underlying processes linking HR practices and employee outcomes, and are thus useful to shed light on the role of aging in these processes.

This chapter contributes to a better understanding of how organizations can manage older workers’ motivation, health and performance in order to promote their strategic contribution. More specifically our aim is twofold. First, following the RBV and conservation model, we review the literature on HR policy and practices designed specifically for older workers. Second, building on the AMO and JDR model, we review theoretical arguments on the role of age and age-related factors in relations between universally applied HR practices and employee performance, motivation, and health. The rest of the chapter is organized as follows. In the next section, we discuss what happens when people age in order to understand the influence of aging at work. Next, we review the literature on HR practices for older workers and its effects. We then discuss the role of aging in relations between HRM and employee outcomes. Finally, we will highlight key knowledge gaps in the area and identify important lines for future research.

2 What Happens When People Age?

Age seems a very straightforward concept. However, age involves many more things than just the number of years since birth. According to a number of scholars (e.g., De Lange et al., 2006; Settersten & Mayer, 1997; Sterns & Doverspike, 1989), aging involves all possible changes that occur in biological, psychological, and social functioning at various points in the life cycle. Considering these age-related changes, Kanfer and Ackerman (2004) noted that ‘calendar age’ may serve as a proxy for age-related processes that can directly or indirectly influence worker outcomes. Similarly, a number of researchers have suggested that chronological age may be an insufficient indicator of the effect of aging in the work setting (Kanfer & Ackerman, 2004; Settersten & Mayer, 1997; Sterns & Miklos, 1995).

Five different approaches to conceptualizing the aging of workers and thus revealing important age-related changes at work are distinguished by Sterns and Doverspike (1989). The first is chronological age which refers to one’s calendar age. The second functional or performance-based age is related to a worker’s performance, and recognizes that there is great variation in individual abilities and functioning at similar and different ages. Kanfer and Ackerman (2004) refer in this context to gains and losses. Aging is associated with losses in both physical and cognitive abilities (Baltes, 1997; Sliwinski & Hall, 1998; Verhaeghen, Steitz, Sliwinski, & Cerella, 2003). Losses occur, for example, in physical strength and in fluid intelligence, such as working memory, abstract reasoning, attention, and processing of new information. However, aging brings gains as well. Gains occur, for example, in crystallized intelligence, such as general knowledge, extent of vocabulary, and verbal comprehension (Ackerman, 1996).

The third approach is psychosocial age, which is based on the self and the social perception of age. The self-perception of age refers to subjective age, which refers to how old an individual feels, looks and acts, with which age cohort the individual identifies, and how old the person desires to be (Kaliterna, Larsen, & Brkljacic, 2002). Furthermore, the self-perception of age involves perceptions of time, which shift from emphasizing the “life lived from birth” (past self-image) to the “life left until death” (future sense of self) (see Neugarten, 1968) and from an open-ended future time perspective (FTP) to a more limited FTP (Carstensen, 1995, 2006). The social perception of age is beyond the scope of this chapter, but involves age norms applied to an individual with respect to an occupation, company, or society, and social attitudes that are held toward older workers (or the perceived attributes and stereotypes of older workers; see Chap. 2 of this book). The fourth approach is labeled organizational age and refers to the aging of individuals in their work role, jobs and organizations. With age, employees have more job knowledge, work experience and occupational expertise (Quinones, Ford, & Teachout, 1995). Organization and job tenure and career stage are important indicators of organizational age. According to Super’s (1957) Career Development Model employees pass through three stages in their career before they start detaching from work. First, employees pass through the trial stage, in which their primary concerns are to identify their interests and capabilities, and to define their professional role or self-image (Ornstein, Cron, & Slocum, 1989). Subsequently, in the establishment stage, employees are concerned with moving upward and mastering their identified area of interest. In the final stage, employees try to maintain their self-concept, hold on to their earlier achieved accomplishments, and maintain interest in the job (maintenance stage). Finally, the fifth approach is called lifespan age and borrows from a number of the above approaches, but allows for the possibility of behavioral change at any point in the life cycle, resulting for example from unique career and life stage changes (see also De Lange et al., 2006; Sterns & Miklos, 1995).

