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Age, work experience, and thepsychological contract
THOMAS W. H. NG1* AND DANIEL C. FELDMAN2
1The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong2The University of Georgia, Georgia
Summary The purpose of the current paper is to examine the ways in which age and work experienceshape how individuals experience psychological contract breaches. We first introduce theconcepts of contract malleability (the degree to which individuals can tolerate deviations fromcontract expectations) and contract replicability (the degree to which individuals believe thattheir psychological contracts can be replicated elsewhere). Next, we discuss the variety ofreasons why contract malleability and replicability become greater with age and workexperience and how contract malleability and replicability may temper negative reactionsto psychological contract breaches. We also address the different ways contract malleabilityand replicability mediate the relationships between age and work experience, on one hand, andexit, voice, loyalty, and neglect behaviors on the other. We consider the moderating effects ofage similarity and dissimilarity here as well. The paper concludes with a discussion of theimplications for future research designs and for managing older and more experiencedworkers. Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Introduction
Psychological contracts are critical in understanding how individuals experience their employment
relationships (Shore & Barksdale, 1998). Psychological contracts consist of employees’ expectations
about what they owe their employers and about what their employers owe them in return (Rousseau,
1989, 1995). Because of their impact on the quality of employment relationships, psychological
contracts have received a great deal of attention from researchers, particularly on how they are formed,
developed, and broken (Morrison & Robinson, 1997; Robinson, Kraatz, & Rousseau, 1994).
With some exceptions (e.g., Turnley & Feldman, 1998), most of the research on psychological
contracts has focused on relatively young employees and those with relatively little work experience.
Researchers have largely honed in on the unmet expectations that younger workers experience when
they first enter the labor market (Webber, 1976). In the 1980s and 1990s, in particular, researchers were
especially attuned to ways in which fewer guarantees of lifetime job security, greater feelings of
entitlement among new graduates, and greater awareness of ‘‘boundaryless careers’’ led to widespread
Journal of Organizational Behavior
J. Organiz. Behav. 30, 1053–1075 (2009)
Published online 10 March 2009 in Wiley InterScience
(www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/job.599
*Correspondence to: Thomas W. H. Ng, School of Business and Economics, The University of Hong Kong, Pok Fu Lam, HongKong. E-mail: [email protected]
Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Received 21 February 2008Revised 30 November 2008Accepted 13 January 2009
perceptions of psychological contract violations among young workers (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996;
Robinson, 1996; Robinson & Morrison, 1995).
In contrast, there has been little theoretical work on how and why age and work experience influence
the ways in which employees react to psychological contract breaches. Such research, however, is
timely and important given that the largest segment of world’s working population today is the age 40–
44 cohort (International Labor Organization, 2005). We propose here that age and work experience
may temper the intensity of reactions to psychological contract violations and the ways in which
workers respond to those violations. For instance, empirical research has demonstrated that, as people
age, there are significant changes in their self-concepts, emotional intensity, social interaction patterns,
altruistic attitudes and behaviors, life goals, and coping strategies (Heckhausen & Brim, 1997;
Lebouvie-Vief & De Voe, 1991; Steverink & Lindenberg, 2006; Underwood & Moore, 1982). These
changes, when taken together, affect the ways employees develop job expectations and react when
those expectations are unmet.
The purpose of this theoretical paper, then, is to consider how age and work experience affect
reactions to psychological contract breaches. We introduce two new concepts to explain this
phenomenon, namely, contract malleability and contract replicability. Contract malleability refers to
the degree of tolerance an employee has for unfulfilled promises, while contract replicability refers to
how likely the current psychological contract could be replicated in the open labor market. We propose
that the psychosocial changes brought about by aging and the accumulation of more work experience
alter individuals’ beliefs about contract malleability and contract replicability, which in turn affect the
ways employees react to breaches of psychological contracts.
Theoretical Background
Age
Who is considered an ‘‘older worker’’ has been debated in the literature for quite some time. In the
retirement literature, older workers are often identified as having reached retirement age or by years
needed to reach retirement age (Beehr, 1986). Using the U.S. Age Discrimination in Employment Act
of 1967 as a guide, Ng and Feldman’s (2008) recent review defines older workers as those who are age
40 or older.
However, as Cleveland and Shore (1992) note, age can be defined in terms of an employee’s
chronological age, the employee’s subjective age (the individual’s self-perception of age), the
employee’s social age (others’ perceptions of the employee’s age), and the employee’s relative age
(degree to which the individual is older than others in the work group). Thus, the meaning of ‘‘old’’
depends, to some extent, on the demographic profiles of the organization or occupation (Shore,
Cleveland, & Goldberg, 2003).
Age is a continuous variable and, in this paper, we do not adopt a specific cutoff age for defining older
workers. Instead, we examine the aging process across a wide age range for two reasons. First, because
aging does not start and stop at one particular point in time, there is no obvious cut-off when the effects
of aging on work behavior would stop, either. Second, as the average age of the world’s working
population today continues to increase and more and more individuals continue to work after typical
retirement ages (e.g., 8% of the American workforce is above the age of 60; International Labor
Organization, 2005), the issues surrounding age in the workplace affect a much larger and broader
segment of the population. Indeed, with the largest segment of theworking population now aged 40–44,
Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J. Organiz. Behav. 30, 1053–1075 (2009)
DOI: 10.1002/job
1054 T. W. H. NG AND D. C. FELDMAN
the mean of the entire working population would be considered ‘‘older workers’’ if the conventional
age-40 cutoff were used.
Age similarity
In addition to chronological age, wewill also be examining age similarity between a worker and his/her
colleagues. Previous research on relational demography has suggested that whether one has the same
demographic characteristics as other individuals in the work group might also be a key determinant of
perceptions about work (Riordan & Shore, 1997). For example, when an individual is older than most
of the others at work, she/he may have poorer work attitudes and receive less favorable treatment from
others because of a ‘‘homophily bias’’ (Milliken & Martins, 1996). Conversely, when individuals are
working with peoplewho are similar in age to themselves, they might havemore positive perceptions of
themselves and their work environments (Cleveland & Shore, 1992).
Work experience
Work experience is the amount of job-related experience an individual has accumulated over the course
of his/her career (Tesluk & Jacobs, 1998). Quinones, Ford, and Teachout (1995: 890) suggest that work
experience consists of ‘‘events that are experienced by an individual that relate to the performance of
some job.’’ In general, then, older workers will also be more experienced workers.
