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Purpose– Although a substantial body of research has examined the effects of job characteristics on job attitudes, there is a paucity of work on individual difference moderators of these relationships. Based in selective optimization with compensation theory and socio-emotional selectivity theory, the purpose of this paper is to show that age moderated the relationship between task variety and two key job attitudes, job satisfaction and engagement.Design/methodology/approach– Data were collected through self-report questionnaires (n=152), using a time-lagged design with two waves (two to three weeks betweenT1andT2).Findings– The authors found that task variety had a stronger relationship with job satisfaction and work engagement for younger workers compared to older workers.Research limitations/implications– Although there was good age variance in the sample, it had fewer late-career workers and more workers who are in their early and mid-career.Practical implications– To have workers of all ages satisfied and engaged at work, we need to understand which work characteristics are the best for them. For example, it may be a competitive gain for organizations to challenge younger workers with different tasks, and to challenge older workers in ways that utilize their experience.Social implications– The study addresses a societal issue related to profound demographic changes in the age composition of the workforce, gaining a better knowledge of differences between workers of different ages to promote effective interventions and policies.Originality/value– This is the first study to show that task variety differentially affects worker satisfaction and engagement depending on the age of the worker.

AbstractThis study draws on socioemotional selectivity and person–job fit theories to investigate the emotional bases for age-related differences in daily task crafting and in-role performance. We tested a mediation model in which age is related to positive emotions that in turn predict task crafting and in-role performance. A total of 256 people working in multiple organizations participated in a 5-day diary study. Multilevel modeling showed that, at the person level of analysis, age is significantly and positively related to positive emotions and task crafting and, via crafting, to in-role performance. No significant mediation of high- and low-arousal positive emotions was found between age and task crafting. However, at the day level of analysis, high-arousal positive emotions are positively related to task crafting, and this in turn is positively related to in-role performance. These findings make important theoretical contributions to understanding within-person processes associated with employee age in addition to more traditional between-person factors. They also have implications for managing an age-diverse workforce by means of job crafting.