It’s All about the Attitudes, not the Age: The Role of Future Time Perspective and Goal Orientation for Older Employees’ Employability

Adult learning is high on the international policy and research agenda. One major reason is the increasing share of older employees – especially in Western societies. However, older employees are often poorly integrated into the workplace and viewed as inflexible, as unwilling to learn, and as having obsolete knowledge, and therefore as not contributing to business goals. Stereotypes in the workplace often ignore the positive effects of age and amplify the severity of negative attributions and in turn might have adverse effects on older employees’ employability. In this study, we draw from socioemotional selectivity theory and goal orientation theory to investigate how older white-collar employees' attitudes relate to their employability. We hypothesize that attitudes about the future time and goal orientation affect employability while age does not. Data were gathered from 117 employees of a Dutch emergency services organization. While a direct relationship of chronological age on employability is often assumed (e.g. stereotypes that propose increasing inflexibility with age), our results show no such effects. Instead, attitudes about future time and goal orientation are what make the difference. This study addresses a critical issue and extends our knowledge of what role age and attitudes play for staying employable.