scholarly journals Competence and Learning in Late Career

2003 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leif Chr. Lahn
Keyword(s):  
Age Differences ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Life Changes ◽  
Cognitive Ageing ◽  
Learning Abilities ◽  
Learning At Work ◽  
Boundaryless Careers

Issues of late career have recently attracted much political and public interest but contributions from research have been meagre. In this article, a review is made of the literature on cognitive ageing and learning abilities in an occupational context. Multidimensional and non-linear perspectives are increasingly replacing models of late career as a period of declining expertise. Data from an European Union Framework Programme 4 research project ‘Working Life Changes and the Training of Older Workers' (WORKTOW), supports such a redefinition. Also, the optimistic scenarios for late career that are held out by the literature on ‘boundaryless careers' are challenged. A sociocultural framework that is more sensitive to the institutional and cultural context of age differences in learning at work is asked for.

Theoretical and conceptual issues in the extending working lives agenda

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clary Krekula ◽  
Sarah Vickerstaff
Keyword(s):  
Older Workers ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Job Opportunities ◽  
The One ◽  
New Research ◽  
Individual Choices

The policy debate on older people's extended participation in working life is not based on a social movement, such as the one putting forward demands on job opportunities for women, and has, by means of categorical stereotypes, mostly characterised older people as the problem. This narrative of individual choices and decisions presents older workers as de-gendered, de-classed individuals, shorn of their individual biographies and social contexts. It also treats the issue of extending working life as a phenomenon disconnected from surrounding society and trends. This line of reasoning points to the need for more sophisticated theoretical foundations. This chapter therefore provides a more encompassing framework for the discussion of extending working lives and outlines a new research agenda, including a power perspective with potential to shed light on age-based inequality, an intersectional perspective and a masculinity perspective which challenges the homogenous descriptions of older workers, a feminist understanding of work and a life course perspective which provides a framework which links the previous three.

scholarly journals Swedish Collective Agreements and Employers’ Willingness to Hire and Retain Older Workers in Employment

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carin Ulander-Wänman
Keyword(s):  
Older Workers ◽  
Total Population ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Retirement Age ◽  
Elderly Persons ◽  
Older Employees ◽  
Collective Agreements ◽  
The Eu

Demographic change is transforming the EU population structure for the coming decades. One challenge that society faces is to preserve social welfare when elderly persons comprise a larger proportion of the total population. Allowing people to work beyond the current retirement age may help slow the growth of the maintenance burden for welfare costs, and creating situations where larger numbers of older employees can work longer and complete more working hours can improve conditions for preserving and developing welfare. However, a prolonged working life presupposes several conditions; one of these is that legal regulation of the labor market must support employers’ willingness to hire and retain older workers in employment. This article explores employers’ attitudes toward regulations in Swedish collective agreements—regulations which are of particular importance if employers are to increase hiring and retention of older workers in employment.

“Fuller” or “extended” working lives: a critical commentary

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 237-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Phillipson
Keyword(s):  
Older Workers ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Older Worker ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Critical Commentary ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to, first, provide some background to the treatment of older workers; second, highlight the distinction between a “fuller” and an “extended” working life; third, note the importance of separating out different groups within the category “older worker”; finally, identify areas for action to suppose those now facing working into their 60s and beyond. Design/methodology/approach – Commentary paper analysing development of policies towards older workers. Findings – This paper identifies problems implementing policy of extending working and provides various areas of action to support older workers. Research limitations/implications – This paper suggests extending work unlikely to be achieved without ensuring greater security for older workers. Practical implications – Importance of developing more support for older workers. Social implications – Challenge of resolving insecurity in the labour force as an impediment to extended working. Originality/value – This paper outlines a critical assessment of current government policy towards older workers.

scholarly journals Employees’ Longer Working Lives in Europe: Drivers and Barriers in Companies

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 1658
Author(s):  
Andrea Principi ◽  
Jürgen Bauknecht ◽  
Mirko Di Rosa ◽  
Marco Socci
Keyword(s):  
Working Conditions ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Early Retirement ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Retirement Age ◽  
European Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Market Factors ◽  
Legal Retirement Age

This paper identifies, within companies’ sectors of activity, predictors of Human Resource (HR) policies to extend working life (EWL) in light of increasing policy efforts at the European level to extend working life. Three types of EWL practices are investigated: the prevention of early retirement (i.e., encouraging employees to continue working until the legal retirement age); delay of retirement (i.e., encouraging employees to continue working beyond the legal retirement age); and, recruitment of employees who are already retired (i.e., unretirement). A sample of 4624 European organizations that was stratified by size and sector is analyzed in six countries. The main drivers for companies’ EWL practices are the implementation of measures for older workers to improve their performance, their working conditions, and to reduce costs. In industry, the qualities and skills of older workers could be more valued than in other sectors, while the adoption of EWL practices might be less affected by external economic and labor market factors in the public sector. Dutch and Italian employers may be less prone than others to extend working lives. These results underline the importance of raising employers’ awareness and increase their actions to extend employees’ working lives by adopting age management initiatives, especially in SMEs, and in the services and public sectors.

scholarly journals Age-related decline in executive function as a hallmark of cognitive ageing in primates: an overview of cognitive and neurobiological studies