However, while age and work experience are positively correlated, they are theoretically distinct
constructs. The process of aging typically refers to physiological changes, underlying changes in
emotions, and changes in psychosocial needs across an individual’s lifespan (Avolio & Waldman,
1994). These changes affect most domains of an individual’s life. In contrast, the accumulation of work
experience is more likely to influence cognitive and affective reactions to the workplace specifically
(Forteza & Prieto, 1994). Moreover, given the changing shape of career paths, some older individuals
might have very little work experience in an industry if they have had multiple careers in multiple fields
(Arthur & Rousseau, 1996). Thus, the amount of work experience is not necessarily commensurate
with chronological age.
Psychological contracts
Psychological contracts consist of employees’ beliefs regarding the mutual obligations between them
and their employers (Rousseau, 1989, 1995). Stated differently, psychological contracts consist of
employees’ beliefs regarding what employers owe them and what they owe their employers in turn. For
example, employers provide inducements (e.g., pay) to encourage employees to exert maximum effort
and to stay with those employers (Lambert, Edwards, & Cable, 2003; Turnley & Feldman, 2000).
Social exchange theory (Blau, 1964) suggests that reciprocity is an important characteristic of social
relationships. Individuals who perceive that they are valued and respected are likely to reciprocate with
trust and emotional engagement in social exchanges. Thus, when organizations demonstrate care and
support for employees by fulfilling their obligations to them, employees are likely to reciprocate with
favorable job attitudes, job performance, and citizenship behaviors (Coyle-Shapiro & Conway, 2005).
These promises and reciprocal obligations underlie the nature and strength of employment
relationships (Shore & Barksdale, 1998).When employees define and interpret their obligations strictly
and view the employment relationship in purely short-term economic terms, psychological contracts
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AGE, WORK EXPERIENCE, AND THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACT 1055
are referred to as transactional in nature (Robinson & Rousseau, 1994). Relational contracts, on the
other hand, are said to exist when employees define and interpret their obligations openly and broadly.
With relational contracts, individuals view employment as a socially-satisfying exchange relationship
and take a long-term orientation to it (Robinson & Rousseau, 1994).
Contract breaches
Psychological contract breaches occur when employees perceive that their employers have failed to
fulfill at least one obligation or promise implied by their employers (Morrison & Robinson, 1997;
Restubog, Bordia, & Tang, 2006; Turnley, Bolino, Lester, & Bloodgood, 2003). In some cases, these
breaches consist of non-fulfillment of promises (e.g., not receiving a promotion). In other cases, these
breaches consist of delays in fulfilling promises (e.g., deferring a pay raise by 6 months). While some
recent research has begun to examine situations in which employers over-fulfill their obligations (e.g.,
Lambert et al., 2003; Turnley et al., 2003), the predominant focus in this stream of research has been on
the under-fulfillment of obligations. That will be the major focus of this paper as well.
When breaches occur, employees are more likely to see themselves in a state of inequity. To restore
this equity, employees may reduce their loyalty and trust, withdraw their efforts and contributions, and
in extreme cases, retaliate against their employers (Turnley et al., 2003). In fact, empirical research
over the past decade has found that psychological contract breaches are negatively related to employee
job satisfaction, trust, organizational commitment, job performance, and citizenship behavior, while
being positively related to employee cynicism, absenteeism, and turnover (Bunderson, 2001; Conway
& Briner, 2002; Deery, Iverson, & Walsh, 2006; Johnson & O’Leary-Kelly, 2003; Pugh, Skarlicki, &
Passell, 2003; Sutton & Griffin, 2004).
Previous research suggests that breaches of promises on the part of employers are quite widespread.
For instance, Robinson et al. (1994) observed that 55% of their managerial respondents reported their
employers had, at some time, violated their psychological contract in terms of providing training,
compensation, benefits, promotions, and job security. Similarly, Turnley and Feldman (1998) found
that 25% of their sample reported that they had received less than what they had been promised by their
employers.
Breach severity
The weight of the empirical evidence suggests that the greater the level of contract breach, the more
negative employee reactions are (Morrison & Robinson, 1997). Empirical measures of psychological
contract breaches have largely focused on the global perceptions of breaches (Robinson & Morrison,
2000) or the number of contract elements that have been breached (Turnley & Feldman, 1999). Much
less attention has been paid, though, to the differences between reactions to breaches of central,
important contract elements and reactions to breaches of peripheral, less critical contract elements.
To broaden the existing perspective on contract breaches, we include another concept here called
breach severity. Breach severity is the extent to which employees perceive that the most important
promises in their psychological contracts have gone unfulfilled. In other words, a severe contract breach
occurs when firms fail to fulfill their promises on contract elements that employees value the most. Our
premise is that the more severe the breach, the more likely employees are to react intensely and
negatively.
It is important to note here that individuals will vary in terms of what they consider severe breaches,
and those assessments might be based on qualitative as well as quantitative grounds. For instance, a
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1056 T. W. H. NG AND D. C. FELDMAN
breach of a pay raise of $5,000 may be seen as severe for a blue-collar worker but minor for an
executive. Similarly, a breach of a promise for flexible scheduling may be seen as severe for working
parents but as minor for other employees. Therefore, breach severity is conceptually distinct from the
general perceptions of whether organizations have fulfilled their promises. Instead, it focuses on
employee perceptions about the fulfillment of promises they value most.
Theoretical Model
The key proposed relationships are displayed in Figure 1. In the sections below, we explain these
proposed relationships in more detail. As noted above, breach severity has an impact on how strongly
employees reciprocate negatively when they experience contract breaches. However, how employees
respond to breaches will also depend upon how much they can tolerate deviations from expectations
and how readily they perceive they could find equal (or better) deals elsewhere. To address these issues,
we introduce the constructs of contract malleability and contract replicability. We also propose that
both age and work experiences influence contract malleability and contract replicability.
Contract malleability
Definition
Contract malleability refers to the extent to which employees can tolerate deviations from expectations
without reciprocating negatively in turn. In other words, employees vary in the extent to which they can
tolerate deviations in contract fulfillment without perceiving the psychological contract as violated.
Consistent with the scope of breach severity, employees may be able to tolerate some unfulfilled
promises but not others or tolerate unfulfilled promises to a greater or lesser degree. The tolerance of an
employee for deviations from expectations, aggregated across psychological contract elements,
contributes to his or her global perceptions of contract malleability.
Figure 1. The proposed theoretical model
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AGE, WORK EXPERIENCE, AND THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACT 1057
We expect that, some employees, such as those who have high organizational identity, may take
contract violations in stride and realize that, as organizations change, their expectations may have to
change as well. For instance, these employees may find it acceptable that a pay raise of 5% is deferred
for 6 months because of significant profit declines. In contrast, other employees may have little or no
tolerance for deviations from expectations. For example, some employees who have been promised a
5% pay raise in January may conclude there has been a serious contract breach when the organization
phases in the pay raise, giving half effective January 1 and half effective June 1. These employees
would argue that a promise is a promise and, once extended, cannot be unilaterally altered.
