The Relatioship of Subjective Age with Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, and Job Well-Being: Mediating Role of Recognition of Work Experiences

Age is one of the demographic characteristics that has been studied as one predictor variable in many studies. In addition to focusing on the chronological age or actual age of the individual, the researchers have also studied the concept of subjective age (perceived age). When people feel younger than their chronological age, their health, vitality, and productivity will increase. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship of subjective age with job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job well-being considering the mediating role of recognition of work experiences.
The research design is descriptive correlational design. The statistical population of the study consisted of all employees of an industrial company in Ahvaz. A sample of 203 individuals was selected using a stratified random sampling method to obtain the most representative sample. To measure the variables of study, self-report instruments include Subjective Age Questionnaire (researcher-made), Work and Life Events Inventory (Berube, 2010), Job Satisfaction Scale (Warr et al., 1979), Organizational Commitment Scale (Mowday et al., 1979), and Employee Well-Being Scale (Zheng et al., 2015) were used. Data analysis was performed using structural equation modeling (SEM) using AMOS-22 software. Also, in this study, the Bootstrap method was used to determine the significance of indirect paths.
 
The results showed that the research proposed model fit indices are sufficiently desirable. However, a better fit in the final model was achieved by eliminating non-significant direct paths (subjective age to job satisfaction, subjective age to organizational commitment, subjective age to job well-being). Also, the results of the Bootstrap for indirect paths showed that all indirect paths are significant; in other words, recognition of work experiences mediates the relationship between subjective age with job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job well-being.
 
Overall, given the positive impact of recognition work experiences on important job outcomes such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job well-being, it is suggested to managers to consider programs in their management process to identify and appreciate employees' work experiences. Also, given the findings of this study on the importance of recognition work experiences, it is suggested that managers appreciate older employees who voluntarily share their work experiences.