Domain specific effects of commitment on bridge employment decisions: the moderating role of economic stress

Yujie Zhan, Mo Wang, Xiang Yao

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34 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Bridge employment is a labour force participation pattern increasingly observed in older workers. The present study applied the theory of planned behaviour and the principle of compatibility to predict two types of bridge employment decisions: career-based bridge employment and organization-based bridge employment. The study did this by examining the joint effect of work-related commitment variables and retirees' economic stress. Lagged data were collected from 164 Chinese retirees. Results of logistic regression analysis showed that career commitment and organizational commitment (i.e., affective and continuance commitment to the organization) had positive main effects in predicting career-based and organization-based bridge employment decisions respectively, supporting the principle of compatibility. In addition, these predictive effects were moderated by economic stress as a contextual constraint. The findings are discussed in terms of theoretical and practical implications for the bridge employment decision-making literature.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)362-375
Number of pages14
JournalEuropean Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology
Volume22
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2013
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Bridge employment
  • Economic stress
  • Work commitment

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