To understand the influence of the age-related changes following these five conceptualizations of aging at work, we will elaborate on two lifespan approaches, that is the Selection Optimization and Compensation (SOC) model (Baltes & Baltes, 1990; Baltes, Staudinger, & Lindenberger, 1999) and Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (SST; Carstensen, 1995). In the SOC model (Baltes et al., 1999), successful development is defined as the conjoint maximization of gains and the minimization of losses. Across the lifespan, Baltes et al. suggest that maximization is achieved by a process of Selecting viable goals and outcomes, Optimizing resources, and Compensating for resource losses. These regulatory processes are aimed at different types of life goals to which individuals can allocate their resources; namely, 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). As individuals age, this regulation process will change to accommodate age-related changes. More specifically, with advancing age, individuals will allocate fewer resources to growth and more resources to maintenance and regulation of loss (Baltes et al.). This proposition is supported by Freund (2006), who found that during young adulthood the dominant goal focus was on optimization (i.e., growth), but that older adults showed a stronger focus on compensation goals directed toward prevention of further resource loss (see also, Ebner, Freund, & Baltes, 2006; Kanfer & Ackerman, 2004).

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (Carstensen, 1995) proposes that the perception of time has important implications for motivation. According to SST, individuals have two broad goals in life; knowledge acquisition and emotion regulation. Knowledge acquisition is an instrumental preparatory goal, focused on gathering information, on experiencing novelty, and on expanding breadth of knowledge. Emotion regulation, on the other hand, is an affective goal, focused on regulating emotional states to optimize psychological well-being. Here the most important goals are short-term, sometimes realizable in their very pursuit, such as meaningful experiences, emotional intimacy, and feelings of social embeddedness (Carstensen, 2006). SST proposes and also demonstrated (Lang & Carstensen, 2002) that the prioritization of these goals depends on the perception of time; individuals with an open-ended future time perspective (FTP) focus on knowledge acquisition, and individuals with a limited FTP focus on emotion regulation. Older individuals with a limited FTP thus prefer activities that support positive affect and the self-concept (Kanfer & Ackerman, 2004), and are likely to seek social support (see also Fung & Carstensen, 2004). Besides, multiple studies found that older adults who have a more limited FTP avoid negative events (see Carstensen, Fung, & Charles, 2003; Charles & Carstensen, 2010). Finally, individuals with a limited FTP are also better at regulating their emotions, because of their experience in life and better adaptive problem-solving skills, and greater emotional control (Löckenhoff & Carstensen, 2004).

In sum, individual aging involves changes in physical and cognitive abilities, the perception of time, organization and job tenure, and career and life stages, which also result in changes in goals and motives. Therefore, several researchers (e.g., Armstrong-Stassen & Schlosser, 2011; Bal et al., 2013) have questioned whether universally applied Human Resource (HR) practices are appropriate to influence older worker motivation, health, and performance. As a result, these scholars have started to focus their attention on specific HR practices for older workers.

3 HR Practices for Older Workers and Its Effects

Organizations can tailor their HR practices to the needs of older employees in different ways, depending on the strategic importance attached to older workers. The RBV perspective argues that organizations can build competitive advantage based on valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable resources. Building upon this RBV paradigm, Boxall (1996) proposed that a human resource advantage can consist of a stock of exceptional human talent. Likewise, Yeatts et al. (2000) distinguished two HR philosophies about older workers. One is the depreciation model which assumes that older workers lose their value and should be encouraged to leave the organization. The other is the conservation model which assumes that older workers are renewable assets that continue to remain valuable if managed properly.

Building on this conservation model, researchers are starting to focus on specific HR practices to manage older workers. Paul and Townsend (1993), for example, advised to reconsider existing HR practices, and introduce HR practices to accommodate older workers such as part-time work, flexible work schedules, voluntary demotions, flexible benefits and reduced shifts, but also career-long training. Other scholars (e.g., Armstrong-Stassen, 2008; Rau & Adams, 2005; Remery, Henkens, Schippers, & Ekamper, 2003) suggested training programs for older workers, reduced workload, sabbatical leaves, participation in decision-making, and additional leave as specific HR practices to manage older workers. However, few studies examine the influence of these tailored HR practices on the health, motivation and performance of older workers.

