Job crafting and organizational resources support impact on older workers’ bridge employment intentions: the role of psychological contract types

Enhancing older workers’ bridge employment intentions is critical in the current context of an aging workplace. Based on psychological contract and social exchange theories, this study explores the person-context transactions process in increasing bridge employment intentions. We conducted two sub-studies, Study 1 ( N = 231) used two-wave time-lagged survey data to explore the mediating role of psychological contract types in the effect of three job crafting strategies on bridge employment intentions; Study 2 ( N = 156) used a two-by-two (high emotional support/baseline × high/low compensation support) between-subjects experimental design to further explore the differences in the moderation of organizational resource support in the effect of psychological contract types on bridge employment intentions. Results in Study 1 found that accommodative and utilization crafting enhanced bridge employment intentions through shaping relational contract, and developmental crafting enhanced bridge employment intentions through shaping transactional contract. Results in Study 2 found that emotional support (perceived inclusive experience) boosted relationship-oriented older workers’ intention to bridge employment, but compensation support (perceived) boosted transaction-oriented older workers’ intention, and reduced relationship-oriented older workers’ intention. The findings provide a new perspective on psychological contract types for research related to enhancing older workers’ intention to bridge employment, and offers important implications for aging workforce management of organizations in China and elsewhere.