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Employees’ Perception of Leadership Styles and Successful Aging

in the Workplace

Article  in  Journal of Career Development · October 2017

DOI: 10.1177/0894845317727617

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Empirical
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DOI: 10.1177/0894845317727617

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Francis Cheung1, Dannii Y. Yeung2, and Anise M. S. Wu3

Abstract
The relationship between employees’ perceptions of their supervisor’s leadership styles and their self-
rated successful aging in the workplace (i.e., adaptability and health, positive relationship, occupational
growth, personal security, continued focus, and achievement of goals) was examined in this study. A
total of 350 Chinese aging workers in Hong Kong (average age in years was 51.9, SD ¼ 5.2) were
recruited. In line with our hypothesis, regression result showed that perceived transformational
leadership was positively related to all successful aging in the workplace dimensions. Perceived
transactional leadership was significantly related to occupational growth. Finally, perceived laissez-faire
leadership was negatively related to all successful aging in the workplace dimensions. Implications and
recommendation for organizations, including strategies to facilitate successful aging in the workplace,
were discussed.

Keywords
leadership styles, successful aging

Working population in Hong Kong is rapidly aging. Based on the population projection by the Hong
Kong government, workers aged 40 years or above were 57% in 2013; it will be over 62% by 2041
(Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, 2013). Numerous stud-
ies demonstrate that aging workers are different from their younger counterparts in terms of their
needs, work motives, expectations, and challenges (Kanfer & Ackerman, 2004). It is thus important
to identify factors that can support these individuals to continue to thrive or facilitate positive aging
in work–life balance (Robson, Hansson, Abalos, & Booth, 2006). The importance of leadership on
aging workers’ career development and organizational behaviors is frequently studied (e.g., Loretto
& White, 2006; Van Vianen, Dalhoeven, & de Pater, 2011). However, the role of employees’ percep-
tion of their supervisor’s leadership style on successful aging in the workplace has not been explored.

1
Department of Applied Psychology, Lingnan University, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
2
Department of Applied Social Studies, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
3
Department of Psychology, University of Macau, Taipa, Macao

Corresponding Author:
Francis Cheung, Department of Applied Psychology, Lingnan University, 2/F Dorothy Wong Building, Tuen Mun, Hong Kong.
Email: francischeung@ln.edu.hk
2 Journal of Career Development XX(X)

In this study, we will examine how employees’ perception of their supervisor’s leadership styles,
including transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership, relate to successful aging in the
workplace among Hong Kong Chinese workers.

Defining Aging Workers

Although research on aging workers is growing rapidly, there is still no consensus about who is and
who is not an “aging worker.” Based on the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, some researchers
adopt the age of 40 as the cutoff (e.g., Robson et al., 2006). Other researchers adopted the Department
of Labor of the U.S. guideline and defined aging workers by the age of 55 or above. In this study, we
adopted the age of 45 or above as the cutoff criterion. This decision was based on both theoretical and
practical concerns. From a theoretical point of view, earlier research suggests that employees’ func-
tional capacities start to decline at around 45 years of age. For example, Ilmarinen (2001) suggested
that starting at the age of 45 onward, workers’ functional capacities, especially physical capability, as
well as their perceptions of their ability to work, would start to decline. Kiss, De Meester, and Braeck-
man also found that employees aged 45 years or above reported higher need for recovery after accident
or work injury, which indicates that they experience more fatigue at work. Thus, the age of 45 onward
is a potential turning point that affects employees’ performance and their subjective evaluation. From a
practical point of view, understanding the concerns and challenges of these relatively “young” aging
workers allows researchers and organizations to implement strategies at an earlier stage to maximize
their potentials and ensures that these workers cope well in the workplace. Thus, based on both theo-
retical and practical concerns, the age of 45 is adopted as the cutoff point to define “aging workers.”

