Abstract

A substantial body of research has established that both job satisfaction and organizational commitment are important work attitudes. Yet, while scholars have proposed some possible explanations for the positive relationship between age and job satisfaction, and between age and organizational commitment, these explanations have rarely been investigated directly. In addition, researchers who investigated reasons for demographic differences in job attitudes measured only chronological age, not subjective age (how old a person feels). The present study sought to redress this major shortcoming by testing alternative explanations for age-related differences in job satisfaction and commitment, and doing so by investigating both chronological age and subjective age. The study investigated four proposed mediators of the relationship between age and job satisfaction, and age and commitment. A survey was administered to 888 middle managers in a single large organization, and 458 usable questionnaires were obtained. The first proposed mediator, assessments about the employment relationship , emerged as a full mediator of the relationships between both chronological and subjective age, and affective commitment. In addition, it partially explained the relationship between both age measures and overall job satisfaction, as well as satisfaction with the work in the present job. In contrast, retirement reminders could not explain the relationship between age and continuance commitment because in this sample, tenure captured most of the variance in continuance commitment in the regression model. The next proposed mediator, recognitions from others about one's experience , partially mediated the relationship between subjective age and satisfaction with the work in the present job. Next, self-recognitions about one's work experience partially mediated the link between subjective age and affective commitment. However, recognitions by self and others did not explain the relationship between chronological age and either job satisfaction or affective commitment, emphasizing the importance of measuring subjective age in management studies. The findings also show that compared to chronological age, subjective age was a stronger correlate of overall job satisfaction, satisfaction with the work in the present job, and affective commitment, but a weaker correlate of continuance commitment. Subjective age contributed uniquely to predicting overall job satisfaction, satisfaction with work in the present job, and affective commitment, beyond chronological age.