IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i9p5385-d805766.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Age Discrimination and Employability in Healthcare Work: A Double-Edged Sword for Older Workers?

Author

Listed:
  • Karen Pak

    (Institute for Management Research, Radboud University, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands
    Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Tilburg University, 5037 AB Tilburg, The Netherlands)

  • Trude Furunes

    (Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Tilburg University, 5037 AB Tilburg, The Netherlands
    Norwegian School of Hotel Management, University of Stavanger, 4021 Stavanger, Norway
    Faculty of Psychology, Open University, 6419 AT Heerlen, The Netherlands)

  • Annet H. De Lange

    (Norwegian School of Hotel Management, University of Stavanger, 4021 Stavanger, Norway
    Faculty of Psychology, Open University, 6419 AT Heerlen, The Netherlands
    Faculty of Economy and Management, HAN University of Applied Sciences, 6500 JK Nijmegen, The Netherlands
    The Department of Psychology, Universidade de Coruna, 15701 A Coruna, Spain)

Abstract

Due to the aging workforce, older workers, especially in the healthcare industry, must remain employable. However, older healthcare workers may face age discrimination that can limit their employability chances. In this study, we examined (a) the causal direction of the relationship between age discrimination and internal employability and (b) differences between age groups (young (≤30), middle-aged (31–44), and older (≥45) healthcare workers) in this relationship. Based on the Selection Optimization Compensation theory, we postulated that (i,ii) internal employability and age discrimination are inversely negatively related to one another over time and that (ii–iv) this relationship would be strongest for older employees compared to other age groups. We conducted a two-wave complete panel study among 1478 healthcare professionals to test these hypotheses. The results of our multi-group structural equation modeling analyses suggested that internal employability is a significant negative predictor of age discrimination. Moreover, results suggested that internal employability and age discrimination have a reciprocal relationship among older workers but are unrelated for younger and middle-aged workers. Theoretical and practical implications of our results are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Karen Pak & Trude Furunes & Annet H. De Lange, 2022. "Age Discrimination and Employability in Healthcare Work: A Double-Edged Sword for Older Workers?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-13, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:9:p:5385-:d:805766
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/9/5385/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/9/5385/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Corrington, Abby & Ng, Linnea C. & Phetmisy, Cassandra N. & Watson, Ivy & Wu, Felix Y. & Hebl, Mikki, 2020. "How bias thwarts successful aging at work," Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(3), pages 413-416, September.
    2. Richard W. Johnson & David Neumark, 1997. "Age Discrimination, Job Separations, and Employment Status of Older Workers: Evidence from Self-Reports," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 32(4), pages 779-811.
    3. Tara L. Gruenewald & Arun S. Karlamangla & Gail A. Greendale & Burton H. Singer & Teresa E. Seeman, 2007. "Feelings of Usefulness to Others, Disability, and Mortality in Older Adults: The MacArthur Study of Successful Aging," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 62(1), pages 28-37.
    4. Ruggs, Enrica N. & Hebl, Michelle R. & Law, Charlie & Cox, Cody B. & Roehling, Mark V. & Wiener, Richard L., 2013. "Gone Fishing: I–O Psychologists' Missed Opportunities to Understand Marginalized Employees' Experiences With Discrimination," Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(1), pages 39-60, March.
    5. Ledyard Tucker & Charles Lewis, 1973. "A reliability coefficient for maximum likelihood factor analysis," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 38(1), pages 1-10, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Annet H. De Lange & Dorien T. A. M. Kooij & Trude Furunes, 2022. "What about the Factor Time in Sustainable Employability Research? An Overview of Theory-Based Organizational Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-7, August.
    2. Romina Domínguez & Marco Faytong-Haro, 2024. "Impact of early work start on mental health outcomes in older adults: A cross-sectional study from Ecuador," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(11), pages 1-17, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mark Shevlin & David Boyda & James Houston & Jamie Murphy, 2015. "Measurement of the psychosis continuum: Modelling the frequency and distress of subclinical psychotic experiences," Psychosis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(2), pages 108-118, April.