Successful Aging in the Workplace

Aging happens in different life contexts and domains (e.g., family, work). Some researchers (Robson
et al., 2006; Schulz & Heckhausen, 1996) suggest it is important to examine successful aging in spe-
cific domain (e.g., work domain) rather than from a domain-free perspective. The successful aging in
the workplace model proposed by Robson, Hansson, Abalos, and Booth (2006) is used in the present
study. This model denotes a set of criteria used by aging workers to evaluate their subjective evaluation
of success as they age in the workplace. It is the first multidimensional model that explicitly addresses
successful aging in the workplace by evaluating aging workers’ social, psychological, and cognitive
aging experience. According to Robson et al. (2006), successful aging in the workplace consists of five
dimensions, which include adaptability and health (concerns the ability to adapt with changes in their
jobs), positive relationships (concerns the social/interpersonal relations with coworkers in the organi-
zation), occupational growth (concerns the perceptions that room for further advancement in career
exists), personal security (concerns the perception of whether the work environment and job nature
may jeopardize the employee’s health and well-being), and continued focus and achievement of per-
sonal goals (concerns career goal setting). Successful aging at the workplace will not only promote the
self-confidence of older workers in the workplace (Robson et al., 2006) but also influence their inten-
tion to stay (Cheung & Wu, 2013).
Successful aging in the workplace has attracted more attention, and empirical studies have started to
accumulate. For example, Zacher and Frese (2011) suggested that the focus of opportunities in the
workplace, such as new goals, options, and possibilities, is important in fostering successful aging
among older workers. Cheung and Wu (2012) have reported some factors in relation to successful
aging in the workplace among older Chinese workers. They found that work–family conflict and per-
ceived organizational support were crucial for the older workers to age successfully in the workplace.
These studies have undoubtedly shed light on the crucial factors for the successful aging process.
However, other important factors, such as leadership, have not been frequently addressed. It is
Cheung et al. 3

surprising because the role of leadership is important in the organizational behaviors of aging workers.
For example, in a longitudinal study conducted in Finland, Ilmarinen and Tempel found that the only
factor that could help older workers to maintain and enhance their work ability was the leaders’ beha-
viors toward the older workers’ need. Besides, leaders’ attitude toward age and aging is crucial in the
aging process of older workers. Van Vianen, Dalhoeven, and de Pater (2011) reported that supervisors’
beliefs about the learning avoidance orientation of older employees are significantly related to the
training and development willingness of older workers. The attitudes of supervisors also significantly
influence the intention to train older workers (Loretto & White, 2006). These findings provide solid
evidence that leadership is an essential consideration when studying the cognitions and behaviors of
aging workers.

Leadership and Successful Aging in the Workplace

To address the issue of how perception of leadership relates to successful aging in the workplace, we
have reviewed several leadership theories including trait, contingency, and power approaches. Early
leadership theories focused on traits or personal qualities that are associated with effective leaders.
The primary premise is that leaders are “born” rather than made and the focus is on the identification
of innate characteristics and qualities that can distinguish effective from noneffective leaders (Zac-
caro, 2007).
In the contingency approach, the focus shifts from understanding the leaders’ trait to the importance
of work context and characteristics of subordinates. For example, according to Fiedler’s (1967) least
preferred coworker contingency model, when the job tasks are well specified and the subordinates are
fully capable of handling the job tasks, the importance of leadership becomes less vital. The impor-
tance of leadership becomes more important when job duties or tasks are more dynamic and involve
frequent decision-making. In other words, inherent trait of the leaders is not the only determining fac-
tor to affect the leadership effectiveness; rather, it is the contextual factor that shapes the effectiveness
of leadership.
In leader–member exchange theory (Dansereau, Graen, & Haga, 1975; Graen & Cashman, 1975),
the focus is on leaders’ influence in the context of dyadic relationship. In particular, leaders may
develop different relationships with subordinates, and different treatment may result in different work
outcomes. For instance, when members have close connection with the leader (i.e., in-group), their
affective and behavioral outcomes, such as performance and job satisfaction, will be different from
those being considered as “out-group” members, who are distant from the leaders.
Finally, the power or influence approaches focus on the ways that leaders can influence subordinate
behavior. One of the most influential models is the full-ranged leadership proposed by Bass and Avo-
lio. Based on this framework, leadership is conceptualized as transformational, transactional, and
laissez-faire leadership. In a nutshell, transformational leaders will motivate, inspire, and challenge
their subordinate to achieve better work performance. Transactional leaders, however, will mostly
motivate their subordinate to perform well in exchange of rewards, they do not pay much attention
in providing inspiration and mentoring to the subordinates. Laissez-faire represents passive and
detached style of leadership. Although Burns initially conceptualized these leadership styles as distinct
and mutually exclusive, recent studies suggest that these leadership styles are on a continuum. As such,
leaders may exhibit varying degrees of transformational and transactional leadership. Empirical stud-
ies have shown fairly strong correlation between transformational and transactional leadership (e.g.,
Bass, Avolio, Jung, & Berson, 2003; Epitropaki & Martin, 2005; Pillai, Schriesheim, & Williams,
1999). However, transformational and transactional leaderships were negatively related to laissez-
faire leadership style.
Although in recent years, more leadership behaviors and styles have been suggested, such as
authentic leaders (Luthans & Avolio, 2003), servant leaders (Greenleaf, 1977), ethical leaders,
4 Journal of Career Development XX(X)

spiritual leaders, and so on, we chose to adopt the full-ranged leadership model as the focus in this
study for two reasons. First, the full-ranged leadership is still one of the most influential research para-
digms to empirically test the leadership influence on employees’ behaviors (e.g., Judge & Piccolo,
2004; Moynihan, Pandey, & Wright, 2012). The model is used as a platform to integrate similar lead-
ership theories (Antonakis & House, 2013), and our findings could supplement the existing literature
by understanding how these leadership styles relate to successful aging in the workplace. From a career
development point of view, these leadership styles are malleable and can be changed through interven-
tion (e.g., training and executive coaching). Thus, organization can support the successful aging in the
workplace via the modification of leadership styles. In the following section, we will describe in detail
how these perceived leadership styles relate to successful aging in the workplace.