Armstrong-Stassen (2008), for example, asked older people to indicate the importance of seven HR practices (i.e., flexible working options, training and development opportunities, job design, recognition and respect, performance evaluation, compensation, and pre- and post- retirement options) in influencing their decision to remain in, or return to, the workforce. She found that recognition and respect and fair performance evaluation procedures had the greatest influence on older workers’ decision to remain in or return to the workforce, followed by job design and compensation. In addition, Saba and Guerin (2005) examined the associations of HR practices related to career management, rewards, communication, retirement conditions, flexible work conditions, appraisals, and new roles with desire to take early retirement among older health care managers. They found that HR practices in each of these categories reduce the desire to take early retirement because they reduceunmet expectations with respect to acquiring new competencies and working in a pleasant environment.

Although these studies provide important insights into the role of HR practices in motivating older workers to continue working, they do not explain why these HR practices would be beneficial for older workers. Other studies do offer a theoretical explanation. One recent example is Herrbach, Mignonac, Vandenberghe, and Negrini (2009). They examined the relation between HR practices and the affective and continuance commitment and voluntary early retirement of French late career managers. Based on the literature on aging at work, they identified three HR practices that constructively address older workers’ needs: training opportunities adapted to older workers’ needs, new work roles (e.g., as internal consultant or mentor), and flexible work conditions (e.g., part-time work and flexible work schedules). Further, based on the commitment literature (e.g., Allen, Shore, & Griffeth, 2003; Meyer, Allen, & Smith, 1993), they hypothesized that these HR practice influence the desire to stay with the organization (i.e., affective commitment), the perceived costs associated with leaving the organization (i.e., continuance commitment), and voluntary early retirement. They found that training opportunities adapted to older workers’ needs had a positive influence on affective and continuance commitment and a negative influence on voluntary early retirement.

Another example is Armstrong-Stassen and Ursel (2009)’s study on older professionals and nurses. In this study, Armstrong-Stassen and Ursel distinguished between training and development HR practices (e.g., training targeting older workers to accommodate their needs and update their skills) and flexible HR practices (e.g., flexible or reduced work hours, job sharing, and phased retirement). Building upon social exchange theory (Blau, 1964), they hypothesized that these HR practices will have a positive influence on older workers’ intention to remain working, through perceived organizational support. In line with their expectations, they found that training and development HR practices indeed influence intention to remain via perceived organizational support, while flexible HR practices did not affect perceived organizational support and intention to remain. In sum, training HR practices adapted to older workers’ needs seem important to manage older workers.

A final study explaining why some HR practices are more beneficial for older workers than others, is a recent study by Kooij, Jansen, Dikkers, and De Lange (2014). They distinguished four bundles of HR practices for aging workers based on the lifespan goals as distinguished in the SOC model and a mixed-method study:

  1. 1.

    Development HR practices, such as training and development on the job, which may help workers to reach higher levels of functioning (growth goal);

  2. 2.

    Maintenance HR practices, such as job security and flexible work hours, which may help workers to maintain current levels of functioning in the face of new challenges (maintenance goal);

  3. 3.

    Utilization HR practices, such as horizontal job movement, task enrichment, and participation in decision-making, which may help workers to recover to previous levels of functioning after a loss by removing job demands that have become unachievable for an employee from the job and by replacing them with other demands that utilize already existing, but not yet necessarily applied, individual resources (recovery goal); and

  4. 4.

    Accommodative HR practices, such as reduced workload and working part-time, which may help workers to function adequately at lower levels when maintenance and recovery are no longer possible by protecting or sparing them (regulation of loss goal). These HR practices are the most widely implemented HR practices for older workers (e.g., Remery et al., 2003; Taylor & Walker, 1998), but might be more in line with a depreciation philosophy than a conservation philosophy.

Since the SOC model proposes that the allocation of resources shifts away from growth towards maintenance, recovery, and regulation of loss, maintenance, utilization, and accommodative HR practices might be more beneficial for older worker motivation than development HR practices.