    2. E. Huebner & Rich Gilman & James Laughlin, 1999. "A Multimethod Investigation of the Multidimensionality of Children's Well-Being Reports: Discriminant Validity of Life Satisfaction and Self-Esteem," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 1-22, January.
    3. Trine Filges & Anu Siren & Torben Fridberg & Bjørn C. V. Nielsen, 2020. "Voluntary work for the physical and mental health of older volunteers: A systematic review," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(4), December.
    4. Evangeline I. Chirayil & Claire L. Thompson & Sue Burney, 2014. "Predicting Human Papilloma Virus Vaccination and Pap Smear Screening Intentions Among Young Singaporean Women Using the Theory of Planned Behavior," SAGE Open, , vol. 4(4), pages 21582440145, October.
    5. Roger Wilkins & Markus Hahn, 2013. "Perceived Job Discrimination in Australia - Its Correlates and Consequences," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 16(1), pages 43-64.
    6. Bach Quang Ho & Yuki Inoue, 2020. "Driving Network Externalities in Education for Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-16, October.
    7. Patricia Carral & Carlos-María Alcover, 2019. "Measuring Age Discrimination at Work: Spanish Adaptation and Preliminary Validation of the Nordic Age Discrimination Scale (NADS)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-14, April.
    8. Zhenhui (Jack) Jiang & Cheng Suang Heng & Ben C. F. Choi, 2013. "Research Note —Privacy Concerns and Privacy-Protective Behavior in Synchronous Online Social Interactions," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(3), pages 579-595, September.
    9. Lau, Patricia Yin Yin & Tong, Jane L.Y. Terpstra & Lien, Bella Ya-Hui & Hsu, Yen-Chen & Chong, Chooi Ling, 2017. "Ethical work climate, employee commitment and proactive customer service performance: Test of the mediating effects of organizational politics," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 20-26.
    10. Zi Jia Ng & Eugene Scott Huebner & Alberto Maydeu-Olivares & Kimberly Joy Hills, 2018. "Confirmatory Factor Analytic Structure and Measurement Invariance of the Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (BMSLSS) in a Longitudinal Sample of Adolescents," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(4), pages 1237-1247, August.
    11. repec:plo:pone00:0217106 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Raymond Loi & Hang-Yue Ngo, 2010. "Mobility norms, risk aversion, and career satisfaction of Chinese employees," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 27(2), pages 237-255, June.
    13. Tahia Anan Dhira & Mahir A Rahman & Abdur Razzaque Sarker & Jeenat Mehareen, 2021. "Validity and reliability of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) among university students of Bangladesh," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(12), pages 1-16, December.
    14. Anne Mäkikangas & Wilmar Schaufeli & Esko Leskinen & Ulla Kinnunen & Katriina Hyvönen & Taru Feldt, 2016. "Long-Term Development of Employee Well-Being: A Latent Transition Approach," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 17(6), pages 2325-2345, December.
    15. Dharm Dev Bhatta & Muddassar Sarfraz & Larisa Ivascu & Marius Pislaru, 2023. "The Nexus of Corporate Affinity for Technology and Firm Sustainable Performance in the Era of Digitalization: A Mediated Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-20, June.
    16. Rodrigo Robles-Mariños & Germán F Alvarado & Jorge L Maguiña & Juan Carlos Bazo-Alvarez, 2023. "The short-form of the Cyberchondria Severity Scale (CSS-12): Adaptation and validation of the Spanish version in young Peruvian students," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(10), pages 1-14, October.
    17. Wu, Pei-Hsun & Kao, Danny Tengti, 2011. "Goal orientation and variety seeking behavior: The role of decision task," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 65-72, February.
    18. Kyriakos Emmmanouildis, 2025. "Militarization’s effects on fiscal responses to the COVID-19 pandemic: an empirical investigation through a structural equation model," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 5(7), pages 1-25, July.
    19. Disney, Richard & Whitehouse, Edward, 1999. "Pension plans and retirement incentives," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 20851, The World Bank.
    20. Richard Dembo & Rhissa Briones-Robinson & Jennifer Wareham & Ken C. Winters & Rocío Ungaro & James Schmeidler, 2014. "Brief Intervention Impact on Truant Youth Attitudes to School and School Behavior Problems: A Longitudinal Study," Journal of Educational and Developmental Psychology, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 4(1), pages 163-163, May.
    21. C. Sofia Machado & Miguel Portela, 2011. "Age and opportunities for promotion," NIPE Working Papers 03/2011, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:9:p:5385-:d:805766. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.