Employees’ perception of transformational leadership on successful aging. Based on the transformational

leadership theory, leaders influence their subordinates by engaging in inspirational behaviors, such
as articulating a compelling vision, emphasizing collective identities, expressing confidence and opti-
mism, and discussing core values and ideals (Bass, 1985; Shamir, House, & Arthur, 1993). For exam-
ple, instead of merely using rewards and punishment, transformational leaders broaden and elevate the
interests of followers; generate awareness and acceptance among the followers of the purposes, mean-
ing, and challenges of the tasks; motivate followers to think creatively when solving problems; and
provide personalized coaching (Bass, 1985). The importance of leadership has also been found in the
context of age-heterogeneous teams. In modern workplace, it is very likely that employees are placed
in age-diversified work team. Transformational leadership has been shown to buffer potential negative
effects of age diversity on team performance, especially works tasks that are more routine. Munir,
Nielsen, Garde, Albertsen, and Carneiro also suggested that transformational leaders affect the level
of work–life conflict among older workers, and the latter affected psychological well-being.
Empirical studies support the positive role of transformational leadership on the work behaviors of
subordinates. Subordinates often find their job more meaningful under transformational leadership,
and, thus, they report a higher level of job motivation and better job performance (Judge & Piccolo,
2004; Purvanova, Bono, & Dzieweczynski, 2006). Dvir, Eden, Avolio, and Shamir (2002) reported
that transformational leaders could facilitate better self-development (e.g., self-efficacy, engagement)
of subordinates. In another study, Kark, Shamir, and Chen (2003) reported that transformational lead-
ership was positively related to higher self-efficacy, organization-based self-esteem, and collective
self-efficacy among subordinates. These studies have vividly demonstrated the link of transforma-
tional leadership to positive work-related behaviors among subordinates. Drawing from the studies
reviewed above, we hypothesize that employees’ perceived transformational leadership is positively
related to successful aging in the workplace. In particular, transformational leaders often encourage
and motivate their subordinates to assume more responsibility and autonomy by giving them intellec-
tual stimulation (Emery & Barker, 2007). These beliefs and values are important for the occupational
growth of aging employees. Perceived individualized consideration represents that the leaders under-
stand and consider the needs and challenges faced by each of their aging subordinates. Relevant sup-
port will then be made available to aging workers, as they share their challenges and needs with their
leaders, which enhances their capability to adapt well in the workplace. Besides, higher perceived indi-
vidualized consideration also fosters positive work relations between leaders and subordinates and cre-
ates a secure work environment for the aging workers. Inspirational motivation enables aging workers
to consider their current work as meaningful and motivates them to achieve their personal goals in
work. Taken together, we generally hypothesized that perceived transformational leadership will be
positively related to successful aging in the workplace.

Hypothesis 1: Employees’ perceptions of their supervisor’s transformational leadership

behaviors will be positively related to successful aging in the workplace.
Cheung et al. 5

