TY - JOUR
T1 - Within-Individual Age-Related Trends, Cycles, and Event-Driven Changes in Job Performance
T2 - a Career-Span Perspective
AU - Alessandri, Guido
AU - Truxillo, Donald M.
AU - Tisak, John
AU - Fagnani, Corrado
AU - Borgogni, Laura
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2020/10/1
Y1 - 2020/10/1
N2 - Past research on age-related differences in job performance have focused primarily between-person comparisons. In the present study, we examine within-individual changes in supervisor-rated job performance to examine the influence of age-related trends, cycles, and event-driven factors. Our analysis is based on an eight-wave dataset from a multiple-cohort sample of employees (N = 750) varying in age from 25 to 65 years. We used an age-sequential design to disentangle maturation effects from historical effects. Results showed that population-level, within-individual change in a general measure of job performance was characterized by an increase in the first phase of the career (workers of 25–30 years), and then by a progressive decline. Within-individual levels of job performance were generally higher for younger workers than for older workers, and mostly reflected the influence of population-level trends but some even-driven effects as well. Results were in line with predictions from Baltes and Baltes’s (1990) meta-theory of selective optimization with compensation and the effects of age-related losses on performance. Results also provide insights into understanding the job performance trajectory over the career span.
AB - Past research on age-related differences in job performance have focused primarily between-person comparisons. In the present study, we examine within-individual changes in supervisor-rated job performance to examine the influence of age-related trends, cycles, and event-driven factors. Our analysis is based on an eight-wave dataset from a multiple-cohort sample of employees (N = 750) varying in age from 25 to 65 years. We used an age-sequential design to disentangle maturation effects from historical effects. Results showed that population-level, within-individual change in a general measure of job performance was characterized by an increase in the first phase of the career (workers of 25–30 years), and then by a progressive decline. Within-individual levels of job performance were generally higher for younger workers than for older workers, and mostly reflected the influence of population-level trends but some even-driven effects as well. Results were in line with predictions from Baltes and Baltes’s (1990) meta-theory of selective optimization with compensation and the effects of age-related losses on performance. Results also provide insights into understanding the job performance trajectory over the career span.
KW - Accelerated longitudinal design
KW - Job performance
KW - Latent-growth modeling
KW - Within-individual change
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85070297234&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10869-019-09645-8
DO - 10.1007/s10869-019-09645-8
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85070297234
SN - 0889-3268
VL - 35
SP - 643
EP - 662
JO - Journal of Business and Psychology
JF - Journal of Business and Psychology
IS - 5
ER -
