SummaryIn the conceptualization of thriving at work, it is emphasized that employees' learning and vitality are two equally important components of thriving and that thriving is facilitated by contextual features and available resources. In this study, we examined the effects of two challenge stressors (time pressure and learning demands) on thriving at work. Based on the literature on challenge and hindrance stressors, we proposed that challenge stressors positively affect learning and negatively affect vitality. To uncover underlying mechanisms, we measured challenge appraisal and hindrance appraisal of work situations in a diary study. A sample of 124 knowledge workers responded to three daily surveys (before the lunch break, during the afternoon, and at the end of the workday) for a period of five workdays. Results indicate that the indirect effects of learning demands and time pressure on learning are mediated by challenge appraisal, whereas indirect effects of learning demands on vitality are mediated by hindrance appraisal. Overall, our study shows that challenge stressors have a positive total effect on learning but no total effect on vitality. These differential relationships call for a finer distinction between the two components of thriving at work in future research. Copyright © 2016 The Authors Journal of Organizational Behavior Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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This study presents an integrative model of early retirement using data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. The model extends prior work by incorporating work-family conflict to capture the interaction between the work and family domains and by assuming proximal and distal predictors of early retirement. More precisely, the model suggests that family and job demands and resources predict family-to-work and work-to-family conflict, respectively. All of these factors are presumed to have only indirect effects on retirement timing via the intervening effect of quality of life measures, that is, marital satisfaction, job satisfaction and health. The authors assume that these three factors constitute predictors of early retirement in addition to socioeconomic status and the availability of a pension plan and health insurance. The model was tested with structural equation modeling techniques, and the results were supportive. Therefore, the proposed model offers a general framework for the integration of previous research findings.Keywords early retirement; demands and resources; work-family conflict; quality of life Since its implementation in the early 20 th century, the "normal retirement age," that is, the age at which full social security or retirement benefits are available for individuals, has steadily declined and early retirement schemes have been launched (Graebner 1980). Especially during periods of high unemployment (e.g. the 1970s and 1980s), stimulating early exits from the labor force was a commonly used political tool to secure the succession of younger employees and to keep older workers out of unemployment statistics (Kohli 1985). More recently, changing demographics such as longer life expectancy and decreasing fertility rates have rendered policies promoting early withdrawal from the labor force Corresponding author's address: Bettina Kubicek, Department of Economic Psychology, Educational Psychology and Evaluation, University of Vienna, Universitaetsstrasse 7, A-1010 Vienna, Austria; bettina.kubicek@univie.ac.at. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptRes Aging. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2011 March 21. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript increasingly problematic (van Dalen and Henkens 2002), as they impose growing fiscal pressure on public pension systems (Fullerton and Toossi 2001). As a consequence, many industrialized countries have launched policies to promote extended labor force participation (Frostin 1999). For example, in the United States, the age of eligibility for full social security retirement benefits has begun to increase gradually from 65 to 67, and the benefits available from the age of 62, the current minimum age for early retirement, have been reduced (National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine 2004).The success of such political endeavors to encourage delayed retirement is at least partially contingent on the workers' willingness and ability to extend their working lives. Apart from analyzing the effects of str...

Purpose – Increasing speed in many life domains is currently being discussed under the term “social acceleration” as a societal phenomenon which not only affects western societies, but may also lead to job demands arising from accelerated change. Demands such as work intensification and intensified learning and their changes over time may increase emotional exhaustion, but may also induce positive effects. The purpose of this paper is to examine how increases in demands arising from accelerated change affect employee well-being. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 587 eldercare workers provided data on work intensification and intensified learning as well as on exhaustion and job satisfaction at two points in time. Findings – Work intensification was negatively related to future job satisfaction and positively related to future emotional exhaustion, whereas intensified learning was positively associated with future job satisfaction and negatively with future emotional exhaustion. Social implications – Intensified demands represents a growing social as well as work-specific challenge which needs to be addressed by practitioners. Originality/value – Using a longitudinal perspective this study is the first to examine the relationship of increases in work intensification and intensified learning with job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion at work.