Employees’ perception of transactional leadership on successful aging. Transactional leadership occurs when
leaders reward or discipline the followers depending on the adequacy of the latter’s behaviors and per-
formance (Bass, 1985). Leaders clarify the performance criteria and the outcomes once the subordi-
nates complete the assigned tasks. Furthermore, these leaders usually provide help and supervision
only when they note their subordinates’ work deviate from the norm. Similar to transformational lead-
ership, past research suggests that transactional leadership styles are significantly related to employ-
ees’ job satisfaction and job performance (e.g., Judge & Piccolo, 2004). However, when subordinates’
aging process is concerned, we will expect a different pattern between perceived transformational and
transactional leaders and their association on successful aging in the workplace.
As discussed, transactional leadership only emphasizes short-term and negotiated job performance
of subordinates, aging workers may perceive that their long-term developmental needs are not prior-
itized or even being considered. In the long run, perceived transactional leadership accentuates feelings
of alienation among aging employees (Sarros, Tanewski, Winter, Santora, & Densten, 2002) and low-
ers the chance for further occupational growth. Given that transactional leadership is oriented toward
task performance, subordinates perceive that they are fully responsible for a job task, regardless of
whether they have sufficient resources or competence to execute it. As the workplace constantly
changes, transactional leaders may not be ready to notice and reduce the barriers and pitfalls aging
workers encounter, which makes successful aging difficult to achieve. Finally, when aging workers
perceive that their leaders do not take corrective action when needed, it will hinder the opportunity
to occupational growth, resilience, and satisfaction (Bass & Yammarino, 1991; Harland, Harrison,
Jones, & Reiter-Palmon, 2005; Yammarino & Bass, 1990). Thus, we hypothesize that employees’ per-
ceived transactional leadership styles are negatively related to successful aging in the workplace.
In sum, prior research often indicates strong intercorrelation between transactional and transforma-
tional leadership. These leadership styles were both important factor to drive individual and group per-
formance. In this study, however, we would expect these two perceived leadership styles would have
different relationship with successful aging in the workplace. Successful aging in the workplace
focuses on whether the aging workers could satisfy their developmental needs. We argue that per-
ceived transactional leadership style would be negatively related to such process, as this leadership
style primarily focuses on employees’ current job performance and whether they can execute the des-
ignated goal. Individual development is not of the leaders’ concern, and this perceived leadership style
may not support the successful aging process in the workplace. However, transformational leadership
is development oriented for the purpose of change (e.g., Bass, 1985; Bass & Avolio, 1990). These lead-
ers will motivate and inspire their subordinates to be creative and ready to adopt new methods in their
work. For instance, recent studies by Jung and Pieterse, Knippenberg, Schippers, and Stam reported
that it was only transformational leaders but not transactional leaders who encourage subordinates’
innovative behaviors. Drawing from these analyses, we hypothesized that perceived transactional lead-
ers will be negatively related to successful aging in the workplace.

Hypothesis 2: Employees’ perceptions of their supervisor’s transactional leadership behaviors

will be negatively related to successful aging in the workplace.

Laissez-faire leadership and successful aging. At the other end of the full-range leadership continuum is the
laissez-faire leadership: Transactional and transformational leaders belong to active leaders, whereas
laissez-faire leaders are passive leaders who are not actively involved or simply avoid the leadership
role on their subordinates. Meta-analysis by Judge and Piccolo (2004) showed that laissez-faire lead-
ership is negatively related to the job satisfaction and motivation of subordinates, subordinate satisfac-
tion with leader, and the perceived job performance and effectiveness of leaders. Based on these
results, we hypothesize that the employees’ perceived laissez-faire leadership is negatively related
6 Journal of Career Development XX(X)

to successful aging in the workplace. Compared with younger workers, aging workers are more likely
to encounter different workplace challenges, such as higher perceived discrimination (Chiu, Chan,
Snape, & Redman, 2001) and the decline of physical strength and cognitive abilities (see Hedge, Bor-
man, & Lammlein, 2006, for review). The absence of leadership may hinder aging employees from
adapting to the changing work environment and fulfilling their job tasks. Work relations will be nega-
tively affected because laissez-faire leaders are often being perceived as distancing themselves from
their subordinates. Finally, laissez-faire leaders do not actively help their subordinates achieve their
work goals. Therefore, this type of perceived leadership negatively affects the motivation and compe-
tence of aging workers to formulate future work goals.

Hypothesis 3: Employees’ perception of their supervisor’s laissez-faire leadership behaviors will

be negatively related to successful aging in the workplace.

Study Objective
In sum, our primary objective is to evaluate how the employees’ perception of their supervisor’s lead-
ership relates to successful aging in the workplace. Although these leadership styles will be relevant to
both younger and aging workers, we believe these leadership styles may have different importance for
workers in different generations. For example, transformational leaders often motivate their workers to
think creatively and to provide intellectual stimulation. For younger workers, this style may not be the
most important leadership quality, as younger workers tend to be more flexible and are more readily
seeking stimulation themselves (Holt, Marques, & Way, 2012). For aging workers, however, this will
be very useful in contributing to the successful aging, as these workers may have developed work habit
which may no longer fit the current job task/organization. Besides, as younger workers (e.g., millennial
workforce) have greater amount of parental nurturing received in their development, perceiving lead-
ers showing individualized concerns would be positively evaluated to their adjustment in the work-
place (Holt et al., 2012). However, aging workers with substantial work experience may find these
concerns unnecessary. Therefore, it is worthwhile to examine how different employees’ perceptions
of their supervisor’s leadership style relate to the aging process of the aging workers.

Method
Participants
Participants were recruited from several organizations in Hong Kong including public companies, gov-
ernment divisions, public hospitals, and a nongovernmental organization. We sent research assistants
to these organizations to collect data from employees who gave their participation consent. The
response rate is 92.1%, with a total of 380 questionnaires distributed and 350 valid questionnaires col-
lected. The participants were full-time employed Hong Kong Chinese working adults aged 45–67
years (M ¼ 51.9, SD ¼ 5.2). Of the 350 participants, 129 (36.9%) were men and 220 (62.9%) were
women. One participant did not declare his or her gender identity. Ninety-four (26.9%) participants
were managers or professionals, whereas the remaining were frontline workers, clerks, and nonskilled
workers. The average tenure length was 11.89 years (SD ¼ 9.10).

