The lagged influence of organizations' human resources practices on employees' career sustainability: The moderating role of age

Research has progressed in theoretically and conceptually defining career sustainability and its indicators. However, research is needed to understand the relationship between those indicators and the way individual and organizational factors contribute to it over time. We add to this literature by considering performance and wellbeing as indicators of sustainable careers. Specifically, we considered patterns in the relationship between performance and wellbeing, used as proxies for a sustainable career, and the effects of different human resource (HR) practices and age on career sustainability. Data came from two waves of 653 employees and their supervisors in 26 organizations in Spain. Multinomial regression showed no direct relationships between HR practices and a sustainable career pattern. However, we found interactions between age and six HR practices in their relationship with four wellbeing-performance patterns. Specifically, performance appraisal, recruitment and selection, security, and exit management were more beneficial to younger employees, whereas contingent pay and a competitive salary were more beneficial to older employees. This study highlights that HR practices and age together act as antecedents of employees' wellbeing and performance, that is, a sustainable career pattern. It enhances our understanding of the role of HR practices in career sustainability and demonstrates the value of a contingency approach to HRM. •Reformulates the happy-productive worker model for sustainable careers•Wellbeing and performance present different relationship patterns.•A contingency HRM view is useful to study sustainable careers.•Career sustainability needs to integrate lifespan theories.•HR practices and age can lead to sustainable or unsustainable careers.