Age Inclusive Human Resource Practices, Age Diversity Climate, and Work Ability: Exploring Between- and Within-Person Indirect Effects

To address the challenges imposed by demographic change, organizations have become increasingly interested in maintaining and improving employees’ work ability across the working lifespan. Based on signaling and social exchange theories, we present a study that investigates the indirect influence of age inclusive human resource practices on work ability through age diversity climate. Using a six-wave longitudinal study of n = 355 employees, we model between- and within-person mediated effects using a random intercept cross-lagged panel model. The results of this analysis partially support our mediation hypothesis. Specifically, we found evidence that age diversity climate mediates the influence of age inclusive human resource practices on work ability at the between-, but not at the within-person level of analysis. These findings have implications for the development of human resource practices that benefit employees at various ages.