Differences from related constructs
It is important to note here that contract malleability is conceptually distinct from equity sensitivity.
Equity sensitivity is an individual difference that characterizes how sensitive people are to under-
reward and over-reward situations (Huseman, Hatfield, & Miles, 1987). Contract malleability, on the
other hand, does not address whether or not a breach has occurred, but rather the individual’s degree of
tolerance after a breach has occurred (or is believed to occur). Furthermore, while we expect that
contract malleability will be affected, in part, by personality traits, it is also likely to be heavily
influenced by situational factors, too. For instance, Pugh et al. (2003) observed that psychological
contract breaches with previous employers contributed to employees’ cynicism about new and future
employment relationships. That is, employees who feel they have been burned before in terms of
receiving unfair treatment are likely to have unmalleable expectations going forward.
Contract malleability is also conceptually distinct from transactional and relational psychological
contracts. While transactional and relational contracts address the nature of obligations (e.g., short-
term vs. long-term) (Robinson & Rousseau, 1994), contract malleability addresses individuals’ degree
of tolerance when those obligations are unmet. We do expect, though, that the nature of obligations
prescribed by transactional or relational contracts may determine individuals’ levels of contract
malleability. Those individuals who have relational contracts might be willing to tolerate contract
violations because of the expectation that the employment relationship is going to be long-term and
disappointments will ultimately be reversed. Conversely, those who view the employment relationship
as transactional in nature might have little tolerance for contract violations since their time-frame for
recouping perceived losses is much shorter.
Relationship to outcome variables
We propose here that different levels of contract malleability will lead to different outcomes when
psychological contract breaches occur. To the extent that employees can tolerate deviations from
expectations, unfulfilled promises on the part of the organization will be less likely to lead to negative
reactions from employees. These employees may be more psychologically prepared for the occurrence
of psychological contract breaches and/or morewilling to make external attributions about their causes.
Because of this willingness to tolerate deviations from expectations, employees who view their
contracts as malleable are likely to respond less intensely even when faced with severe contract
breaches. Conversely, employees who perceive their psychological contracts as unmalleable are more
likely to view these breaches as purposeful, intentional, and personal. Thus, we propose that
perceptions of contract malleability will moderate the relationships between breach severity and
negative employee reactions.
Proposition 1: Individuals who perceive their psychological contracts as highly malleable will react
less negatively to severe contract breaches than will individuals who view their contracts as
unmalleable.
Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J. Organiz. Behav. 30, 1053–1075 (2009)
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1058 T. W. H. NG AND D. C. FELDMAN
Contract replicability
Definition
Because psychological contracts have been viewed primarily as social exchanges between participants
in the same organization, relatively little attention has been paid to whether employees view their
psychological contracts as replicable in other organizations. That is, employees may believe some
aspects of their psychological contracts (e.g., work hours) are more readily replicable than other
promises over the others (e.g., training, development, and promotion opportunities). The aggregation of
these beliefs about replicability, across the array of psychological contract elements, contributes to
employees’ global perceptions of contract replicability.
As careers become characterized by greater job mobility (Cavanaugh & Noe, 1999; Sullivan, 1999),
however, perceptions about the external market may increasingly influence perceptions of current
psychological contracts. Labor statistics show that Baby Boomers in America changed jobs frequently,
holding an average of 10 jobs from the ages of 18 to 38 (US Department of Labor, 2004). Longitudinal
studies of job attitudes have also shown that there is a tendency for organizational commitment to
decline as organizational tenure increases (Bentein, Vandenberg, Vandenberghe, & Stinglhamber,
2005; Lance, Vandenberg, & Self, 2000). Collectively, the research evidence suggests that more
employees are loosening their bonds to their employers over time.
Here we argue that employees’ perceptions of their ‘‘deals’’ as rare in the external labor market will
influence how individuals will react to breaches. While social exchange theory focuses on reciprocity
for past contributions, relative deprivation theory suggests that employees also use other standards to
judge the fairness of their employment arrangements (Feldman, Leana, & Turnley, 1997). The seminal
work on relative deprivation (Crosby, 1982, 1984) suggests that individuals’ satisfaction with their job
situations also depends on what employees want and feel entitled to. Consequently, perceptions of the
external labor market come into play in the assessments of psychological contracts ex post, even if they
do not come into play in the development of those contracts ex ante.
Differences from related constructs
Contract replicability is different from idiosyncratic deals (‘‘I-deals’’), which are voluntary,
personalized agreements that are negotiated between individual employees and their employers and not
available to other coworkers (Rousseau, Ho, & Greenberg, 2006). They are geared to specific
individuals’ needs, often addressing non-standard work arrangements or benefits typically absent from
formal employment contracts (e.g., telecommuting opportunities or special promotion tracks)
(Hornung, Rousseau, & Glaser, 2008; Miner, 1987). Therefore, idiosyncratic deals address the
differences in psychological contracts across coworkers or peers whereas contract replicability
addresses the differences between one’s current psychological contract and what is perceived to be
available in the external market.
Contract replicability is also different from perceived job alternatives. The concept of perceived job
alternatives is typically viewed as the probability of being able to get another job in the external labor
market (Thau, Bennett, Stahlberg, & Werner, 2004). In contrast, contract replicability refers to employee
perceptions about the likelihood of getting the same (or better) psychological contract elsewhere. Thus,
individuals may believe they could find alternative jobs elsewhere, but not be able to get the same kind
of deal they have elsewhere (in terms of mentoring, training, scheduling flexibility, etc.).
Like contract malleability, contract replicability is conceptually distinct from transactional and
relational psychological contracts. Transactional and relational psychological contracts address the
nature of obligations between two key parties (employees and employers) (Robinson & Rousseau,
1994). In contrast, contract replicability addresses exchanges among three key parties: Employees
themselves, current employers, and potential employers elsewhere. Further, transactional and
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AGE, WORK EXPERIENCE, AND THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACT 1059
relational contracts focus on present and past fulfillment of obligations from the current employer. In
contrast, replicability focuses on other employers’ ability to fulfill individuals’ expectations in the future.
The nature of obligations (transactional or relational contracts), though, may partially influence
individuals’ levels of contract replicability. We propose that individuals who believe that their
relationships with current employers involve open and long-term obligations would be less likely to
feel they could replicate the quality of those employment relationships elsewhere (i.e., with the same
degree of mutual trust and emotional engagement). On the other hand, we suggest that individuals who
have transactional contracts might be more likely to believe that their current employment
relationships, which involve short-term and clearly specified obligations (Robinson & Rousseau,
1994), reflect standard practices in the industry. As a result, they would be more likely to perceive that
their psychological contracts would be readily replicable elsewhere.
