ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the impact of aging on employee health in organizational settings. It begins with a brief discussion of the meaning of employee health. This includes traditional views on the meaning of health, as well as more recent efforts designed to integrate workplace hazard prevention with health promotion. The chapter then provides a general overview of the effects of physical, cognitive, and socioemotional aging processes on employee health and well-being. It further provides a discussion of the interaction between characteristics of jobs and organizations and age; more specifically, how job and organizational conditions will be experienced and responded to differently depending on employees’ age. Finally, a number of interventions are described that may improve the health and well-being of older workers. The chapter concludes with suggestions for more research examining the interactions between employee age and the job and organizational conditions (as well as job stressors). It is emphasized that organizations should consider employee age when initiating any efforts (e.g., job redesign, training, etc.) to promote employees’ health and well-being.