Procedure
The research assistants distributed a questionnaire package containing the study objectives, informa-
tion use, and measures to each eligible participant, after obtaining his or her informed consent.
Cheung et al. 7

Participation was voluntary. A supermarket coupon worth HKD50 (equivalent to US$6.4) was given to
each participant as an incentive to enhance response rate.
The questionnaire items were originally written in English. Based on the translation approach out-
lined by Brislin (1980), we hired a professional translator who translated the questionnaire items into
Chinese. An individual who had no prior knowledge of the scales conducted back translation. Inves-
tigators of this study then compared the original items with the newly translated version.

Measures
Leadership style. Leadership styles were measured by the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 5X. The
scale consists of 36 items for measuring the three leadership styles, namely, transformational, transac-
tional, and laissez-faire leadership. The Transformational Leadership Scale consisted of five subscales
including idealized (behavior) and idealized influence (attribute), inspirational motivation, intellectual
stimulation, and individualized consideration. Four items assessed each subscale. Sample items were
“talks optimistically about the future” and “seeks differing perspectives when solving problems.” The
Transactional Leadership Scale consisted of three subscales, namely, Contingent Reward, Active Man-
agement by Exception, and Passive Management by Exception. Similar to transformational leadership,
4 items assessed each dimension of transactional leadership. Sample items were “provides me with
assistance in exchange for my efforts” and “directs my attention toward failures to meet standards.”
Finally, 4 items were used to measure laissez-faire leadership. Sample items were “avoid getting
involved when important issues arise” and “delaying responding to urgent questions.” Scores on trans-
formational leadership and transactional leaders were found to relate positively to job performance
(Bass, Avolio, Jung, & Berson, 2003), while laissez-faire leadership was negatively related to psycho-
logical distress and role ambiguity. Considering the possibility that participants might have more than
one supervisor or leaders, we deliberately asked the participants to respond to the questions by using
their immediate supervisor as reference. Participants rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale that ranged
from 0 as never to 4 as always. These scales have demonstrated good internal consistency. The a coef-
ficients of transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and laissez-faire leadership were .89,
.84, and .84, respectively.

Successful aging in the workplace. Successful aging in the workplace was measured by the successful
aging in the Workplace Scale proposed by Robson et al. (2006). The Chinese version of this scale was
used in a local study (Cheung & Wu, 2013). The scale consisted of five subscales, namely, Adaptabil-
ity and Health (18 items), Positive Relationships (7 items), Occupational Growth (8 items), Personal
Security (7 items), and Continued Focus and Achievement of Personal Goals (3 items). Sample items
include “I accept suggestions for improving my performance,” “I am satisfied with my coworkers,”
and “my career is still growing.” Participants rated their feelings and attitudes toward their work on
a 5-point scale that ranged from 1 as strongly disagree to 5 as strongly agree. Higher scores indicate
higher levels of the five dimensions. These scales have demonstrated good internal consistency. In a
prior study, the a coefficients of the successful aging in the Workplace Scale ranged from .78 to .88,
and these scales were significantly related to job satisfaction and intention to stay in the organization
(Cheung & Wu, 2013). In this study, the a coefficients for adaptability and health, positive relation-
ship, occupational growth, personal security, and continuous focus and achievement of goals were .88,
.84, .85, .82, and .83, respectively.

Demographic variables. Participants were asked to report their age, gender, and duration in years of work
experience (tenure).
8 Journal of Career Development XX(X)

Missing Data Analysis

Prior to the analysis, the issue of missing data was investigated because unplanned missing data would
introduce ambiguity into the inferences that can be drawn from a study. Preliminary analyses were thus
performed to consider the distribution of missing data and to decide whether the missing data were at
random or not at random. Participants completed all perceived leadership items in the present survey.
There were two participants who had not reported on two successful aging in the workplace items. We
had conducted Little’s Missing Completely at Random (MCAR) test to examine the nature of the miss-
ing cases. Test statistics of the MCAR test was not significant (w2¼ 167.01, df ¼ 156, p ¼ .26). In other
words, the missing values were random and the low missing responses did not pose a significant prob-
lem for inferences of results. In subsequent analyses, we used the list-wise deletion approach to handle
the missing cases.

