Do people become more proactive at work as they grow older? Examining the mediating roles of intrinsic motivation, emotional exhaustion, and career aspiration

Today, there is an increasingly aging workforce. Previous studies have examined whether aged people exhibit more positive attitudes, better health, and better performance. However, the relationship between age and proactive work behavior has seldom been examined, which is unfortunate since organizations need employee proactivity to deal with uncertainty and unpredictability. Based on socioemotional selectivity theory, we propose that age might be positively related to proactive work behavior through intrinsic motivation and emotional exhaustion because older people tend to manage their emotions and obtain intrinsic enjoyment. But age might be negatively related to proactive work behavior through career aspiration because older people focus less on future development. With a sample of 393 people, we revealed intrinsic motivation and career aspiration. The findings could help us better understand how age is related to organizational outcomes and individual differences in proactive work behavior. They could also further reduce age-related discrimination and encourage organizations to manage older people in wise and better ways.