Relationship to outcome variables
Employees are likely to react particularly positively when organizations offer them inducements that
are unique and non-replicable in the external market (Hornung et al., 2008). However, non-replicable
contracts can be a double-edged sword, since employees with these contracts may react particularly
negatively when these unique employment deals are breached.
First, we expect that individuals will be especially disappointed that they are not receiving the rare
resources and rewards they have been promised, particularly since the promise of those rare resources
and rewards might have swayed them to join the organization in the first place. Second, employees will
be especially discouraged about the probability of being able to rectify these contract breaches simply
by going elsewhere since, by definition, these deals would be very hard to find in the external market.
Third, non-fulfillment of the unique parts of their psychological contracts may make employees more
pessimistic that even the ‘‘ordinary’’ elements of their contracts will be honored.
Thus, we propose that perceptions of contract replicability will moderate the relationships between
breach severity and negative employee reactions. Those relationships will be stronger when employees
view their psychological contracts as non-replicable in the external labor market. When breach severity
is high, employees who view their contracts as non-replicable will respond particularly intensely.
Proposition 2: Individuals who perceive their psychological contracts as non-replicable will react
more negatively to severe contract breaches than will individuals who view their psychological
contracts as replicable.
The impact of age and work experience on contract malleability
Age and contract malleability
We propose that, as individuals age, they will perceive that their psychological contracts are more
malleable. As we discuss below in more detail, these shifts occur as the result of changing emotions and
social relationships.
Emotions
As individuals grow older, the emotions they experience—and the intensity of those emotions—also
change. More specifically, researchers have found that, over the lifespan, individuals’ emotional
reactions tend to become less intense (Gross, Carstensen, Pasupathi, Tsai, Skorpen, & Hsu, 1997;
Lawton, Kleban, Rajagopal, & Dean, 1992; Lebouvie-Vief & De Voe, 1991; Lebouvie-Vief, Hakim-
Larson, De Voe, & Schoeberlein, 1989). Further, empirical studies have shown that older adults are
better able to understand and control their emotions. For instance, Lawton et al. (1992) sampled three
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1060 T. W. H. NG AND D. C. FELDMAN
large groups of healthy adults about their emotional experiences. These authors found that, compared
with younger adults (aged 18–29), middle-aged (30–59), and older adults (60 or above) demonstrated a
greater ability to regulate emotions. Similarly, Chapman and Hayslip (2006) found that older adults
(mean age¼ 49), when compared to younger adults (mean age¼ 20), were more likely to use optimism
as a strategy to regulate their emotions.
In addition, older adults are more likely to process positive emotional information more deeply than
negative emotional information. For instance, older adults (62 or above) recall more positive than
negative information when compared to young adults (below age 39) (Lockenhoff & Carstensen,
2007). Thomas and Hasher (2006) have also found that, compared to young adults (aged 18–28), older
individuals (60 or above) are more likely to cognitively strengthen positive information in memory and
diminish negative information in memory. These results have even been indirectly supported by brain
imaging research, which shows that extreme negative images cause much stronger brain activity in
young adults (aged 19–21) than do extreme positive images (Wood & Kisley, 2006). Because older
employees have a stronger ability to regulate emotions and to process positive information more
deeply, we expect that they will also be able to tolerate deviations from expectations better.
Social interactions
Older adults, as a group, also strive for strong interpersonal relationships (Sorkin & Rook, 2006). Ryff
(1989) has observed that both middle-aged adults (mean age¼ 53) and older adults (mean age¼ 74)
rate quality social relationship as critical to well-being. For many older adults, having quality social
relationships with spouses, family, and friends is key to making the transition to the old age, largely
because these social relationships offer fulfillment of their needs for status and affection (Steverink &
Lindenberg, 2006). In contrast, younger employees appear to place more importance on work-life
balance, opportunities to develop skills, and pay linked to individual performance (Finegold,
Mohrman, & Spreitzer, 2002).
Moreover, when compared to young adults, older adults are less likely to have problems with social
relationships (Birditt & Fingerman, 2005). For instance, researchers have found that middle-aged (40–
59) subjects reported less intense emotional reactions to tense social situations than did younger
subjects (25–39). Similarly, adults age 60 and older reported less intense emotional reactions compared
to middle-aged subjects (Birditt, Fingerman, & Almeida, 2005). In another study, Birditt and
Fingerman (2003) examined differences across five cohorts (13–16, 20–29, 40–49, 60–69, 80, and
above). They found that older cohorts were more likely to remain loyal to relationships in tense
interpersonal situations than were their younger counterparts. Erber, Szuchman, and Prager (2001) also
found that older adults (56 or above) are typically more forgiving of misconduct than are younger adults
(aged 18–36).
Carstensen (1991) uses a ‘‘socioemotional selectivity perspective’’ to explain these findings.
Specifically, she suggests that, as people increasingly realize that their time on earth is finite, they focus
more on the enjoyment of social relationships than on utilitarian activities like acquiring money.
Empirical studies also provide support for this socioemotional selectivity perspective. For instance,
adult development research has shown that as people age, they tend to become more altruistic,
generous, and better able to understand the perspectives of others (Midlarsky & Hannah, 1989;
Underwood &Moore, 1982). Taken all together, then, the evidence suggests that age will be positively
related to contract malleability.
Proposition 3a: Age and perceptions of contract malleability are positively related.
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The moderating role of age similarity
While perceptions of contract malleability are likely to increase with aging, the extent of that growth
may depend upon the degree of age dissimilarity between a focal employee and his/her colleagues.
When an individual is older than most of his/her co-workers, she/he occupies a minority status within
the group (Riordan & Shore, 1997). This lower status position might influence how relatively older
workers perceive their psychological contracts (Guinote, Brown, & Fiske, 2006; Uotomo, 1986).
Specifically, we suggest that older workers who are age-dissimilar from their colleagues will view their
psychological contracts as more malleable than older employees working with similarly-aged
colleagues.
As noted before, older workers tend to have a more positive emotional outlook and a stronger
preference for social relationships, both of which contribute to higher perceptions of contract
malleability. These psychosocial changes brought by aging may be intensified when an older
individuals work with age-dissimilar employees. For example, research on learned helplessness
suggests that minorities, who have been previously exposed to more uncontrollable conditions, learn to
react less intensely to adverse stimuli (Garber & Seligman, 1980). Thus, older individuals in age-
dissimilar environments may have even less intense emotional responses to unfulfilled promises.