Assessment of Common Method Variance

The data in the present study were collected via self-administered questionnaires. Therefore, common
method variance may inflate the strength of observed relationships (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Kee, &
Podsakoff, 2003). A Harman one-factor test was conducted by confirmatory factor analysis to address
the issue of common method variance. Following the procedure proposed by Podsakoff, MacKenzie,
Kee, and Podsakoff (2003), all the variables were loaded into a one-factor solution. A single factor will
emerge or one factor will account for most of the variance if method variance was largely responsible
for the covariation among the measures. Results showed that the one-factor model (with successful
aging in the workplaces and leadership behaviors variable as indicators) fits poorly with empirical data
(w2 ¼ 1,143.59, df ¼ 77, p < .01; Comparative Fit Index (CFI) ¼ .61, Root Mean Square Error of
Approximation (RMSEA) ¼ .20). However, model fit improved significantly when items were loaded
on the relevant latent factor. For instance, the confirmatory factor analysis showed that the successful
aging in the workplace were all significant indicators and the overall model fit was excellent (w2 ¼
10.28, df ¼ 5, p ¼ .07; CFI ¼ .99, RMSEA ¼ .06). In sum, results in this study cannot be solely attrib-
uted to common method variance.

Results
Correlation Analysis
Table 1 presents correlation results. In terms of demographic information on successful aging in the
workplace, the only significant correlation was between tenure and continued focus and achievement
of goals (r ¼ .13, p ¼ .02). In other words, demographic information did not relate strongly with suc-
cessful aging in the workplace dimensions.
In terms of employees’ perception of their supervisor’s transformational leadership, we found sig-
nificant correlations between this perceived leadership style with all successful aging in the workplace
dimensions including continued focus and achievement of personal goals (r ¼ .35, p < .01), adaptabil-
ity and health (r ¼ .38, p < .01), personal security (r ¼ .39, p < .01), positive relations (r ¼ .45, p < .01),
and occupational growth (r ¼ .51, p < .01).
For employees’ perception of their supervisor’s transactional leadership, we found that it was posi-
tively related to four successful aging dimensions including personal security (r ¼ .12, p ¼ .02), pos-
itive relations (r ¼ .18, p < .01), continued focus and achievement of personal goals (r ¼ .19, p < .01),
and occupational growth (r ¼ .29, p < .01).
Finally, employees’ perception of their supervisor’s laissez-faire leadership style was negatively
correlated with all successful aging in the workplace dimensions including adaptability and health
(r ¼ .29, p < .01), positive relationship (r ¼ .21, p < .01), occupational growth (r ¼ .17, p <
Cheung et al. 9

Table 1. Correlation Analysis.

Means, Standard
Deviations, and
Intercorrelations
among the Study
Variables (N ¼ 350) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

1. Age 1
2. Gender .11* 1
3. Tenure .18** .11* 1
4 Perceived .09 .07 .08 1
transformational
leadership
5 Perceived .04 .06 .01 .58** 1
transactional
leadership
6 Perceived laissez- .15** .00 .0 .04 .42** 1
faire leadership
7. Adaptability and .02 .05 .08 .38** .10 .29** 1
health
8. Positive .02 .05 .04 .45** .18** .21** .61** 1
relationship
9. Occupational .04 .04 .00 .51** .29** .17** .64** .61** 1
growth
10. Personal .01 .00 .08 .39** .12* .25** .64** .53** .61** 1
security
11. Continuous .06 .05 .13* .35** .19** .17** .60** .51** .60** .62** 1
focus and
achievement of
goals
M 51.88 — 11.89 1.97 1.89 1.74 2.16 1.99 1.89 1.94 1.83
SD 5.15 — 9.10 0.73 0.65 0.95 0.89 0.81 0.89 0.82 0.88
Range 45–67 — 1–42 0.15–3.6 0.08–3.25 0–4 0–4 0–4 0–4 0–4 0–4
Note. N ¼ 350.
*p < .05. **p < .01.

.01), personal security (r ¼ .25, p < .01), and continued focus and achievement of personal goals (r ¼
.17, p < .01).

Regression Analysis
Finally, as the employees’ perception of their supervisor’s leadership style showed some overlapping
with each other, we performed multiple regression to examine how the three perceived leadership
styles relate to the five successful aging in the workplace dimensions. Specifically, the three employ-
ees’ perception of their supervisor’s leadership styles were entered as the predictors and five regression
models were performed, with the five successful aging in the workplace dimension as the outcome
variable. Table 2 presents the details of the regression results. Across all the regression models,
employees’ perceived transformational leadership style was positively related to all successful aging
in the workplace dimensions, even when the other two leadership styles were considered. Thus,
Hypothesis 1 was supported. In terms of perceived transactional leadership, it was positively related
to occupational growth only. Thus, Hypothesis 2 was not supported. Finally, perceived laissez-faire
10
Table 2. Regression Analyses on Successful Aging in the Workplace.

