Age as moderator of the relationship of proactive personality with training motivation, perceived career development from training, and training behavioral intentions

Based on changes in motivation thought to occur across the lifespan, we investigated whether age would moderate the relationship between proactive personality and three training-related variables: training motivation, perceived career development from training, and training behavioral intentions. A survey was completed by 252 municipal government employees. As hypothesized, participants' age moderated the relationship between proactive personality and these outcomes. Specifically, there was generally a more positive relationship between proactive personality and the outcomes for younger participants than for older participants. Our discussion focuses on implications for training in organizations and recommendations for practice.