In addition, cognitive dissonance theory (Festinger, 1957) would predict that relatively older
workers, who feel insufficiently powerful to demand contract fulfillment, may start viewing their
psychological contracts as more malleable instead. Because older workers value social relationships,
they are less confrontational when faced with adversity (Birditt & Fingerman, 2005) and are more
likely to adjust their goals to suit the circumstances (Brandstadter & Renner, 1990). As a result, older
workers in age-dissimilar environments may accept their minority status more readily.
Therefore, we suggest that individuals who are chronologically old and are relatively older than most
of their colleagues will react less intensely to psychological contract breaches than older individuals
working with age-similar colleagues. That is, age dissimilarity will moderate the relationship between
age and perceptions of contract malleability.
Proposition 3b: Age similarity moderates the relationship between chronological age and contract
malleability. Chronologically older employees who are also relatively older than their colleagues
will be more likely to perceive their contracts as malleable.
Work experience and contract malleability
The accumulation of work experience often reinforces the emotional changes that accompany aging.
For example, job attitudes are usually higher among workers with more work experience, both because
of the greater rewards they receive due to seniority and because their expectations of work become
more realistic over time (Eichar, Brady, & Fortinsky, 1991; Quarstein, McAfee, & Glassman, 1992).
Further, as workers gain more work experience, they become clearer in their own minds about the
tradeoffs they are willing to make to find appropriate careers for themselves. Over time, these ‘‘career
anchors’’ give experienced workers more stability in their career paths, guide them toward work
situations that are more fulfilling, and steer them away from job situations which would be poor fits
(Feldman & Bolino, 1997; Schein, 1990).
In addition, years of full-time work experience tends to lower individuals’ expectations of others.
Early research on realistic job previews (cf. Wanous, 1981) implicitly argued that, as individuals gained
work experience, their perceptions of the work world would become more realistic and change in two
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ways. First, greater work experience helps individuals developmore realistic standards of what ‘‘good’’
and ‘‘bad’’ job situations look like. Second, greater work experience inoculates employees from over-
reacting to inevitable disappointments. Therefore, more experienced workers are less likely to be
emotionally disturbed by negative incidents (e.g., delayed pay raises) because they do not perceive the
negative consequences of each and every non-fulfillment as dramatic (Bedeian, Ferris, & Kacmar,
1992). Taken all together, then, the evidence suggests that work experience will also be positively
related to contract malleability.
Proposition 3c: Years of work experience and perceptions of contract malleability are positively
related.
The impact of age and work experience on contract replicability
Age and contract replicability
We propose here that age will be negatively related to perceptions of contract replicability. As we
discuss below in more detail, age-related changes in contract replicability are often tied to age-related
changes in self-efficacy.
Specifically, as individuals reach late middle age, they often have less self-efficacy about their ability
to perform and view themselves as less likely to be successful at work (Heckhausen & Schulz, 1995).
For instance, Brandstadter and Rothermund (1994) observed that, across five age groups (30–35, 36–
41, 42–47, 48–53, 54–59), the oldest group of subjects reported the lowest level of confidence about
their ability to change their environments. In another study, Brandstadter and Renner (1990) found that
there was a general decline in the level of tenacious goal pursuit (called ‘‘assimilative coping’’) and a
general increase in the level of goal adjustment as individuals age (called ‘‘accommodative coping’’).
Rather than holding on to ambitious goals, older workers are more likely to lower their goals downward
to adjust to their circumstances. Because of this weaker self-efficacy, older individuals will be more
likely to believe that their psychological contracts cannot be easily replicated or negotiated in other
organizations.
Empirical research evidence provides some support for the above assertion. For instance, several
researchers have found that, compared with younger employees, older employees (mean age¼ 50) who
have been laid off from similar jobs are more likely to feel dissatisfied with their replacement jobs,
particularly in terms of satisfaction with pay and benefits (Mallinckrodt, 1990). The literature on
underemployment and job loss, too, suggests that older workers, once laid off, are less likely to find re-
employment quickly and are less likely to find the quality replacement jobs their younger colleagues do
(Feldman et al., 1997). Finally, research on age discrimination indicates that older employees are often
stereotyped by others as more rigid, less productive, less interested in keeping up with technology
advancement, less creative, and harder to train (Shore & Goldberg, 2004). For these reasons, then, we
expect that older workers will also have less reason to believe their contracts could be easily replicated
elsewhere.
Proposition 4a: Age and perceptions of contract replicability are negatively related.
The moderating role of age similarity
Age similarity may also moderate the relationship between chronological age and contract
replicability. As noted before, older employees may have less self-efficacy about their ability to
perform well and to find comparable jobs elsewhere. When these individuals are also relatively older
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AGE, WORK EXPERIENCE, AND THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACT 1063
than their colleagues, the declines in their self-efficacy beliefs may be even sharper. For example, Shore
et al. (2003) found that, when employees are older than their managers, both self-rated and manager-
rated promotability and career development assistance given to these employees were lower as well.
Kirchmeyer (1995) also found that employees’ perceptions of age dissimilarity were associated with
perceptions of less job challenge and work group fit. As a result, relatively older workers will be more
pessimistic about being able to find equally good (or better) deals elsewhere.
A major reason why chronologically old employees who are also relatively older than their
colleagues may have lower self-efficacy is the existence of social stereotypes. There has been
considerable research conducted on the extent of age biases and stereotypes in the workplace (Shore &
Goldberg, 2004). Because age is a surface-level characteristic, it can readily evoke stereotypes and
prejudices in others (Harrison, Price, Gavin, & Florey, 1998), especially when older workers are the
minority group (Riordan, Schaffer, & Stewart, 2004). The negative effects of these age stereotypes and
prejudices are likely to be evident in multiple aspects of older workers’ careers, including job
applications, performance evaluations, development opportunities received, and retention (Shore &
Goldberg, 2004). Weiss and Maurer (2004) note that, while recent empirical research finds less
evidence of age discrimination today than 30 years ago, more subtle forms of discrimination may
actually have increased over the years. Chronologically older individuals who are working with
typically younger colleagues are more vulnerable to this stereotyping.
For instance, Sturman (2003) found that the relationship between age and supervisor-rated task
performance followed an inverted-U shape. Age is positively related to task performance for younger
workers, but is negatively related to task performance for older workers. Given there is very little
evidence that cognitive ability declines sharply at middle age (Greller & Simpson, 1999), one
reasonable conclusion is that the curvilinear relationship observed largely reflects age bias against older
adults often held by supervisors (Ferris, Yates, Gilmore, & Rowland, 1985). Therefore, we propose that
older employees who also work in environments with mainly younger workers will particularly
strongly believe that: (a) most organizations prefer to hire young workers, and (b) they will have fewer
employment opportunities in the external labor market themselves as a result (Schindler, Staudinger, &
Nesselroade, 2006).
