scholarly journals Age segregation and hiring of older employees: low mobility revisited

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (8) ◽  
pp. 1090-1115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pekka Ilmakunnas ◽  
Seija Ilmakunnas

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the determinants of hiring and exit rates by age at the firm level and firm-level age segregation in hirings and separations in Finland. Design/methodology/approach – The use Finnish linked employer-employee data from 1990 to 2004. The authors present a decomposition of employment change by age group to disentangle the roles of hirings and exits from factors related to demographics effects. Firm-level analysis is conducted using regression models for the hiring rates and shares of different age groups and for the probability of hiring older employees. Similar models are estimated for the exits of older employees. Segregation is analysed using age segregation curves and Gini indices calculated from them. Findings – The hirings of older (50+) employees have clearly been more segregated at the firm level than the exits or the stock of old employees. Larger firms are more likely to hire older employees, but their hiring rates are lower. However, the probability of having hires or exits of older workers are much higher in large firms. The results are relatively similar for men and women. Research limitations/implications – The determinants of the probability of hiring older workers and the rate of hiring them, given that the rate is positive, are different and these two processes should be modelled separately. The Gini index of segregation may be misleading when the number of employees per firm is small. Therefore it is useful to compare segregation to a random reshuffle of employees to firms. Practical implications – Older worker who have become unemployed or who want to change their job need to have more employment opportunities. Labour and pension policies need to be monitored and designed so that there are more incentives for the individual to search for a new job and for the firms to hire older employees. Originality/value – The authors provide new empirical evidence of age segregation and hiring prospects of older employees. Age segregation has previously been examined in occupations, but the authors extend the analysis to firm-level segregation. The authors suggest a new decomposition of the rate of employment change to the hiring and exit rates and to a cohort effect.

2015 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 404-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A Parsons

Purpose – This paper aims to develop a model of individual innovation based on an employee’s innate propensity to innovate and the specific costs and benefits expected to the individual from the innovation. This model is then used to study the way an employees’ age will impact innovation. Design/methodology/approach – This paper proposes variables which drive an individual’s innovative behavior based on a literature review. This theoretical model is then maximized to show how age drives an employees’ innovation output in three ways. A small survey is used to substantiate the theory. Findings – In this model, the age of the employee becomes an important independent variable with negative elements associated with both the cost and benefit the employee will receive from their innovation efforts. However, age will be positively associated with an employee’s ability to implement and capitalize on their innovation. Practical implications – Firm’s must pay attention to the career life cycle of their employees. The human resource department must take on the task of focusing on delivering the programs needed to support older employees’ particular needs relative to producing innovation. Social implications – As the Western workforce ages, considerations for dealing with older workers and age diversity will become more important. Models such as the one developed in this paper will be important for understanding and managing the changing workforce. Originality/value – This model develops a theory of how age can impact an employee’s innovation in three specific ways that have not previously been addressed in the literature. This model also proposes an explanation for surprising results found in several prior studies.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul White ◽  
Gene George

Purpose Organizational leaders and human resource professionals affirm that to have (and keep) an effective workforce, understanding one’s employees is critical. Thus, understanding the differences between employees of different age groups is important. Simultaneously, studies have demonstrated the significant positive impact appreciation has on the functioning of organizations. When team members feel truly valued, numerous positive benefits result, including lower staff turnover, less absenteeism, higher customer ratings and greater profitability. Design/methodology/approach Because individuals prefer to be shown appreciation in different ways and prior research has shown some age differences, this study examined how appreciation preferences differ across seven employee age groups. Over 190,000 individuals completed an online assessment based on the five languages of appreciation, which identifies employees’ preferred ways of receiving appreciation. The respondents were separated into seven age groups, from 19 years old and younger to 70 years old and above. Findings The results of an analysis of variance found that there were significant differences across groups. Although the patterns of preferences were largely the same across many groups, post hoc analyses found both the youngest and oldest age groups differed from employees in their 30s with regards to their desire for quality time. Additionally, older employees were extremely low in their desire for tangible gifts. Originality/value As the proportion of employees shifts from older to younger groups of employees, these results raise important implications for organizations’ approaches regarding how appreciation and other motivators should be adjusted for different groups of employees.


