Enhancing late-career management among aging employees – A randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Abstract Our study investigates the long-term effects of a resource-based group intervention designed to strengthen older employees late-career management preparedness on their perceptions of age discrimination, work engagement and future time perspective at work. A randomly assigned field experimental study (RCT) was carried out in 17 organizations representing both the private and public sectors. The data consisted of 699 employees with a mean age of 58. The results of the mixed-effects models revealed that the proximal effect of the intervention was increased late-career management preparedness. This in turn, reduced perceived age discrimination, strengthened work engagement and enhanced future time perspective at work, all of which was seen at six-month follow-up. The intervention was the most beneficial among aging employees with a lower-level education and those with a younger supervisor. On the basis of our results, we recommend resource-based peer group techniques for strengthening career management among aging employees, as it seems to enhance sustainability of their working careers.