Work is a topic and activity central to the adult experience. In early adulthood people typically focus on choosing an occupation and managing the school to work transition. During midlife, goals and concerns shift to improving the work experience, career development and managing periods of unemployment. With improved health in later years and uncertain economic conditions, more people are living longer and working longer. For these workers major concerns pertain to when and how to disengage from formal work arrangements.
Using a person-centric perspective, the Work Science Center seeks to encourage research examining the role of work histories, psychological, and contextual factors that affect employability, and the efficacy of interventions on job quality and the work experience. For example:
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What socio-cultural, occupational, and psychological factors promote later-age working life?
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How can organizations facilitate work-related life-long learning and employee engagement throughout careers?
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What is the relative efficacy of different cognitive-behavioral strategies to mitigate mental health issues and concerns during job search and unemployment?
Related Content
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Blog entry Nudging Retirement Savings Among Older WorkersIt is never too late to save for retirement. With the Baby Boomer generation rapidly approaching retirement age, it is imperative to promote healthy retirement planning.
Although we know that saving for retirement is important, voluntary retirement savings plans are often underutilized. Changing saving habits can be challenging - especially among older employees. Standard interventions that aim to increase retirement savings often focus on the importance of being able to compound the value of savings over many years. This type of intervention often leaves older employees with diminished motivation to increase saving for retirement due to the limited number of years they have remaining to contribute to their savings plan. Older workers may also be harder to influence with interventions because they have had comparatively more opportunities to develop and adhere to personal retirement savings strategies.
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Blog entry Is Your Leader Giving You The Freedom You Need?Findings from a recently published meta-analysis (a method of combining the findings from many different smaller studies) by Gavin Slemp, Margaret Kern, Kent Patrick, and Richard Ryan suggest that good leaders support your autonomy in the workplace.
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Blog entry Are You Successfully Aging at Work?A recent book chapter by Cort Rudolph and Hannes Zacher highlights the complex and dynamic process of aging in the workplace. Unlike many previous conceptualizations of aging at work, Rudolph and Zacher bring attention to the fact that development occurs across the lifespan, not just durin
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Podcast Episode Episode 3: Bridging the Skills Gap -
News and Events Issue 1 - Summer 2017 NewsletterHere is our Summer 2017 Newsletter