2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 583-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martine van Selm ◽  
Beatrice I.J.M. Van der Heijden

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of how portrayals of older employees in mass media messages can help combating stereotypical beliefs on their employability. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted a systematic review of empirical studies on mass media portrayals of older employees in order to show what these reveal about the ways in which their employment status, occupation, job type, or work setting is portrayed. The approach builds upon theory on media portrayals, media effects, and stereotypes of older workers’ employability. Findings – This study shows that older employees in media portrayals, when present at all, are relatively often shown in higher-level professional roles, herewith overall, depicting an image that is positive, yet differs from stereotypical beliefs on their employability that are prevalent in working organizations. Research limitations/implications – Further empirical work is needed to more safely conclude on the prevalence of age-related portrayals of work and employment in mass media. In addition, longitudinal research is called for in order to better understand the possible causes for the way in which older employees are portrayed, as well as effects of age-related stereotyping in mass media and corporate communication outlets over time. Practical implications – This research sparks ideas about how new portrayals of older employees in mass media and corporate communication outlets can contribute to novel approaches to managing an aging and multi-generational workforce. Social implications – This study shows how working organizations can make use of the positive and powerful media portrayals of older employees, in order to activate normal and non-ageist behaviors toward them, and herewith, to increase their life-long employability. Originality/value – This study highlights the role of media portrayals of older employees in combating stereotypes about their employability.


2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (8) ◽  
pp. 1068-1091
Author(s):  
Yun Cheng ◽  
Christine M. Haynes ◽  
Michael D. Yu

Purpose Auditing studies have shifted the research focus from the audit firm level to the individual audit partner level in recent years. Motivated by the call from Lennox and Wu (2018) to explore the effect of audit partners’ characteristics on audit quality in the US, this study aims to develop a new measure of engagement partner workload (EPW), which includes both the size and number of clients audited to test the effect of EPW on audit quality. This study also examines the moderating effect of the partner firm size on audit quality. Design/methodology/approach To test the effect of the EPW on audit quality, this study runs multivariate regressions of EPW on each specific client’s discretionary accruals and audit report delays. This study also runs a logistic regression of EPW on clients’ probability of having small profit increases to meet performance benchmarks. Findings Results of the hypotheses show that partner workload is positively related to audit quality. The results indicate that partners with larger, but fewer, clients conduct higher quality audits. Further analysis indicates that the relationship between partner workload and audit quality only holds for partners from the non-Big 4 firms. Originality/value This study contributes to the literatures of both audit quality and audit partner characteristics, and the results complement initial research aimed at identifying US partner-related characteristics that influence audit quality.


2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (7) ◽  
pp. 1425-1448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Di Ye ◽  
Yenchun Jim Wu ◽  
Mark Goh

PurposeThis research paper examines how hub firm transformation and restructuring of network partnerships shape the development of industrial clusters in China.Design/methodology/approachQuestionnaire data were collected from 210 managers (response rate 70.9 percent) from the manufacturing industrial clusters in Eastern China.FindingsThe results inform that a cluster’s hub firm transformation influences the evolution of the cluster. Though the hub firm may possess transformation capabilities, the cluster is likely to be weakened if network partnerships and resource synergy are not formed amongst the cluster members.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper, in examining the individual- and firm-level attributes of orchestration capability and their interactions, sheds light on the firm level and inter-firm level relationships between resources and innovation in an industrial cluster.Practical implicationsTo facilitate learning and the upgrading of firms within an industry cluster and promote a cluster’s innovation network, policymakers can initiate preferential policy measures to cultivate support to strategically transform a cluster’s hub firm, thus fostering cluster network growth.Originality/valueThe paper studies the evolution of clusters by investigating the hub firm transformation and member firm interaction. Focusing on the inter-firm network interactions lends a richer understanding of the nuances of the evolution of industrial clusters in Asia.


2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (6) ◽  
pp. 1151-1170
Author(s):  
Liis Roosaar ◽  
Jaan Masso ◽  
Urmas Varblane

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to clarify whether the age-productivity curve is different for low-waged and high-waged employees. Design/methodology/approach Productivity growth is decomposed at the firm level into contributions by hired, separated and staying workers. Based on a matched employer-employee database of Estonian firms from 2006 to 2014 and considering the age as well as wages of employees, a panel data model with fixed effects is constructed to show the relative productivity of each cohort of employees. Findings High-waged employees appeared to be relatively more productive than low-waged employees and middle-aged were more productive than young or old employees. However, the productivity difference between young and old employees was not statistically significant. The age-productivity curve of high-waged employees appeared to be flatter than that of low-waged employees. Only in knowledge intensive services were the low-waged old employees statistically significantly less productive than high-waged old employees. In the manufacturing industry, the young were more productive than in services, in knowledge intensive services the old were less productive than in traditional services. Research limitations/implications The productivity of employees is only analysed for cohorts of employees. Practical implications Employers can be encouraged to hire older employees because old employees are shown to remain at least as productive as young employees. Originality/value The decomposition of labour productivity at the firm level is further developed, as the statistical difference between the productivity of different groups of employees is analysed.


