Thriving of older workers

The purpose of this paper is to report on two studies on thriving, the joint experience of vitality and learning, among workers aged 50 or above in the Netherlands.

The first study draws on the analysis of 920 surveys and links thriving to personality and employability. The second study is qualitative in nature and is based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with 13 interviewees who were all interviewed three times at different points in time as they transitioned from unemployment to employment.

The study found that neuroticism, extraversion and consciousness were related to thriving, while openness and agreeableness were not. Second, the study tested the link between thriving and self-perceived employability and found that thriving is positively related to employability. The study looked at how thriving changes when unemployed individuals become employed. The findings suggest that thriving does indeed changes when the environment changes.

This study contributes to the dispositional perspective on thriving by examining in what way individuals differ from one another in their predisposition to thrive by the use of the five personality traits. In addition, it adds to the literature by looking at thriving during transition periods. It extends previous research and highlights the importance of contextual features.