4 The Role of Aging in Relations Between HRM, Motivation, Job Performance and Health

Besides HR practices specifically targeting older workers, organizations also offer universal or mainstream HR practices, such as general training, career management, and rewards, to their employees. In the SHRM literature, two theoretical frameworks provide important insights in the underlying processes linking these HR practices and employee motivation, health and job performance. The Ability, Motivation, Opportunity (AMO) framework (Appelbaum et al., 2000; Boxall & Purcell, 2011) suggests that employee performance is a function of employee abilities (A), motivation (M), and opportunity to perform (O), and that HR practices influence performance through these three components. For each of the AMO elements more specific theoretical explanations have been proposed. The AMO framework and the more specific underlying theoretical explanations assume that HR practices have a positive effect on employee job performance and their motivation. Second, the job demands-resources model (JDR) (e.g., Demerouti et al., 2001) provides important insights to understand how HRM influences employee health. HR practices can increase job resources (for example autonomy, feedback, job variety, development opportunities, and responsibility) and job demands, thereby activating motivational and health impairment processes (e.g., Jensen et al., 2013; Snape & Redman, 2010). However, since abilities, the perception of time, tenure, goals and motives change with age, it might be that these general HR practices have a different effect on older workers compared to younger workers. Therefore, we review these two key explanations of the link between HRM, employee motivation, performance and health in the context of age issues. In particular, building on lifespan theories as well as on the AMO and JDR models, we propose theoretical arguments on the role of age and age-related factors in relations between universally applied HR practices and employee performance, motivation, and health.

First, the ability dimension of the AMO framework has been linked to job performance through human capital theory. Central to the human capital theory is the idea that HR practices contribute to the development of superior employee knowledge, skills and abilities (Snell & Dean, 1992). These higher levels of relevant knowledge, skills and abilities of employees are expected to foster job performance directly (Schmidt & Hunter, 1998), and indirectly via enhanced satisfaction and commitment (e.g. Allen & Van der Velden, 2001). Following this reasoning, Liao and others (2009), for instance, find that employee perceptions of HR practices designed to enhance employee’s competencies, motivation, and performance, are positively related to individual job performance, through the mediation of human capital.

Although older workers in general have more human capital (crystallized intelligence, such as experience and knowledge), high job tenure typically also results in obsolescence and constriction. Therefore, some scholars (e.g., Armstrong-Stassen & Ursel, 2009; Farr & Ringseis, 2002; Maurer, 2001) argue that HR practices aiming at development are particularly important for the individual performance of older workers. Farr and Ringseis, for example, argue that training and development activities aimed at learning new skills and job enrichment are important to prevent obsolescence and constriction. Thus, the association between development HR practices and individual performance strengthens with age because development HR practices can combat age-related obsolescence and constriction. This line of reasoning is supported by a recent study by Kooij et al. (2013) who found that the association between development HR practices and employee performance strengthens with age.

Second, the motivation dimension of the AMO model is grounded in social exchange theory (Blau, 1964). According to the social exchange theory (Blau) and the norm of reciprocity (Gouldner, 1960), when employees receive positive treatment and inducements from the organization via implemented HR practices such as good pay and promotion opportunities, they will repay the organization by exerting positive work attitudes and behaviors towards the organization (Takeuchi, Lepak, Wang, & Takeuchi, 2007). Based on the social exchange theory (Blau), several studies explored the mediating role of employee work attitudes in the relationship between perceived HR systems and job performance (Jiang, Takeuchi, & Lepak, 2013). These studies find that when employees feel supported and taken care off as a result of HR practices, they feel more committed and show enhanced performance (Chuang & Liao, 2010; Liao et al., 2009; Takeuchi, Chen, & Lepak, 2009).

Following lifespan theories we can expect that older workers are more likely to positively evaluate HR practices, resulting in a more positive response to HR practices in general. Older workers (who have a more limited FTP) will evaluate their jobs, work situations, and thus HR practices more positively and will therefore respond more positively to the HR practices offered by the organization than younger workers. Individuals with a more limited FTP tend to avoid negative events and instead focus on positive feelings and meaningful activities (see Carstensen et al., 2003; Charles & Carstensen, 2010), and are more likely to evaluate HR practices more positively. In addition, older workers usually have high tenure and progressed through different life and career stages in which they had different priorities and different HR practices were salient. Since more HR practices have been useful for older workers, they are more likely to positively evaluate these HR practices.