2015 ◽  
Vol 34 (9) ◽  
pp. 1113-1133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Hennekam

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of the competencies social skills and continuous learning ability on career success and career satisfaction among workers aged 50 or over. Design/methodology/approach – A mixed methods approach consisted of 920 surveys and 11 semi-structured interviews with working individuals aged 50 or above, registered at a job agency specialized in older employees in the Netherlands. Multiple regression and content analysis were used to analyze the findings. Findings – The survey showed a positive relationship between the competencies and career success and career satisfaction However, the interviews revealed that not all older workers perceived the need to continuously stay up-to-date as positive, pushing them into retirement. Originality/value – The influence of competencies on career success and career satisfaction of older workers has received only little attention from researchers.


2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 322-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying-Chieh Wang ◽  
Hua Wei Huang ◽  
Jeng-Ren Chiou ◽  
Yu Chieh Huang

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between the cost of debt (COD) and auditor industry expertise using Taiwanese data. Since previous studies (Li et al., 2010) have only examined the relation between industry specialization and COD at the audit firm level in western countries, the authors further examine the association between industry specialization and COD at the individual auditor level in an Asian context. Design/methodology/approach The authors use the interest rate on the firm’s debt as a proxy variable for the COD (Francis, Khurana and Pereira, 2005). The authors adopt three different methods to measure industry specialization, which consist of the auditors’ market share in terms of client sales and number of clients, and client assets. Findings The results indicate that the clients of industry specialists at individual auditor levels have a lower COD. Originality/value First, the authors extend the research of Li et al. (2010) and find that the clients of individual auditor industry specialists also have a lower COD. Second, the authors also believe the evidence on the effects of industry expertise at the individual auditor level may have policy implications for regulators and public investors. Finally, in contrast to works carried out in the US market, the authors provide empirical evidence for the relation between industry specialization and COD in an Asian market.


2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (7) ◽  
pp. 1152-1166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rita Chiesa ◽  
Stefano Toderi ◽  
Paola Dordoni ◽  
Kene Henkens ◽  
Elena Maria Fiabane ◽  
...  

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between organizational age stereotypes and occupational self-efficacy. First, the authors intend to test the measurement invariance of Henkens’s (2005) age stereotypes scale across two age group, respectively, under 50 and 50 years and older. Then, the moderator role of age groups in the relationship between age stereotypes and occupational self-efficacy is investigated. Design/methodology/approach The survey involved a large sample of 4,667 Italian bank sector’s employees. Findings The results show the invariance of the three dimensional structure of organizational stereotypes towards older workers scale: productivity, reliability and adaptability. Furthermore, the moderation is confirmed: the relationship between organizational age stereotypes and occupational self-efficacy is significant only for older respondents. Research limitations/implications Future studies should aim to replicate the findings with longitudinal designs. Practical implications The study suggests the importance to emphasize the positive characteristics of older workers and to reduce the presence of negative age stereotypes in the workplace, especially in order to foster the occupational self-efficacy of older workers. Originality/value The findings are especially relevant in view of the lack of evidence about the relationship between age stereotypes and occupational self-efficacy.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mao-Feng Kao ◽  
Min-Jeng Shiue ◽  
Chien-Hao Tseng

Purpose This study aims to examine the Taiwan setting, where audit partners’ names are presented in the audit report and where audit committee formation is voluntary in the initial stage of audit committee reform. This paper investigates the effects of the formation of voluntary audit committees on the selection of individual audit partners, and, in turn, the audit quality. This contrasts with previous studies investigating the relationship between audit committees and auditor selection at the audit firm level. Design/methodology/approach This paper samples all of Taiwan’s publicly listed firms for the period 2007–2012 and uses Heckman’s (1979) two-stage estimation model to achieve our objectives. Findings Using different characteristics of individual engagement partners as proxies for a higher quality auditor, the main empirical results show that voluntary audit committee formation is positively related to an industry specialist lead partner and a lead partner that has a larger number of clients. In addition, this paper also finds that voluntary audit committee formation has a positive impact on audit quality (proxied by discretionary accruals). The results suggest that the voluntary formation of an audit committee contributes positively to both auditor selection and audit quality. Furthermore, an additional test shows that the main empirical results are robust to a validity threat that firms that have good corporate governance prior to the formation of voluntary audit committees tend to select high-quality audit partners. Originality/value The paper contributes to the audit committee literature in the following ways: this paper takes advantage of Taiwan’s unique setting, where forming an audit committee is not compulsory in the initial stage of audit committee reform, to investigate the voluntary audit committee, auditor selection and audit quality; this paper expands on Abbott and Parker’s (2000) study of audit committee characteristics and auditor selection at the audit firm level by examining this relationship at the individual audit partner level; this paper responds to the call by Church et al. (2008) and DeFond and Francis (2005) who propose more studies on audit quality at the individual engagement partner level.


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