Age-Differentiated Leadership and Healthy Aging at Work: Evidence from the Early Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Ryszard J. Koziel, Jack C. Friedrich, Cort W. Rudolph and Hannes Zacher
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Ryszard J. Koziel: Department of Psychology, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO 63103, USA
Jack C. Friedrich: Department of Psychology, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO 63103, USA
Cort W. Rudolph: Department of Psychology, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO 63103, USA
Hannes Zacher: Wilhelm Wundt Institute of Psychology, Leipzig University, 04109 Leipzig, Germany

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 23, 1-16

Abstract: Little is known about the relative influence of age-differentiated leadership on healthy aging at work. Likewise, the age-conditional influence of age-differentiated leadership is understudied, and especially so in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a three-wave longitudinal study, we examined the role that age-differentiated leadership plays in the prediction of work ability, as measured three times over six months ( n = 1130) during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany (i.e., December 2019, March 2020, and June 2020). The results suggest that although there were no systematic changes in work ability on average, there was notable within-person variability in work ability over time. Additionally, we find that a balanced approach to age-differentiated leadership that considers the needs of both older and younger employees matters most and complements the positive influence of leader–member exchange for predicting within-person variability in work ability. We also find that older employees’ work ability benefits from an approach to age-differentiated leadership that considers older employee’s needs, whereas younger employees’ work ability especially benefits from leader–member exchange and a balanced approach to age-differentiated leadership. Overall, these results provide initial support for the idea that an age-differentiated approach to leadership is important when considering healthy aging at work.

Keywords: healthy aging; work ability; age-differentiated leadership; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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