Adaptability and Continuous Focus and

Means, Standard Deviations, and Health Positive Relationship Occupational Growth Personal Security Achievement of Goals
Intercorrelations among the Study
Variables (N ¼ 350) B SE B b B SE B b B SE B b B SE B b B SE B b

Perceived transformational leadership .24 .04 .38** .40 .06 .44** .34 .05 .42** .34 .06 .39** .29 .07 .28**
Perceived transactional leadership .01 .05 .01 .01 .07 .01 .12 .06 .14* .01 .07 .01 .13 .08 .12
Perceived laissez-faire leadership .13 .03 .27** .14 .04 .20** .13 .03 .21** .16 .04 .23** .16 .05 .21**
R2 .22 .24 .29 .21 .16
F for change in R2 32.00** 35.93** 46.29** 30.45 21.13**
Note. N ¼ 350.
*p < .05. **p < .01.
Cheung et al. 11

leadership was negatively related to all successful aging in the workplace dimensions. Hypothesis 3
was thus supported.

Discussion
This study examined the association between employees’ perception of their supervisor’s leadership
style and successful aging in the workplace. In line with our hypotheses, employees’ perception of
their supervisor’s transformational leadership was positively, while perceived laissez-faire leadership
was negatively related to successful aging in the workplace. Contradictory to our hypothesis, perceived
transactional leadership was positively related to occupational growth.

Perceived Transformational Leadership Style

As hypothesized, employees’ perception of their supervisor’s transformational leadership style was
positively related to successful aging in the workplace. Under this leadership style, leaders motivated
their followers to question the traditional ways of solving problems through intellectual stimulation.
Nowadays, organizations and work tasks are quickly changing due to continuous technological
advancement. Therefore, when aging workers stick to the old patterns of behaviors, their overall pro-
ductivity may not be able to catch up. Thus, when aging workers perceived that their leaders could
provide timely supervision and inspire them to look at problems from different angles, it will contrib-
ute to the aging workers’ thriving in the workplace. Our finding coincides with an earlier Rafferty and
Griffin (2004) study, which reported that intellectual stimulation was positively related to affective and
continuance commitment and negatively related to turnover intention. Besides, transformational lead-
ers also listen to the needs and challenges of their subordinates, provide individualized supervision and
mentoring when necessary, and motivate subordinates to grow. Leaders will also consider the talents,
competence, and skills of each subordinate and then decide the factor that enables the subordinate to
achieve better in the workplace. These behaviors will support the aging workers for further occupa-
tional growth and create a suitable work environment for them.

Perceived Transactional Leadership Style

Employees’ perception of their supervisor’s transactional leadership was positively related to occupa-
tional growth. This is surprising, as transactional leadership is not optimal for workers to achieve their
full potential (Avolio, 2011). In transactional leadership, leaders usually wait for issues to emerge
before fixing the problems and will not continually look at each subordinate’s performance. They will
only offer help when needed. Perhaps aging workers welcome this leadership style because they may
find it disrespectful and humiliating when the supervisors or management actively examine their work
and correct their mistakes. This might harm their self-esteem because aging workers usually have had
extensive work experience or expertise on their work domain. This situation is particularly true in the
Chinese context, wherein close monitoring and spotting of errors may make the aging workers “lose
face”. So, the constant checking and feedback from the supervisors are not helpful for the older work-
ers to continue to thrive in the workplace.

Perceived Laissez-Faire Leadership Style

As hypothesized, employees’ perception of their supervisor’s laissez-faire leadership was negatively
related to all dimensions of successful aging in the workplace. One may argue that this leadership style
should work best for aging workers who are highly skilled and capable of working independently.
However, guidance and support from leaders remain essential when aging workers face new chal-
lenges at work or desire further career development in the face of rapid globalization and technological
12 Journal of Career Development XX(X)

advancement. Therefore, leaders should help the aging workers adapt to new tasks and environment,
assist them in strengthening their social networks, and support their occupational growth. In summary,
supervisory input is still inevitable if the aging workers wish to continue to excel in the jobs.