Moreover, the utility or value that specific HR practices have for employees might also change with age. As mentioned earlier, goal focus changes with age, shifting away from an emphasis on growth and knowledge acquisition to a focus on maintenance and prevention of loss. As a result, work motives (i.e., the importance that workers attach to job characteristics and work outcomes) also change with age. In line with this reasoning, Kooij et al. (2011) found that work-related growth and extrinsic motives decrease, and that work-related intrinsic motives increase with age. Since goal focus and employee work motives are expected to change from a focus on growth motives in young adulthood to a focus on maintenance and prevention, and a predominance of security motives as one ages (Kanfer & Ackerman, 2004), the utility or value that specific HR practices have for employees will also change with age (e.g., Conway, 2004; Innocenti, Profili, & Sammarra, 2013; Kooij et al., 2010, 2013).

In line with this reasoning, Finegold, Mohrman, and Spreitzer (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 among younger workers (i.e. aged under 30) than among older workers (i.e. aged over 45). Similarly, Kooij et al. (2010, 2013) distinguished development HR practices (i.e., HR practices related to advancement, growth and accomplishment that help individual workers achieve higher levels of functioning, such as training) and maintenance HR practices (i.e., HR practices related to protection, safety and responsibility that help individual workers maintain their current levels of functioning, such as performance appraisal), and found that the association between development HR practices (e.g., promotion) and work attitudes (i.e., job satisfaction and organizational commitment) weakens, and that the association between maintenance HR practices (e.g., rewards, information sharing, working in teams, and flexible work hours) and work attitudes strengthens with age. Innocenti et al. (2013) also found that the association between development HR practices and worker attitudes weakens with age. Finally, Bal et al. (2013) argued that it are not older employees that benefit from accommodative HR practices, but employees that use the Selection Optimization and Compensation strategies (Baltes & Baltes, 1990) described earlier. In line with their expectations, they found that the association between accommodative HR practices and affective commitment is stronger for employees using Selection and Compensation strategies compared to employees who do not engage in these strategies.

The last dimension of the AMO framework is the opportunity dimension of the AMO framework. This opportunity dimension is linked to job design theory and empowerment literature (Gerhart, 2007). Central to the opportunity to perform dimension, is the idea that HR practices related to job control and discretion enhance feelings of empowerment and involvement, which, in turn, positively influence employees attitudes and behaviors (e.g., Batt, 2000; Bowen & Lawler, 1995). Based on psychological empowerment literature, Liao and others (2009) found that HR practices influence performance via psychological empowerment. In line with these findings, Boxall, Ang, and Bartram (2011) identified psychological empowerment as mediator of the relationship between perceived HR practices and commitment.

Older workers, who are often in the maintenance career stage, are not only concerned with maintaining their self-concept, but also with maintaining interest in the job and seeking greater opportunity for involvement in decision-making for example (Conway, 2004). In addition, Farr and Ringseis (2002) argue that enriched job tasks (such as opportunities to serve as mentors or internal advisors) might increase older workers’ opportunities to participate when hierarchical advancement is no longer likely or valued. Moreover, older workers attach more value to autonomy (Kooij et al., 2011), and thus to job control and discretion. In addition, older workers are more likely to better use this discretion compared to younger workers, because of long work experience and job tenure. Finally, job control allows older workers to use self-regulatory strategies, such as SOC strategies, at work. For example, older workers might compensate for losses in physical health by hiring an assistant or using tools, resulting in diminished resource losses. As a result, the association between HR practices contributing to job control and discretion on the one hand and work attitudes and job performance on the other hand will strengthen with age.

Following the JDR model (e.g., Demerouti et al., 2001), HR practices can result in higher resources and demands. Since the effects of resources (job discretion and control) have been discussed above, here we only focus on the effects of HR practices on demands. HR practices can be linked to higher demands, as employees are put under greater pressure at work, thereby activating an energy depletion process that is related to impaired employee health. Kroon, Van De Voorde, and Van Veldhoven (2009), for instance, found that in organizations that report that more employees are covered by High Performance Work System (HPWS) practices, employees themselves report higher levels of job demands and greater emotional exhaustion. In addition, in line with the expectation that job resources may buffer the effect of job demands on employee health, Jensen and others (2013) found that employees who are given more control and autonomy feel less pressure as a result of HPWS practices.

