Abstract
Purpose
Ageing workforces require organisations to decide what to prioritise when older workers' work abilities differ. This article develops the Cyclical Meaning Pattern of Abilities (CMPA) as a programme-oriented human resource (HR) decision heuristic. CMPA conceptualises how communicated observations of reconstructed work ability configurations may inform conditional HR decision premises.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a cross-sectional survey of older workers aged 50–64 from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. Fuzzy-similarity modelling is used to identify robust co-valuations among abilities and supports. CMPA is then developed through abductive theorising, integrating these co-valuations with the Work Ability House model, self-efficacy and Luhmannian decision-programme theory.
Findings
The analysis identifies four shared co-valued work-ability configurations: Expert Knowledge–Practical Skills, Technical Skills–Intuition, Workflow Discussion–Intuition and Health–Workplace Relationships. These configurations are interpreted as meaning-relevant patterns, not as direct evidence of a self-referential system. They are grouped into operational forms, which support task execution and problem solving, and supportive forms, which stabilise the conditions under which task-related abilities can be used.
Practical implications
CMPA is positioned primarily as an organisational age-management heuristic. It supports age-management decisions by helping HR specialists and line managers connect observed work ability (WA) configurations with decision contexts such as digital learning/training allocation, task redesign/role redesign, health accommodation/workload adjustment and appraisal/development dialogue.
Social implications
By reframing WA as an organisational observation translated into decision premises, the approach supports more transparent and defensible age-management decisions, with potential benefits for sustainable employability.
Originality/value
CMPA links work ability research to Luhmannian decision-programme theory. Its distinct contribution lies in developing a theoretically grounded framework through which communicated, co-valued WA configurations may inform conditional organisational decision premises. Fuzzy similarity provides exploratory empirical grounding, while CMPA remains an abductive heuristic rather than a validated predictive model.