Workplace Age Discrimination and Older Employees' Vitality at Work: Mediating Effect of Internal Employability and Moderating Effect of Subjective Age.

Drawing on conservation of resource (COR) theory, this study examines how workplace age discrimination affects older employees' vitality at work and explores the mediating role of internal employability and the moderating role of subjective age. Using a three-wave time-lagged survey of 318 older employees in Chinese organizations, the results show that workplace age discrimination significantly undermines older employees' vitality at work partially through internal employability. Moreover, subjective age moderates both the negative effect of age discrimination on internal employability and the indirect effect on vitality at work, suggesting that feeling younger serves as a protective psychological resource. These findings extend research on work vitality by identifying a detrimental contextual antecedent and highlight the importance of employability perceptions and subjective age in shaping older employees' responses to age-related bias.