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Work Design and Aging

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Geropsychology

Synonyms

Job design and aging; Job redesign and aging; Work redesign and aging

Definition

There are two approaches to work design research relevant to older workers. First, some work design research focuses on physical aspects of the workplace and ways to accommodate workers as they age. This research line takes a more ergonomic approach. In contrast, psychological work design addresses ways to address psychological changes (e.g., cognitive ability, personality) that take place over the work lifespan.

Introduction

The workforce is expected to age in the coming decades in most industrialized countries (Eurostat 2013; Toossi 2012); this is a result of decreased birthrates, later retirements due to financial need, and raising of the retirement age in many countries because of longer lifespans (Vaupel 2010). As a result of these changes, people are working later in life, often well into their 60s and even 70s.

In this entry, the extant literature on job design for workers over the work...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Portland State College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Portland State University, PO Box 751, Portland, OR, USA, 97201

    Donald M. Truxillo

  2. Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, Università degli studi di Trento, Rovereto, TN, Italy

    Sara Zaniboni

Authors
  1. Donald M. Truxillo
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  2. Sara Zaniboni
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Correspondence to Donald M. Truxillo .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Nancy A. Pachana

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Truxillo, D.M., Zaniboni, S. (2015). Work Design and Aging. In: Pachana, N. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geropsychology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-080-3_19-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-080-3_19-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-981-287-080-3

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