Management Decision

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to establish a theory-based and empirically grounded platform to assess age-related changes in work motivation, and to derive motivational interventions in personnel management.

Design/methodology/approach – The general approach is one of conceptual transfer: to cast work psychological phenomena in lifespan psychological terms to generate the tenets.

Findings – Rather than declining uniformly, older workers' motivation develops in a multidirectional, multilevel way. Motivation decline in certain types of work tasks goes with stable motivation and even motivation gains in other tasks as a function of a variety of task characteristics. These age-related changes may be captured in a worker's motivation profile, which is functional for positive affect regulation.

Practical implications – The conceptualisation suggests a more differentiated approach to job design and human resource management, considering age-related changes at multiple levels simultaneously instead of focusing on major age effects only.

Originality/value – The conceptual clarity of work motivation research is enhanced by distinguishing global and task-specific levels of motivation that may dissociate in older workers. By transferring up-to-date findings and concepts from Lifespan Psychology to Organisational Psychology, further research is stipulated in both fields.