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Age differences in achievement goals and motivational characteristics of work in an ageing workforce

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2014

HEIKE HEIDEMEIER  and
URSULA M. STAUDINGER
HEIKE HEIDEMEIER*
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychology, RWTH Aachen University, Germany.
URSULA M. STAUDINGER
Affiliation:
Columbia Aging Center, School of Public Health, Columbia University, USA.
*
Address for correspondence: Heike Heidemeier, Institute of Psychology, RWTH Aachen University, Jaegerstrasse 17-19, 52066 Aachen, Germany. E-mail: heidemeier@psych.rwth-aachen.de
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Abstract

This study reviews theory and results from developmental psychology to examine age differences in workplace achievement goals. We investigated whether goal level decreases with age and, by comparing the relative strength of different goals within individuals, we examined whether dominant achievement goals are related to age. In a large sample of employees (N=747), older workers' higher affective commitment and intrinsic motivation compensated for age-related decline in the importance of achievement goals. Whether learning-approach and learning-avoidance were dominant goals was not related to age but instead to skill level, affective commitment and intrinsically satisfying work. Dominant performance-approach goals were more common among males. Performance-avoidance was most likely to be a dominant goal among older males. Moreover, with age, performance-goal orientations had increasingly maladaptive consequences for self-efficacy and affect at work.

Keywords

2×2 achievement goalsgoal orientationage differenceswork attitudesself-efficacy for learningaffect at workageing workforce
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 35 , Issue 4 , April 2015 , pp. 809 - 836
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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