Abstract
Abstract. Because of an aging population and workforce worldwide, this paper addresses the work-life balance issue of older employees. We thereby focus on work-life conflict in both its directions – work-life interference and life-work interference. Our survey study with a sample of 1,255 German employees aimed to answer the following questions: Are there differences between older and younger employees regarding work-life conflict? How does perceived age discrimination – an age-related work stressor – relate to work-life conflict? Does age function as a moderator? Our results provide evidence for lower work-life conflict of older employees. Furthermore, perceived age discrimination was positively related to both work-life interference and life-work interference. No moderator effect of age was found. These results yield important implications for an age-specific human resource management.
Zusammenfassung. Aufgrund einer zunehmend älter werdenden Bevölkerung und einer zunehmend alternden Belegschaft in Unternehmen hat dieser Beitrag zum Ziel, die Work-Life-Balance älterer Mitarbeiter näher zu beleuchten. Dabei konzentrieren wir uns auf den Konflikt zwischen den beiden Bereichen Beruf und Privatleben und untersuchen Übertragungseffekte in beide Richtungen – die Beeinträchtigung des Privatlebens durch den Beruf wie auch die Beeinträchtigung des Berufs durch das Privatleben. Unsere Fragebogenstudie an einer deutschen Stichprobe mit 1255 Beschäftigten versucht Antwort auf folgende Fragen zu geben: Gibt es Unterschiede zwischen älteren und jüngeren Mitarbeitern hinsichtlich des Work-Life-Konflikts? Wie hängt wahrgenommene Altersdiskriminierung mit dem Work-Life-Konflikt zusammen? Gibt es einen Moderatoreffekt des Alters? Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen einen geringeren Work-Life-Konflikt bei älteren Mitarbeitern. Die wahrgenommene Altersdiskriminierung korrelierte dabei positiv mit den obengenannten Übertragungseffekten. Es zeigte sich allerdings kein Moderatoreffekt des Alters. Aus diesen Ergebnissen lassen sich verschiedene Implikationen für ein altersspezifisches Personalmanagement ableiten.
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