The association between HR practices that increase demands and employee health is likely to be moderated by age. Since older workers experience gains and losses in their personal resources, the role of age depends on the type of demands that result from the HR practices. On the one hand, since older workers might experience losses in fluid intelligence and physical abilities, such as working memory and physical strength, they are less likely to have the appropriate resources to offset these cognitive and physical demands, resulting in a stronger negative association between HR practices resulting in these demands and health. On the other hand, since older workers are better at regulating their emotions, they are better able to deal with increased workload for example, resulting in a weaker negative association between HR practices resulting in increased workload, such as decentralizing decision-making, and health outcomes. Therefore relations between demanding HR practices and health outcomes might also be attenuated by age. In addition, job resources might buffer the negative association between HR practices increasing demands and health outcomes among older workers. Hansson, Robson, and Limas (2001) argued that granting older workers more autonomy would help them cope with high job demands. Moreover, Shultz, Wang, Crimmins, and Fisher (2010) found that high levels of autonomy helped buffer the stress associated with strong deadline demands among older workers.

5 Conclusions

In this chapter we discussed how strategic HRM can help to find HR practices to enable older workers to remain motivated, productive and healthy contributors to organizational performance. First, following the RBV and conservation model, we identified a number of HR practices tailored to the needs of older workers that are suitable to manage older workers, and in particular to increase their motivation (to continue working). Particularly, training opportunities adapted to older workers needs were found to influence older worker commitment and perceived organizational support, and thus their motivation to continue working. Second, based on the AMO and JDR models, we examined the role of aging (i.e., age and age-related factors) in relations between HR practices on the one hand, and motivation, health, and performance on the other hand. Our review suggests that aging plays an important role in relations between HR practices, motivation, health, and performance, but that its effects depend on the type of outcome (i.e., motivation, health, or individual performance) and the type of HR practices (e.g., aimed at development or increasing demands).

This review also shows that research on specific HR practices for older workers and the role of aging in relations between HR practices and employee outcomes is in its infancy. Although there are a few studies on (the effects of) HR practices specific for or tailored to older workers (e.g., Armstrong-Stassen & Ursel, 2009), none of these studies include health or performance as employee outcomes. In addition, although there are a few studies on age as a moderator in relations of HR practices with motivation and performance (e.g., Innocenti et al., 2013; Kooij et al., 2013), no study that we know of focuses on the role of aging in relations between HRM and health outcomes.

This dearth of studies raises difficulties. First of all, we still don’t know whether offering specific HR practices to older workers or tailoring HR practices to the needs of older workers really works in increasing their motivation, health, and performance. There are no studies linking these HR practices, such as flexible work schedules and tailored training practices, to health and performance. Besides, the few studies that found an association between these HR practices and motivation focus on POS and commitment as mediating mechanisms, which could also reflect older workers appreciation of the organization for tailoring HR practices to their needs. Second, the literature is inconsistent regarding the role of age in the HRM – health outcomes relationship. Age can be hypothesized to strengthen and attenuate this relationship. Therefore, we need more studies examining the influence of specific HR practices for older workers (e.g., accommodative HR practices) and the role of aging in relations between HR practices, and motivation, health, and performance.

To gain a better understanding of how organizations can manage older workers’ motivation, health and performance, we recommend that future studies should take multiple age-related processes into account to cover the variety of changes that occur at various points in the life cycle. The moderating effects of different age-related factors can differ and can even neutralize the total effect of age (Bal, De Lange, Zacher, & Van der Heijden, 2013). Bal et al. (2013), for example, hypothesized and found that future time perspective, which decreases with age, positively moderates, and that occupational expertise, which increases with age, negatively moderates the relation between socio-emotional psychological contract fulfillment and normative commitment. Moreover, if we really want to know how the influence of HR practices on motivation, health, and performance changes with age, we should employ a much longer timeframe in our studies. In order to examine age-related intra- instead of inter-individual changes and effects of HRM on motivation, health, and performance instead of the other way around, these studies should be longitudinal. Finally, since the role of aging also depends on the context, such as type of occupation (e.g., Kanfer & Ackerman, 2004) and organization climate (e.g., Bal, De Jong, Jansen, & Bakker, 2012), future studies should take the context into account. The positive influence of HR practices on motivation, health, and performance is more likely to strengthen with age in companies with age-supportive climates and occupations emphasizing crystallized intelligence for example.