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CHAPTER 4
Individual and organisational predictors influencing ageing workersʼ employability 75

Cronbachʼs alpha per activity varied from 0.72 (for the HRD activity external
course) to 0.45 (for new task or function), with an alpha of 0.34 for networking,
which was probably due to a low percentage of respondents that had
experienced this learning activity.

4.5.1. Main research findings Breukers
Means and standard deviation for the variables under study
Of the five dimensions of employability, occupational expertise (M=4.77;
SD=0.51) and balance (M=4.37; SD=0.60) have a higher mean score,
whereas anticipation and optimisation (M=3.93; SD=0.70) and corporate
sense (M=4.01; SD=0.85) have a somewhat lower mean score, on a six-point
scale running from, for instance, 1=not at all to 6=totally agree. The personal
factor ʻmotivation to learnʼ was measured on a five-point scale running from
1=totally disagree to 5=totally agree and was scored with a mean score of
4.06 (SD=0.63). Learning climate was measured on a six-point scale from
1=never to 6=always and was scored with a mean score of 3.58 (SD=0.72),
whereas support by supervisor obtained a high mean value (M=3.99;
SD=0.68), which was measured on a five-point scale from 1=never true to
5=always true.

Differences between age groups for the variables under study
Because it is important to identify possible differences between age groups,
respondents were divided into three age groups, young employees up to 40
years, middle-aged workers from 40 to 55 years, and older workers aged 55
years and older. This division is based on the Social and Cultural Planning
Officeʼs (SCP) classification (Horstink, 2008), although the SCP classified
young employees up to 35 years. Breukers decided to classify young
employees in the age group up to 40 years due to a low percentage of young
employees within the company under study. Statistical analyses were done
to determine possible and significant differences between the discerned age
groups and main results are presented below.
First, significant differences between young (N=44), middle-aged (N=127)
and older employees (N=54) were found for the variable ʻeducationʼ: younger
employees were significantly better educated than their older colleagues. No
significant differences were found between middle-aged and older employees.
Significant differences were found between younger employees (N=20),
middle-aged employees (N=55) and older employees (N=22) for ʻmotivation
to learnʼ; younger employees (M=4.43) did not significantly differ from middle-
aged employees (M=4.08), but they did significantly differ from their older