Exploring the impact of older knowledge workers' career capital on career success: with self-efficacy and job crafting as mediators and perceived organisational support as a moderator

With the continuous intensification of population ageing in China, how to leverage the role of older knowledge workers in the workplace has become an urgent issue in China's human resource development and management. Therefore, this study focuses on older knowledge workers in China's private colleges and universities as the main research subjects. Through the research methods of 1,077 valid questionnaire surveys and empirical estimation, it was found that career capital (including human capital, social capital, and decision-making capital) significantly promotes successful workplace ageing, with each dimension having a positive effect on workplace success. Career capital is significantly positively correlated with self-efficacy. Self-efficacy and job crafting mediate the relationship between career capital and successful workplace ageing. However, perceived organisational support negatively moderates the relationships between human capital and self-efficacy, as well as between career capital and job crafting. This study proposes coping strategies such as hierarchical management of career capital, collaborative activation of self-efficacy and job crafting, dynamic adaptation of organisational support strategies, and precise policy implementation based on age segmentation.