TY - JOUR
T1 - The moderating role of age in the job characteristics–absenteeism relationship
T2 - A matter of occupational context?
AU - Bouville, Gregor
AU - Dello Russo, Silvia
AU - Truxillo, Donald
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 The British Psychological Society
PY - 2018/3
Y1 - 2018/3
N2 - This study addresses the relationship between job characteristics and sickness absenteeism, examining it under two important boundary conditions, employee age, and occupational group. Drawing from psychological theories that explain age-related differences in the workplace, as well as the sociology of occupations, we formulate hypotheses concerning two- and three-way interactions between five key job characteristics (job demands, autonomy, skill variety, supervisor, and colleague support), age, and occupational group, namely blue-collar workers versus clerks. We test our hypotheses on an archival sample of 5,175 employees taken from the French National Survey of Employment Conditions. Hierarchical negative binomial regressions reveal that many of our hypotheses are supported. For example, autonomy and supervisor and colleague support have a differential impact on sickness absenteeism depending on age and the occupational group of employees. We discuss the implications of our findings for both theory and practice. Practitioner points: Sickness absences can be predicted by job characteristics as function of age and occupational groups. Supervisor support is associated with fewer sickness absences in younger workers, especially clerks. Occupational context may mask the age differences because for Job Autonomy and Colleague Support, age-related differences were detected only within the blue-collar and clerical groups, respectively. The impact of job demands and skill variety on sickness absences is moderated by age and does not vary across the two occupational groups.
AB - This study addresses the relationship between job characteristics and sickness absenteeism, examining it under two important boundary conditions, employee age, and occupational group. Drawing from psychological theories that explain age-related differences in the workplace, as well as the sociology of occupations, we formulate hypotheses concerning two- and three-way interactions between five key job characteristics (job demands, autonomy, skill variety, supervisor, and colleague support), age, and occupational group, namely blue-collar workers versus clerks. We test our hypotheses on an archival sample of 5,175 employees taken from the French National Survey of Employment Conditions. Hierarchical negative binomial regressions reveal that many of our hypotheses are supported. For example, autonomy and supervisor and colleague support have a differential impact on sickness absenteeism depending on age and the occupational group of employees. We discuss the implications of our findings for both theory and practice. Practitioner points: Sickness absences can be predicted by job characteristics as function of age and occupational groups. Supervisor support is associated with fewer sickness absences in younger workers, especially clerks. Occupational context may mask the age differences because for Job Autonomy and Colleague Support, age-related differences were detected only within the blue-collar and clerical groups, respectively. The impact of job demands and skill variety on sickness absences is moderated by age and does not vary across the two occupational groups.
KW - age
KW - job characteristics
KW - occupations
KW - sickness absenteeism
KW - three-way interaction
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85030153001&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/joop.12188
DO - 10.1111/joop.12188
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85030153001
SN - 0963-1798
VL - 91
SP - 57
EP - 83
JO - Journal of Occupational Psychology
JF - Journal of Occupational Psychology
IS - 1
ER -