Proposition 4b: Age similarity moderates the relationship between chronological age and contract
replicability. Chronologically older employees who are also relatively older than their colleagues
will be more likely to perceive their contracts as non-replicable compared to those old employees
who are age similar to their colleagues.
Work experience and contract replicability
We also predict here that individuals with more work experience will perceive their psychological
contracts as less replicable in other organizations. Both the literatures on person–organization fit and
job embeddedness help explain why.
The fit literature suggests that, as individuals accumulate more work experience, they are more likely
to hold positions which are good fits for them, personally and professionally (Schneider, Goldstein, &
Smith, 1995). For example, White and Spector (1987) observed that greater work experience and job
seniority gave employees greater access to better jobs (e.g., job challenge and job security) and greater
mastery of required job duties. Moreover, as employees settle into jobs which are good fits for them,
they are less likely to seek out disconfirming information about their present jobs (Feldman & Bolino,
1997; Schein, 1990). As a result, we expect that employees with greater full-time work experience, job
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tenure, and organizational tenure will be less likely to perceive that their psychological contracts are
replicable elsewhere.
Amount of work experience also influences older workers’ perceptions of how readily they could
replicate their current ‘‘deal’’ elsewhere. As the job embeddedness literature suggests, as individuals
gain more and more years of service, they become highly enmeshed in their current organizations
(Crossley, Bennett, Jex, & Burnfield, 2007). Veteran employees develop stronger links to their colleagues,
invest more deeply in their communities, and feel like leaving would create greater financial and personal
sacrifices (Mitchell, Holtom, Lee, Sablynski, & Erez, 2001). As job embeddedness increases and external
mobility decreases, perceptions of contract replicability should weaken, too.
In addition, external employers are more likely to stereotype highly experienced workers as less
mobile and therefore engage in less effort to recruit them. Indeed, there are some elements of truth in
this stereotype because individuals with considerable work experience are, in fact, less willing to move
(Feldman & Ng, 2007). Ultimately, a self-fulfilling prophecy can emerge: Workers who have
substantial work experience are less likely to see their psychological contracts as easily replicable in the
external market, while employers are less likely to recruit highly experienced workers because they
view them as less movable. Thus, we predict:
Proposition 4c: Years of work experience and perceptions of contract replicability are negatively
related.
Contract malleability, contract replicability, and job behaviors
In addition to affecting responses to psychological contract breaches, beliefs about psychological
contracts may also influence employees’ approaches to their work (Shore et al., 2004). Here, we
propose that contract malleability and contract replicability partially mediate the relationships between
age and work experience on one hand and job behaviors on the other hand. That is, some of the impact
of age and work experience on job behaviors is due to their mediating influences on contract
malleability and contract replicability.
In examining employees’ job behaviors, we utilize the EVLN (exit, voice, loyalty, and neglect)
framework originally proposed by Hirshman (1970) and subsequently modified by Rusbult, Farrell,
Rogers, and Mainus (1988). This typology was originally proposed to understand individuals’
responses to declining exchange relationships. As such, this typology should be particularly relevant to
psychological contract research in which the focus is on the nature of the employee–organization
relationships (Turnley & Feldman, 1999). In addition, the EVLN framework has seldom been utilized
to understand how older and more experienced workers might respond to work disappointments and
deteriorating employment relationships. Thus, its use here provides another way of understanding older
employees’ performance in the workplace.
ExitAt its simplest level, exit refers to voluntary turnover. There is a general expectation that older and more
experienced workers prefer stability in their work lives and therefore are less likely to leave their
employers voluntarily (Flaherty & Pappas, 2002). However, the empirical evidence on this point has
been mixed. For instance, in a quantitative review of the age-voluntary turnover relationship, Healy,
Lehman, and McDaniel (1995) conclude that the relationship between age and turnover is near zero.
We propose that older and more experienced individuals will be less likely to leave their employers
because they perceive their contracts as more malleable. Because they view those contracts as more
malleable, they will be less infuriated by unmet expectations at work and therefore be less likely to bolt
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AGE, WORK EXPERIENCE, AND THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACT 1065
when faced with disappointments. Moreover, workers who are relatively older and who have more
work experience may view the chances of replicating their current deals or obtaining the same amount
of rewards in the external labor market as low—and as a result, be less motivated to actively search for
job alternatives (Dalton & Todor, 1993; Turnley & Feldman, 1999). Both contract malleability and
replicability, then, serve as mediating variables in explaining why older and more experienced workers
are less likely to voluntarily leave the organizations.
Proposition 5a: Contract malleability partially mediates the relationships of age and work
experience with organizational exit. That is, part of the negative effect of age and work experience
on organizational exit is due to greater perceptions of contract malleability.
Proposition 5b: Contract replicability partially mediates the relationships of age and work
experience with organizational exit. That is, part of the negative effect of age and work experience
on organizational exit is due to greater perceptions of contracts being non-replicable elsewhere.
Voice
Hirshman (1970) defines voice as employee attempts to improve working conditions through
discussions with supervisors or by appealing to managers higher in the chain of command. Voice is
generally viewed as a response engaged in by workers who would like to remain in an organization and
who are willing to be assertive in order to make improvements in work conditions possible (Rusbult
et al., 1988).
Previous research has been mixed as to whether older and more experienced workers are more likely
to use voice to increase the likelihood of obtaining desired outcomes. LePine and Van Dyne (1998), for
example, found that age was unrelated to voice behavior, while Van Dyne, Graham, and Dienesch
(1994) found that a proxy for work experience (organizational tenure) was negatively related to
workplace participation. Other researchers, in contrast, have found that both age and organizational
tenure are positively related to voice behavior (Naus, van Iterson, & Roe, 2007).
Examining changing perceptions of contract malleability and replicability may help clarify the
relationships of age and work experience with voice. We propose that older and more experienced
workers will feel less need to (and less desire to) speak to their superiors about broken promises or
make suggestions to the organizations. As discussed earlier, workers with greater age and work
experience will have more malleable psychological contracts. In other words, they may be morewilling
to accept delays of promise fulfillment or incomplete fulfillment before taking concrete action (e.g., use
of voice) to change the situation. They may also be more anxious to get involved in unpleasant
conversations or conflicts. Conversely, younger and less experienced employees who have less
malleable psychological contracts may be more assertive in expressing their disappointment to
employers. Low malleability is typically associated with a lack of voluntary compliance, which often
promotes more voice behavior (Krefting & Powers, 1998).
