The influence of human resource practices on perceived work ability and the preferred retirement age: A latent growth modelling approach

• Author: Marc J. P. M. Van Veldhoven,Karen Pak,Annet H. De Lange,Swenneke Heuvel,Dorien T. A. M. Kooij
• Date: 01 January 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12304
• Published date: 01 January 2021

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

The influence of human resource practices on

perceived work ability and the preferred

retirement age: A latent growth modelling

approach

Karen Pak

1,2,3

| Dorien T. A. M. Kooij

2

| Annet H. De Lange

3,4,5,6

|

Swenneke van den Heuvel

7

| Marc J. P. M. Van Veldhoven

2

1

Human Resource Studies, Tilburg University,

Tilburg and Human Resource Management,

HAN University of Applied Sciences, Arnhem

and Nijmegen, Arnhem, The Netherlands

2

Human Resource Studies, Tilburg University,

Tilburg, The Netherlands

3

Human Resource Management, HAN

University of Applied Sciences, Arnhem and

Nijmegen, Arnhem, The Netherlands

4

Open University, Heerlen, The Netherlands

5

Hotel School of Management, Social

Sciences, University of Stavanger, Stavanger,

Norway

6

Department of Psychology, Norwegian

University of Science and Technology

(NTNU), Trondheim, Norway

7

Netherlands Organisation for Applied

Scientific Research, TNO, Leiden, The

Netherlands

Correspondence

Karen Pak, Human Resource Studies, Tilburg

University, Tilburg and Human Resource

Management, HAN University of Applied

Sciences, Arnhem and Nijmegen, Arnhem, The

Netherlands.

Email: k.pak@tilburguniversity.edu

Abstract

Organisations are challenged to extend working lives of older

workers. However, there is little empirical evidence available

on how organisations should do this. This study aims to fill this

gap by testing the effect of Human Resource (HR) practices

on perceived work ability and the preferred retirement age.

Based on the Conversation of Resources theory, we expected

that the use of HR practices has a positive effect on perceived

work ability and preferred retirement age. We have con-

ducted latent growth curve modelling to test our hypotheses

amongst 12,444 employees aged 45 and older at four time

points. The results indicate that developmental practices are

positively related to work ability, whereas maintenance prac-

tices are negatively related to work ability and the preferred

retirement age. Accommodative practices are negatively

related to the intercepts of both outcomes but not to the

slopes, whereas utilisation practices are not related to the out-

comes at all.

KEYWORDS

ageing workforce, human resource strategy, longitudinal research,

motivation to work, work ability

Received: 21 May 2019 Revised: 3 April 2020 Accepted: 10 May 2020

DOI: 10.1111/1748-8583.12304

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and

reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2020 The Authors. Human Resource Management Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Hum Resour Manag J. 2021;31:311–325. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrmj 311