Age-Differentiated Work Systems

The disproportionate aging of the population of working age in many nations around the world is a unique occurrence in the history of humankind. In the light of demographic change, it is becoming increasingly important to develop and use the potential of older employees.

This edited volume Age-differentiated Work Systems provides a final report on a six-year priority program funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and presents selected research findings of 17 interdisciplinary project teams. The idea is that it will serve both as a reference book and overview of the current state of research in ergonomics, occupational psychology and related disciplines. It provides new models, methods, and procedures for analyzing and designing age-differentiated work systems with the aim of supporting subject matter experts from different areas in their decisions on labor and employment policies. Therefore over 40 laboratory experiments involving 2,000 participants and 50 field studies involving over 25,000 employees were conducted.

Further objectives of the edited volume were to provide a pluridisciplinary compilation of the extensive information acquired over the six-year program period, to illustrate the range of the research field, and to convey an integrated understanding of age-differentiated work systems to readers.

Christopher M. Schlick is Professor of Engineering at RWTH Aachen University and head of the Institute of Industrial Engineering and Ergonomics. He is a member of the management board of the FGAN Research Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics (FKIE). His research interests include modeling and simulation of work and business systems as well as the ergonomic design of human‐machine interfaces.

Ekkehart Frieling was Professor and head of the Institute of Industrial Science and Ergonomics at the University of Kassel from 1982 to 2007. He was vice president of the University of Kassel and president of “Gesellschaft für Arbeitswissenschaft e.V.”. Since 2008 he is working as freelancer for Volkswagen (VW) ‐ Baunatal. His research interests are in the field of work design, work analysis and competence development as well as work design conducive to age in the automotive industry.

Dr. Jürgen Wegge is full professor of Work and Organisational Psychology at the TU Dresden. He is the president of the German Work‐, Organizational‐ and Business Psychologist organized in the German Psychological Society (DGPs) and a fellow of AOM, SIOP, IAAP, EAWOP, and several other psychological associations. His research interests are in the field of work motivation, leadership, occupational health and excellence in organizations.