Age and Line managers' attitudes as moderators between HR development practices and employees' related outcomes

The increasing aging of Western Countries makes compelling for organizations to find out successfully approaches to sustain senior workers’ performance and engagement. Drawing on social exchange theory, prior research suggests that the adoption of HR practices in the areas of training and development helps to maximize employees’ positive work attitudes. However, while research have generally assumed that HR practices influence all employees in the same way, there are many evidences that employees’ motives and needs change with age, suggesting that older workers may react differently to the same HR practices as compared to younger colleagues. In this stream of research the aim of this paper is twofold: first, we intend to analyze the influence of older employees’ perceptions regarding their experiences of a range of HR practices related to training and development on measures of Engagement and Performance. Secondly, we intend to assess whether line managers’ attitudes towards older employees might moderate this relationship. The empirical study is conducted in a large financial multinational organization located in Italy.