Hall:
Chair and Presenter:
Deller Jürgen
Co-Chair:
Wehage Mattea
Discussant:
Marcus Justin
Division:
Global workforce aging has prompted research into organizational practices that maintain older workers' health, motivation, and productivity. However, no comprehensive measurement tool existed to assess all relevant practices, limiting research scope. The Later Life Workplace Index (LLWI) provides a holistic assessment tool enabling researchers and practitioners to evaluate organizational practices supporting older workers.
This symposium addresses a critical methodological gap in applied psychology by introducing a comprehensive measurement tool for age-relevant organizational practices and demonstrating practical application across diverse cultural and sectoral contexts. The research directly supports ICAP 2026's mission to tackle pressing global challenges through applied psychology by examining age-relevant organizational practices supporting older workers during demographic change and labor shortages. The symposium's integration of methodological innovation with cross-cultural studies and real-world implementation exemplifies the congress's emphasis on applied interdisciplinary perspectives.
The first study introduces the theoretical foundation of the LLWI and its three validated forms, original, short, and extra short, along with their contexts of application and the latest methodological developments. Researchers from four countries then present findings on implementing the LLWI in different contexts.
The second study examined Israeli managers' perceptions of older workers and subdomains of age-relevant organizational practices measured by the LLWI. The third study explored age-relevant organizational practices for career sustainability of older Italian teachers across four LLWI domains. The fourth study describes an institutional initiative fostering sustainable careers in academia, using the LLWI to assess older faculty members' perceptions in Portugal. The final presentation provides insights into practical application and strategic embedment through German consulting case examples.
Together, these presentations demonstrate how the LLWI serves as both methodological innovation and a practical bridge between research and application, exemplifying applied psychology's evidence-based solutions to global workforce aging challenges.