In addition, since older and more experienced employees are likely to believe that the outside market
cannot offer them better deals, they might have greater incentives not to rock the boat in their current
jobs (Finegold et al., 2002). Because using voice may increase the risk of retaliation from employers
(Cortina &Magley, 2003), older and experienced employees may especially want to refrain from using
voice in order not to jeopardize their job security.
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In contrast, we suggest that younger workers and less experienced workers may bemore motivated to
use voice. Researchers have observed that employees also use voice for impression management
purposes (Fuller, Barnett, Hester, Relyea, & Frey, 2007). As noted before, younger and less
experienced employees often hold ordinary ‘‘deals.’’ By providing constructive suggestions or
innovative solutions, younger employees may hope to get an edge over their peers and demonstrate they
are worthy of getting better deals in the years ahead. Second, because younger employees are more
likely to perceive that equally good (or even better) employment deals are available elsewhere, they
may be less fearful of retaliation and therefore more likely to negotiate or fight for their demands
(Cortina & Magley, 2003).
Proposition 6a: Contract malleability partially mediates the relationships of age and work
experience with voice behavior. That is, part of the negative effect of age and work experience on
voice is due to greater perceptions of contract malleability.
Proposition 6b: Contract replicability partially mediates the relationships of age and work
experience with voice behavior. That is, part of the negative effect of age and work experience on
voice is due to greater perceptions of contracts being non-replicable elsewhere.
Loyalty
Loyalty involves silent or passive forbearance of negative work conditions (Hirshman, 1970). While
voice refers to active attempts to change work environments, loyalty refers to remaining with an
organization despite contract breaches. Regarding its relationship with age and work experience, there
is empirical evidence that older and experienced workers are more loyal (Birditt & Fingerman, 2005)
and more committed to the organizations (Mathieu & Zajac, 1990; Riketta, 2005).
Because older and experienced workers view their contracts as more malleable, they are more likely
to accept contract breaches with silence or passivity, since they believe that organizations will
ultimately honor their commitments. Rusbult et al. (1988) emphasize that loyalty implies passive, but
optimistic, patience for conditions to improve. This operational definition of loyalty is consistent with
our conceptualization of contract malleability, which is to tolerate deviations from expectations
without reciprocating negatively in turn. Thus, loyalty can be viewed as a behavioral expression of
older workers’ malleability regarding unmet promises.
Indeed, Birditt and Fingerman (2005) identified important age differences in strategies used to cope
with interpersonal relationship problems. In particular, older adults were more likely than younger
adults to adopt a ‘‘loyalty’’ strategy in dealing with difficult social relationships. Moreover, older
workers may have more flexible expectations because, as a group, they have more altruistic attitudes
toward life (Midlarsky & Hannah, 1989; Underwood & Moore, 1982). As such, we suggest that older
and experienced workers may view the aggressive pursuit of self-interest as unseemly or deviant. In
such cases, older andmore experienced workers may choose loyalty over other behavioral responses. In
addition, the choice of loyalty might be one of necessity for older and more experienced workers. If
older workers (especially those who are also older than most of their colleagues) feel their deals are not
replicable elsewhere, they have all the more reason to absorb the disappointment patiently and wait for
improvements in due course.
Proposition 7a: Contract malleability partially mediates the relationships of age and work
experience with loyalty behavior. That is, part of the positive effect of age and work experience on
loyalty is due to greater perceptions of contract malleability.
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Proposition 7b: Contract replicability partially mediates the relationships of age and work
experience with loyalty behavior. That is, part of the positive effect of age and work experience on
loyalty is due to greater perceptions of contracts being non-replicable elsewhere.
Neglect
While loyalty is viewed in terms of employee citizenship (extra-role) behaviors, neglect is typically
viewed in terms of employees’ counterproductive behaviors (Rusbult et al., 1988; Withey & Cooper,
1989). For example, neglect is often conceptualized in terms of lower job involvement and greater
workplace withdrawal (Turnley & Feldman, 1999). There is some empirical evidence that older and
more experienced workers are less likely to engage in counterproductive behavior (Lau, Au, & Ho,
2003; Ng & Feldman, 2008).
Here we propose that older and more experienced workers will be less likely to engage in neglect
because they are more likely to believe their contracts are malleable within the current firm but not
replicable in outside firms. Since older and more experienced employees have more malleable
expectations and perceive that equity might be regained in the long run, there is less reason for them to
decrease their efforts toward in-role responsibilities, at least not before they decide that they simply
cannot tolerate their present situations any longer (Dalton & Todor, 1993). Also, because older workers
tend to be more altruistic and better able to understand the viewpoints of others (Midlarsky & Hannah,
1989; Underwood & Moore, 1982), they will be less inclined to deliberately hurt the well-being of the
organization (e.g., through neglect) unless necessary.
Moreover, simply in terms of self-preservation, neglectful behaviors and withdrawal of effort would
weaken, rather than strengthen, older workers’ power to negotiate better deals with current superiors
(Hornung et al., 2008). Indeed, if older workers start neglecting their work, stereotypes about the
declining trajectory of older workers’ performance will be evoked, recommendations from current
employers will worsen, and difficulty finding new jobs elsewhere will be greater. These age stereotypes
may be especially more likely to be evoked when older workers display neglect behavior in an age-
dissimilar environment (Greller & Simpson, 1999).
Proposition 8a: Contract malleability partially mediates the relationships of age and work
experience with neglect behavior. That is, part of the negative effect of age and work experience on
neglect behavior is due to greater perceptions of contract malleability.
Proposition 8b: Contract replicability partially mediates the relationships of age and work
experience with neglect behavior. That is, part of the negative effect of age and work experience on
neglect behavior is due to greater perceptions of contracts being non-replicable elsewhere.
Discussion
Research programs on aging and psychological contracts have, by and large, developed quite
separately. The purpose of this paper is to integrate these two lines of research by linking psychosocial
changes brought about by aging and accumulation of work experiences to employees’ perceptions of
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1068 T. W. H. NG AND D. C. FELDMAN
contract malleability and replicability. In this final section, we discuss the implications of these
propositions for future research and management practice.
Making the transition to empirical research
In order to move the concepts of contract malleability and replicability into the empirical literature,
reliable and valid measures must be developed. We do not foresee major difficulties in being able to
operationalize these concepts successfully and suggest some developmental steps below that might
result in acceptable empirical measures.
First, contract malleability and replicability are psychological in nature and therefore might be
arguably best measured by self-reports. At some point, it might be desirable to obtain supervisors’
perceptions of employees’ psychological contracts on these dimensions as well, but clearly self-report
perceptual data will be needed at the beginning.
