Age, employability and the role of learning activities and their motivational antecedents: a conceptual model

In today's time of demographic change and rapid innovation, age and employability as well as the role of learning and development are high on the agenda of human resource managers and chief learning officers. However, existing research has failed to integrate these concepts in a clear model and offers little explanation of how the concepts may be linked exactly. In this conceptual paper we show how chronological age, despite its poor characteristics as a predictor, might still affect employability indirectly. Specifically, we propose that employees' motivation – in terms of future time perspective and goal orientation – and formal and informal learning activities need to be considered. Since an individual's chronological age cannot be changed, it is important to recognize these mediating variables, which may be targeted more easily by human resource development or age management initiatives.