2020 ◽  
Vol 375 (1811) ◽  
pp. 20190618 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnès Lacreuse ◽  
Naftali Raz ◽  
Daniel Schmidtke ◽  
William D. Hopkins ◽  
James G. Herndon
Keyword(s):  
Executive Function ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Primate Species ◽  
Cognitive Ageing ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Ageing Brain

Executive function (EF) is a complex construct that reflects multiple higher-order cognitive processes such as planning, updating, inhibiting and set-shifting. Decline in these functions is a hallmark of cognitive ageing in humans, and age differences and changes in EF correlate with age-related differences and changes in association cortices, particularly the prefrontal areas. Here, we review evidence for age-related decline in EF and associated neurobiological changes in prosimians, New World and Old World monkeys, apes and humans. While EF declines with age in all primate species studied, the relationship of this decline with age-related alterations in the prefrontal cortex remains unclear, owing to the scarcity of neurobiological studies focusing on the ageing brain in most primate species. In addition, the influence of sex, vascular and metabolic risk, and hormonal status has rarely been considered. We outline several methodological limitations and challenges with the goal of producing a comprehensive integration of cognitive and neurobiological data across species and elucidating how ageing shapes neurocognitive trajectories in primates with different life histories, lifespans and brain architectures. Such comparative investigations are critical for fostering translational research and understanding healthy and pathological ageing in our own species. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Evolution of the primate ageing process’.

scholarly journals Barriers and facilitators to extended working life: a focus on a predominately female ageing workforce

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Clare Ellen Edge ◽  
Margaret Coffey ◽  
Penny A. Cook ◽  
Ashley Weinberg
Keyword(s):  
Older Workers ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Good Health ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Social ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Gender Profile ◽  
Predominately Female ◽  
Purposive Sample

Abstract Many countries are reforming their pension systems so people stay in work for longer to improve the long-term sustainability of public finances to support an increasing older population. This research aimed to explore the factors that enable or inhibit people to extend working life (EWL) in a large United Kingdom-based retail organisation. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with a purposive sample (N = 30): 15 employees aged ⩾60 and 15 supervisors supporting these employees. Older workers were predominately female, reflecting the gender profile of the older workers in the organisation. Older workers and supervisors reported that key facilitators to EWL were good health, the perception that older workers are of value, flexibility and choice, the need for an ongoing conversation across the lifecourse, the social and community aspect of work as a facilitator to EWL and the financial necessity to EWL. Perceived barriers to EWL included poor health, negative impacts of work on health, and a lack of respect and support.

Hazards of Managing Aged Workers

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 75-80
Author(s):  
Е. Майер ◽  
E. Mayer
Keyword(s):  
Personnel Management ◽  
Corporate Culture ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Business Partnerships ◽  
Solution Strategies ◽  
Russian Economy ◽  
Institutional Memory ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Socioeconomic Problems

The aging of the workforce leads to a reduction in the able-bodied population, this why serious socioeconomic problems threaten both for the Russian economy and for organizations. One of the possible solution strategies to making working life in later ages longer is to change the policy of managing workers aged 45–50. The revision of many practices in age-managing leads to awareness of the need in new format of relations between employers and age employees known as “business partnerships”, which include the formation of a continuity of generations, the preservation of institutional memory, corporate culture. This approach also contains some risks caused by the peculiarities of the older workers, and Irrational system of personnel management. A systematic and complete definition of risks will allow organizations and employees to avoid threats or create opportunities for their compensation.

scholarly journals Do earnings really decline for older workers?

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kadija Charni ◽  
Stephen Bazen
Keyword(s):  
Panel Data ◽  
Cross Section ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Job Tenure ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Section Data ◽  
Cross Section Profile

Purpose Cross-section data suggest that the relationship between age and hourly earnings is an inverted U shape. Evidence from panel data does not necessarily confirm this finding suggesting that older workers may not experience a reduction in earnings at the end of their working life. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach In this paper the authors use panel data on males for Great Britain in order to examine why the two types of data provide conflicting conclusions. Concentrating on the over 50s, several hypotheses are examined: overlapping cohorts, job tenure, job-changing, labour supply behaviour, and selectivity bias. Findings Cohort and individual fixed effects partly explain the divergent conclusions. However, for fully, year-on-year employed individuals, there is no evidence of earnings decline at the end of working life. The authors find no role for selectivity due to retirement, although shorter working hours or partial retirement along with job-changing late in life does provide an explanation for why hourly earnings decline for certain older workers. Originality/value The authors find no evidence that the process of ageing itself leads to lower earnings as suggested by the cross-section profile.

scholarly journals Government as Institutional Entrepreneur: Extending Working Life in the UK and Japan

2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 535-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
MATTHEW FLYNN ◽  
HEIKE SCHRÖDER ◽  
MASA HIGO ◽  
ATSUHIRO YAMADA
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Light Touch ◽  
Institutional Entrepreneurship ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Welfare Systems ◽  
Institutional Entrepreneur ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Uk

AbstractThrough the lens of Institutional Entrepreneurship, this paper discusses how governments use the levers of power afforded through business and welfare systems to affect change in the organisational management of older workers. It does so using national stakeholder interviews in two contrasting economies: the United Kingdom and Japan. Both governments have taken a ‘light-touch’ approach to work and retirement. However, the highly institutionalised Japanese system affords the government greater leverage than that of the liberal UK system in changing employer practices at the workplace level.

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