Limitations
This study has several limitations and results should be interpreted with caution. First, this study used a
self-reported cross-sectional design, wherein participants were recruited at a single time point. Adopt-
ing this research design makes it impossible to draw causal inference directly. This is particularly
important as successfully aging workers may elicit different leader’s behaviors. Common method var-
iance might have inflated the observed associations (Podsakoff et al., 2003). Harman’s one-factor test
provided evidence that common method variance has not significantly inflated the observed relations,
but future studies should obtain data from other sources (e.g., leaders’ data) for external validation.
Besides, as has been recently discussed by Zacher (2015), to better understand successful aging in the
workplace, longitudinal data will be optimal as the data across time can document the intraindividual
changes across different times in one’s career life span.
Second, we only recruited Chinese participants in Hong Kong. Thus, whether our findings can read-
ily be generalized to other cultural contexts is still unknown. For example, we reported that passive
management by exception is positively related to successful aging in the workplace. We also specu-
lated whether the positive correlation is a result of the unique cultural background that treasures “face”
in Chinese society. However, prompt feedback is often found to be important for performance, such as
task effectiveness and social integration (Kim, Cable, Kim, & Wang, 2009). Thus, additional studies
that compare the Chinese and Western aging workers are warranted to compare and contrast the role of
different leadership styles on successful aging in the workplace.
Third, we did not control for leaders’ age. Past study by Zacher and colleagues suggested that lead-
ers’ age would inevitably affect subordinates’ perception. In particular, when an aging worker is under
supervision by a young leader, it is very likely that the role modeling effect is less crucial and less
influential. Thus, it is also important to consider the age of the leader. Future studies should measure
this and use that as control or covariate.
Finally, participants were largely working in the government and major utility companies. Since the
human resource policies and pension system differ significantly with other private organizations,
future studies might include participants from more different organizational settings.

Implications and Conclusion

This study has both theoretical and practical contributions. From a theoretical point of view, our study
enriches the understanding of factors that contribute to successful aging in the workplace. Previous
studies often emphasize the importance of personal factors, such as the use of selection, optimization
with compensation approach (SOC), selection and job change negotiation, or job crafting to help the
aging workers to successfully age in the organization. While these personal factors will surely drive the
successful aging process of older individuals, our study reveals that organizational factors, such as per-
ceived leadership styles, also play an important role. However, instead of drawing the conclusion on
the importance of leadership on successful aging, we believe this line of research should be further
expanded by examining different leadership approaches. For example, it will be fruitful to examine
the contextual effect of when leadership is important on successful aging in the workplace. In the con-
tingency leadership theory, for example, the importance of leadership on successful aging depends not
solely on the leaders’ own characters and quality, rather it depends on the contextual/subordinates’
characteristics: If the job task is complex and subject to constant changes, the importance of leaders’
support on aging workers will be more important as these workers tend to have lower adaptability
Cheung et al. 13

when compared to their younger counterparts. However, when the job tasks are relatively well struc-
tured, the importance of leaders’ support may not be necessary. Thus, it allows us to understand how
the interaction between the subordinates/task characteristics interacts with the leadership in shaping
successful aging experience in the workplace.
From a practical point of view, the results can provide valuable insights to leaders to promote suc-
cessful aging in the workplace. For instance, apart from aiming at provision of work support, such as
training (Leppel & Brucker, 2012) or human resource policy that supports aging workers (e.g.,
Armstrong-Stassen & Ursel, 2009) to enhance successful aging at work, considering the type of lead-
ership style that leaders should adopt might also be important. While inspiring subordinates to develop
work solutions or providing necessary individualized consideration (i.e., transformational leadership)
is important, leaders can also support successful aging by formulating key work goals and providing
rewards when such goals are achieved (i.e., transactional leadership).
In sum, this study suggests that a mixture of perceived transactional and transformational leader’s
styles is important to support successful aging in the workplace. This is in line with Avolio’s (2011)
hypothesis, which suggests that transformational leadership adds transactional leadership in its effects
on followers’ motivation, satisfaction, and performance. Leaders can encourage aging workers to
imagine and think in innovative ways, such as raising their curiosity, and encouraging openness to new
and inspirational ideas. This finding is especially important for aging workers because when they have
been part of the workplace for sometime, they have established work habits behaviorally and cogni-
tively, which may become obsolete when new technological advancement becomes available. There-
fore, encouraging their creativity, empowering them to experiment with new ideas and challenging the
status quo, and not intervening unless in cases of serious accident or error are important for aging
workers to age successfully in the workplace.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or
publication of this article.

Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.

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Author Biographies
Francis Cheung is an associate professor at the Department of Applied Psychology, Lingnan University, Hong
Kong. He is a graduate of Hong Kong Baptist University, where he received his bachelor of arts in sociology. He
received his postgraduate diploma in psychology, master of philosophy in industrial and organizational psychol-
ogy, and his doctoral degree at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His current work focuses on emotional man-
agement in the workplace and vocational behaviors of older workers. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling,
reading, going to movies, and spending quality time with his wife and family.
Dannii Y. Yeung, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Applied Social Sciences at City University
of Hong Kong. She received her PhD degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research topics
include aging and work, retirement adjustment, and emotion regulation.

Anise M. S. Wu is currently an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Macau.
She was awarded the PhD degree (in psychology) at the Chinese University of Hong Kong for her work on post-
humous organ donation. Her major research is concerned with both individual and public health, with specific
focuses on addictive behaviors, older adults’ well-being, volunteerism, and organ donation. In leisure time, she
enjoys movie, wine, and travel with families and friends.

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