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In explaining the influences of older workers’ ability and motivation to continue working (i.e., successful aging at work), Kooij et al. (2020) discuss the influences of macro, meso, micro, and temporal factors. Conceptually, this set of potential influences is comprehensive. However, the authors provide less clarity on the scope of the particular influences themselves. At the macro (societal) level, detail was lacking on the scope of potential institutional and cultural influences. At the meso level, more explanation was needed on how social aspects of the workgroup and the job, such as the people that one works with and the skill- or knowledge-based characteristics of the job that one does, influence older workers’ ability and motivation to continue working. At the micro level, sociocultural aspects of the individual older workers themselves, such as their gender, subjective age, and communal affiliation, were not discussed. Finally, the different aspects of time that may influence an older worker’s ability and motivation to continue working were not elaborated upon. The purpose of my commentary is to provide insight regarding these issues via reference to a recently advanced ecological systems view of work and aging by Marcus et al. (2020). Using the ecological systems perspective, explained below, I expand upon the focal article by clarifying the roles of (macro) institutional and cultural, (meso) workgroup/job, (micro) demographic, and temporal factors on older workers’ ability and motivation to continue working.
The ecological systems perspective
Drawing from the ecological and systems theories of human development (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Ford & Lerner, 1992), the ecological systems view situates macro, meso, and micro influences as concentric nested circles, whereby individual behavior is seen as embedded within larger organizational and societal systems; time is depicted as cutting across all three circles, thereby potentially interacting with factors at any level to influence behavior (Marcus et al., 2020). This conceptualization finds confluence with Kooij et al.’s (2020) Figure 1, wherein the lower-level meso and micro influences are depicted as being nested within (or underneath) the overarching macro level. However, it also extends Figure 1 to recognize the potential interplay of time not only with the individual but also with the larger organizational and societal contexts surrounding the individual. From an ecological systems perspective, macro and meso factors may thus...