Long-term developments in individual work behaviour: patterns of stability and change

Abstract

In the current era, characterized by dynamic societal, technological, and economic.changes as well as an increasing diversity in the workforce, previous approaches to individual work behaviour are being challenged (Schalk et al. 2010). Demographic trends in the working population, for example, ageing and de-juvenization (Shultz & Adams 2007), are promptingwork and organizational psychologists to seek better insight into how individuals can cope with the rapid transformations in their technological, social, and economic environments. Longitudinal studies have provided evidence for the dynamic relations between work and work behaviour and point to the diversity of intraindividual change trajectories across time (see, e.g., De Jonge & Dormann 2006; Martin & Hofer 2004). To interpret the complex results of these dynamic relations, however, new and innovative theoretical as well as methodological perspectives on development are needed, with long-term developmental changes in work behaviour in particular deservingmore attention. Most studies so far used a ‘between person’ approach, focusing on static differences, whereas the dynamic ‘within-person’ processes have been mostly neglected. This special section contains six papers that report innovative and important studies introducing new theoretical perspectives and methodological innovations in examining intra-individual developmental data. This editorial introduces the topic, discusses the contributions of the papers, and ends with conclusions and suggestions for future research. We first examine theoretical perspectives, which are addressed in three of the special section papers. Next, we focus on the methodological issues, elaborated in the remaining three papers.