Daniel C. Feldman

The relationship of age to ten dimensions of job performance.

Previous reviews of the literature on the relationship between age and job performance have largely focused on core task performance but have paid much less attention to other job behaviors that also contribute to productivity. The current study provides an expanded meta-analysis on the relationship between age and job performance that includes 10 dimensions of job performance: core task performance, creativity, performance in training programs, organizational citizenship behaviors, safety performance, general counterproductive work behaviors, workplace aggression, on-the-job substance use, tardiness, and absenteeism. Results show that although age was largely unrelated to core task performance, creativity, and performance in training programs, it demonstrated stronger relationships with the other 7 performance dimensions. Results also highlight that the relationships of age with core task performance and with counterproductive work behaviors are curvilinear in nature and that several sample characteristics and data collection characteristics moderate age-performance relationships. The article concludes with a discussion of key research design issues that may further knowledge about the age-performance relationship in the future.

Careers: Mobility, Embeddedness, and Success

This article proposes refinements of the constructs of career mobility and career embeddedness and reviews the array of factors that have been found to energize (discourage) employees to change jobs, organizations, and/or occupations. The article also reviews the literature on career success and identifies which types of mobility (and embeddedness) are most likely to lead to objective career success (e.g., promotions) and subjective career success (e.g., career satisfaction). In the final section, the article revisits the utility of viewing careers as “boundaryless” and suggests alternative frameworks for future research on these topics.

Executive Coaching: A Review and Agenda for Future Research:

The use of executive coaching as a developmental intervention for managers has increased dramatically during the past decade. Consequently, there has been a burgeoning practitioner literature on the topic of executive coaching. Empirical research on executive coaching, however, has lagged far behind, and theoretical work on the processes underlying effective coaching has been limited. In this review, we investigate the construct of executive coaching and examine how coaches’ professional training, client characteristics, and types of coaching impact the effectiveness of this intervention. The article concludes with an agenda for future research on this emerging form of management development.

Organizational Tenure and Job Performance

This study provides a meta-analysis on the relationships between organizational tenure and three broad classes of job behaviors: core-task behaviors, citizenship behaviors, and counterproductive behaviors. Across 350 empirical studies with a cumulative sample size of 249,841, the authors found that longer tenured employees generally have greater in-role performance and citizenship performance. It is interesting that organizational tenure was also positively related to some counterproductive behaviors (e.g., aggressive behavior and nonsickness absence). Most of these relationships remain statistically significant even after controlling for the effects of chronological age. The authors also observed that the tenure—performance relationship was stronger for younger workers, for women, for non-Caucasians, and for college-educated workers. Finally, the authors found evidence of a curvilinear relationship between organizational tenure and job performance. Although the relationship of organizational tenure with job performance is positive in general, the strength of the association decreases as organizational tenure increases.

Determinants of job mobility: A theoretical integration and extension

The goals of this paper are to conceptually integrate and extend the diverse literature on job mobility. We introduce a multi-level theoretical framework that describes how individuals job mobility unfolds. Three theoretical perspectives inform this framework. The structural perspective suggests that macro-level factors (e.g. economic conditions and industry differences) determine the opportunity structure of job mobility in the labour market. The individual difference perspective suggests that dispositional attributes affect a persons preferences for and subsequent behaviours associated with job mobility. The decisional perspective, grounded in the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1991), suggests that decisions to engage in job mobility are based on the evaluation of three factors: subjective norms, the desirability of the mobility option and individuals readiness for change. The article concludes with a discussion of the multi-level nature of determinants of job mobility and directions for future research.

Psychological contract breaches, organizational commitment, and innovation-related behaviors: a latent growth modeling approach.

This study examined the relationships among psychological contract breaches, organizational commitment, and innovation-related behaviors (generating, spreading, implementing innovative ideas at work) over a 6-month period. Results indicate that the effects of psychological contract breaches on employees are not static. Specifically, perceptions of psychological contract breaches strengthened over time and were associated with decreased levels of affective commitment over time. Further, increased perceptions of psychological contract breaches were associated with decreases in innovation-related behaviors. We also found evidence that organizational commitment mediates the relationship between psychological contract breaches and innovation-related behaviors. These results highlight the importance of examining the nomological network of psychological contract breaches from a change perspective.

A Three-Phase Model of Retirement Decision Making

The present article organizes prominent theories about retirement decision making around three different types of thinking about retirement: imagining the possibility of retirement, assessing when it is time to let go of long-held jobs, and putting concrete plans for retirement into action at present. It also highlights important directions for future research on retirement decision making, including perceptions of declining person-environment fit, the role of personality traits, occupational norms regarding retirement, broader criteria for assessing older workers job performance, couples joint decision making about retirement, the impact of self-funded and self-guided pension plans on retirement decisions, bridge employment before total withdrawal from the work force, and retirement decisions that are neither entirely forced nor voluntary in nature.

The antecedents and consequences of early career indecision among young adults

Abstract This article examines the phenomenon of early career indecision in young adults. First, it identifies the cognitive and affective components of the construct and illustrates the links between early career indecision and effectiveness of job search behavior (e.g., degree of procrastination, intensity, focus, and perseverance). Second, it identifies the major contributing factors to early career indecision among young adults, including differences in personality, vocational interests, demographic status, early work experiences, and family environments. Third, the article examines the short- and long-term consequences of early career indecision both for the young adults who experience it and the organizations that employ them. Fourth, the paper identifies the moderating factors that influence how positive or negative those consequences are likely to be. Finally, the paper concludes with implications for future research on early career indecision, organizational career development programs, and young adults own career management strategies.

The effects of organizational embeddedness on development of social capital and human capital

This article examines the effects of organizational embeddedness on employees activities to build social capital and human capital. To test a latent growth model, we collected data from 375 managers at multiple points over an 8-month period. We found that the more embedded employees perceived themselves to be at Time 1, the more likely they were to show declines in social capital development behaviors over time. In addition, declines in social capital development behavior were directly related to declines in human capital development behavior over time. These findings highlight the potential negative consequences embeddedness can have on employees career development activity.

Human capital and objective indicators of career success: The mediating effects of cognitive ability and conscientiousness

The purpose of the current study is to examine the mediating processes through which human capital (e.g. education and work experience) contribute to objective indicators of career success (e.g. salaries and promotions). We are particularly interested in the ways in which cognitive ability and conscientiousness help explain the process through which human capital gets translated into performance effectiveness and tangible career attainments. Results from meta-analytical structural equation modelling show that individuals cognitive ability and conscientiousness mediate the effects of both education and organizational tenure on in-role and extra-role job performance. Ultimately, both in-role and extra-role job performance positively influence employees salaries and promotions. The article concludes with implications for theory development and management practice.