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Managing demographic change and diversity in organizations: how feedback from coworkers moderates the relationship between age and innovative work behavior

  • ZfB-Special Issue 2/2012
  • Published:
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Abstract

In a field study of 211 employees of a midsized German high-tech company, useful feedback from coworkers was examined as a moderator of the relationship between age and supervisor ratings of radical innovative work behavior. When employees perceived higher levels of useful feedback from their coworkers, the relationship between age and radical innovative work behavior followed an inverted U-shape. This inverted U-shaped relationship was decreasingly manifested as the level of perceived useful feedback from coworkers dropped. Given demographic change and the aging of the workforce of many organizations, this finding broadens the still fragmentary knowledge of the conditions under which aging is likely to have more or less positive effects on innovative work behavior. The authors discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these results on both the individual and the team level of analysis.

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Notes

  1. Since the option for standardized beta coefficients may not be combined with clustered regression analysis in STATA, we normalized all independent variables before analysis to obtain standardized beta coefficients.

  2. Because this slope was only marginally significant, we also tested the slope at younger age (1.5 SD below the age mean, which corresponds to 22.3 years). At − 1.5 SD, the slope is significantly positive (p < 0.05).

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Acknowledgment

We would like to thank Editor Barbara Beham and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions that greatly improved the quality of this article. We would also like to thank the Volkswagen Foundation for generously supporting our research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jacobs University Bremen, Campus Ring 1, 28759, Bremen, Germany

    Stefan Schaffer &  Sven C. Voelpel

  2. Organizational Behavior & Human Resource Management, GISMA Business School/Leibniz Universität Hannover, Goethestraße 18, 30169, Hannover, Germany

    Eric Kearney

  3. GISMA Business School, Goethestraße 18, 30169, Hannover, Germany

    Ralf Koester

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  1. Stefan Schaffer
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Correspondence to Stefan Schaffer.

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Schaffer, S., Kearney, E., Voelpel, S. et al. Managing demographic change and diversity in organizations: how feedback from coworkers moderates the relationship between age and innovative work behavior. Z Betriebswirtsch 82 (Suppl 2), 45–68 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11573-011-0542-z

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