Second, because we suggest there will be differences in how employees react to severe and modest
contract breaches, we recommend that researchers incorporate the most typical specific elements of
psychological contracts into these new measures (Turnley & Feldman, 1999). For instance, instead of
measuring employees’ global level of tolerance for contract breaches, researchers should consider
measuring employees’ level of tolerance for broken promises on each of the seven contract elements
identified in Robinson et al. (1994): Opportunities for advancement, level of pay, pay based on current
performance (merit pay), training, job security, career development, and support with personal
problems. These facets can be aggregated to represent overall perceptions of contract malleability and
contract replicability. Moreover, such an approach would help us understand which breaches are most
severe and the differences in how younger and older employees view these various breaches.
Third, to demonstrate discriminant validity, the measurement validation process should include
measures of related, but independent, constructs. Perhaps the most important ones to consider here are
relational contracts, transactional contracts, equity sensitivity, perceived job alternatives, and breach
severity. To this end, researchers should: (a) examine the strength of the empirical relationships
between contract malleability, contract replicability, and these theoretically similar variables;
(b) compare the nomological network of contract malleability and replicability with those of these
other correlates; and (c) use cross-lagged panel research designs, which help researchers understand the
pattern of causal relationships among closely-related constructs.
Advancing research on age and performance
The relationships of age, relative age, and work experience with contract malleability and contract
replicability need to be studied empirically as well. Ng and Feldman (2008) argue that researchers need
to examine the effects of aging on work outcomes by tracking true intra-individual changes; the same
argument can readily be applied to the accumulation of work experience, too. Therefore, longitudinal
studies will clearly be needed. Fortunately, there has been much more research on psychological
contracts using longitudinal designs recently (e.g., De Vos, Buyens, & Schalk, 2003; Sutton & Griffin,
2004). It is not realistic for most researchers to plan 10- or 20-year studies on the impact of aging and
accumulated work experience. However, it is feasible to design studies over 3–5 year periods,
especially if researchers can locate multiple samples that are in different stages of their careers (Super,
1980).
At least three quantitative reviews have been performed on the age-performance relationship over
the last two decades, each with somewhat different conclusions. In the most recent review, Ng and
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AGE, WORK EXPERIENCE, AND THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACT 1069
Feldman (2008) conclude that age is virtually unrelated to core (in-role) task performance but is
significantly positively related to extra-role behaviors and significantly negatively to counterproductive
work behaviors. To resolve these mixed findings on the age-performance relationship, researchers need
to spend more energy examining the underlying processes through which age impacts various
performance dimensions. One such process that needs to be investigated empirically is how aging
influences perceptions of malleability and replicability—and how they, in turn, influence employee
performance. For instance, older employees might engage in more extra-role behavior (e.g., voice,
loyalty) and less counterproductive behavior (e.g., neglect) because they view their contracts as more
malleable but less replicable.
More generally, researchers need to be more mindful about the roles of age and work experience in
psychological contract research. In our review of the literature, we observe that most studies have
treated age and work experience as control variables (e.g., Raja, Johns, & Ntalianis, 2004). Thus, while
there is growing awareness of the importance of age and work experience in psychological contract
formulation and evaluation, empirical research on their substantive influence is still scarce. Our
proposed theoretical model provides some foundations for more empirical research in this direction.
Implications for practice
We hope the present paper will help organizational leaders rethink their approaches to managing older,
veteran employees. As we argue here, perceptions of psychological contracts change as individuals age
and accumulate more work experience. How contracts breaches should be handled for older, more
experienced workers may be very different from how they are handled for young new hires.
Specifically, the provision of idiosyncratic deals has been a core recruitment and retention strategy
for many large corporations hiring young new workers, such as fresh college graduates and MBAs.
However, this paper highlights the potential dangers of pursuing this strategy. Inducements that are
unique and non-replicable are certainly strong incentives for joining an organization, but they can also
be the origin of intense negative reactions when organizations fail to honor those promises over the long
haul. Given that young, less experienced workers are generally intolerant of deviations from
expectations, non-fulfillment of these ‘‘I-deals’’ can be the source of enormous frustration and anger.
On the other hand, offering ‘‘I-deals’’ to older and more experienced workers might not create the
same problems because, as we have argued, these workers see their contracts as more malleable. That is
especially true in organizations where older employees are a minority. Older, more experienced
employees may have highly flexible expectations about the fulfillment of ‘‘I-deals’’ and may
reciprocate with stronger job performance when these deals are honored.
Ironically, older workers may be less likely than younger employees to get their psychological
contracts met because of age stereotypes (Greller & Simpson, 1999; Shore & Goldberg, 2004). In
addition, a self-defeating cycle might emerge because older workers are less likely to be confronting
when promises are unmet. Because older workers show a higher level of tolerance for breaches,
organizations may pay less attention to their concerns and concentrate their efforts of quelling the
complaints of their younger, more vocal colleagues instead.
How organizations respond to unmet expectations of older workers may also depend upon the degree
of age similarity (or dissimilarity) in the work group (Riordan et al., 2004). If an older worker is in a
distinct minority in terms of age cohort size, she/he may be more likely to hold back from confronting a
supervisor and instead view unfulfilled promises as evidence of the organization’s shifting resources to
younger employees as a group. However, older workers’ tolerance for unfulfilled promises may be very
short-lived if most of their colleagues are about their age. In these cases, older workers may view
unfulfilled promises as being directed at them personally rather than due to generalized age stereotypes.
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Thus, when older workers are the majority age group, reactions to contract breaches are likely to be
especially strong. In such cases, managers need to recognize that the forbearance of older, more
experienced workers is greater than that of their younger colleagues, but not infinite.
Conclusion
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median age of the American workforce has been
increasing over the last 30 years: 35 years old in 1980, 37 years old in 1990, 39 years old in 2000, and
41 years old in 2006. Given the dominant role that older workers will play in the labor market over
the next two decades, it is critical that we understand how to shape employment relationships to take
advantage of their talents and to minimize the challenges they face on the job. By introducing the
concepts of contract malleability and contract replicability and tying them to age and work experience,
we hope to motivate psychological contract researchers to expand their examinations to older workers
and to motivate age researchers to examine psychological contract formation and evaluation as
important explanatory mechanisms of workplace behavior.
Author biographies
Thomas W. H. Ng received his PhD from the University of Georgia and is currently an Assistant
Professor at the University of Hong Kong. His research interests include career development, job
mobility, organizational and occupational commitment, turnover, aging, work hours, and personality at
work.
Daniel C. Feldman (PhD, Yale University) is the Synovus Chair of Servant Leadership and Associate
Dean for Research at the University of Georgia, Terry College of Business. His research interests
include career indecision, career embeddedness, underemployment, and early retirement incentives.
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