scholarly journals Older workers’ evaluations of the political goal to extend working life: Discursive approach to the “attitude problem”

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 236-254
Author(s):  
Miira Niska ◽  
Pirjo Nikander
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Population Ageing ◽  
The Political ◽  
Retirement Age ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Individual Preferences ◽  
Working Lives

Population ageing presents major challenges to the welfare system across the European Union. Consequently, emphasizing delayed retirement age and extended working lives abound in political discussions. Researchers have recognized numerous problems, which make the extended working life a challenging political task. One of these problems are citizens’ negative attitudes toward delayed retirement and extended working life. In this paper, we approach this “attitude problem” from the perspective of discursive social psychology and analyze the variation in the way aspirations to extend working lives are evaluated by older workers. The data analyzed in the study consists of interviews where participants between 50 and 65 years of age comment on the political goal to extend working lives. The article sheds light on the “attitude problem” by turning the attention from underlying individual preferences to discursive resources used to undermine the political goal and the situational functions these evaluative practices have.

Some Useful Sources

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 691-694
Author(s):  
Michael McGann ◽  
Dina Bowman ◽  
Simon Biggs ◽  
Helen Kimberley
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Human Resource ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Population Ageing ◽  
Age Discrimination ◽  
Retirement Age ◽  
Early Exit ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
Working Lives

Issues related to population ageing and longer working lives span diverse research areas and are linked to a number of conceptual and policy debates. Here we provide details of texts which allow quick access to key debates in the different domains covered by the contributions. We focus first on social policy, retirement and pensions. We then provide key sources on the changing experiences and perceptions of retirement; age-discrimination, human resource management and older workers; and early exit, mature-age unemployment and activating 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.

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 WORKING LONGER FOR ACADEMICS IN THE U.S. AND IRELAND: A GENDERED LIFECOURSE ANALYSIS

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S129-S129
Author(s):  
Aine Ni Leime
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Retirement Age ◽  
Policy Changes ◽  
Life Trajectories ◽  
Care Giving ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
The Us

Abstract Many governments including the US and Ireland have been advocating longer working lives for all workers to ensure pension sustainability in the light of population ageing. Policy changes encouraging increased social security/state pensions age reflect this. However, there has been limited investigation of how the gender implications of these policy changes. While longer working lives may be attractive for some workers, there is evidence that women and men have profoundly different work-life trajectories and women may be more financially disadvantaged approaching retirement age. There is a need to explore how this affects their ability and/or desire to continue working past traditional retirement age and their financial security. This presentation is based on analysis of evidence from an EU-funded cross-national research project involving work-life history interviews conducted with forty older workers in academia in the US and Ireland in 2016 and 2017. A lifecourse approach is used to analyse interview data from ten male and ten female academics in Ireland and ten male and ten female academics in the US, aged 50 or over. Participants discussed early influences, work-life history and health concerns. The paper uses a cumulative disadvantage perspective to analyse how gender, family and health trajectories across the life course affect and can limit options around late work and retirement. It concludes that gender differences regarding norms of care-giving are important and that extending working life is more likely to be caused by financial necessity for women. The implications for future research and policy are discussed.

scholarly journals Planned Retirement Timing in Europe: Are Europeans Adapting to the Policy of Extending Working Lives

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moritz Hess ◽  
Laura Naegele ◽  
Lena Becker ◽  
Jana Mäcken ◽  
Wouter De Tavernier
Keyword(s):  
Older Workers ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Retirement Age ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Gender Education ◽  
Self Reported Health Status ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Country Specific

As populations are ageing concerns regarding the sustainability of European welfare states have come to the forefront. In reaction, policy makers have implemented measurements aimed at the prolongation of working lives. This study investigates weather older workers have adapted their planned retirement age, as a result of this new policy credo. Based on data from Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) the analysis shows an increase of the planned retirement age (1.36 years) across all ten European countries investigated, albeit with country-specific variations. Variations on the individual level can be detected in regard to gender, education and self-reported health status.

scholarly journals Active ageing policy in challenging production environments: a case study involving social partners in Spain

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariano Sánchez ◽  
Pilar Díaz
Keyword(s):  
Older Workers ◽  
Active Ageing ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Case Study Methodology ◽  
Awareness Campaigns ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Production Environments ◽  
Social Partners ◽  
Study Methodology

AbstractIn recent years, due to population ageing, the European Union has promoted active ageing policies as a means to encourage workers to delay labour market exit. Our paper explores what active ageing means to social partners (employers, managers and workers) in Spain and also the viability of implementing an active ageing culture in organizations. We used a qualitative case study methodology to identify perceptions regarding obstacles and facilitators in the adoption of an active ageing culture in different production sectors, as well as responses to active ageing policies. Data-generating workshops were held with employees and managers of four types of companies located in the south of the country. Perceived obstacles to active ageing were more organizational than individual in nature. Some of these obstacles gave rise to a kind of forced active ageing in a context in which the previous predominant message had been to retire as early as possible. Job adaptation was perceived as both an obstacle and a facilitator. Increasing recognition of older workers and raising their motivation to extend their working lives were found to be important pending tasks. In contexts of high unemployment, active ageing often remains largely unknown within productive organizations, and the idea of retiring as soon as possible continues to guide many workers. In these circumstances, the implementation of top-down, uniform active ageing policies has proven to be of limited efficacy. Awareness campaigns and initiatives aimed at improving older workers’ health and abilities should be launched as complementary active ageing strategies.

Preferences for the Scope of Protests

2020 ◽  
pp. 106591292090500
Author(s):  
Miquel Pellicer ◽  
Eva Wegner ◽  
Alexander De Juan
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
South African ◽  
Small Groups ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
The Political ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Large Share ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Individual Preferences

This paper studies a dimension of protest largely overlooked in the literature: protest scope, that is, whether protests seek large, structural, changes for a large share of the population or focus on small-scale improvements for small groups. We argue that this protest dimension is relevant for understanding the political consequences of protests. We show empirically that protests vary substantially in scope and that scope is not collinear with other protest dimensions, such as size, motive, or tactics. We explore drivers of individual preferences for protest scope with a survey experiment in two South African townships. We find that respondents made to feel more efficacious tend to support protests of broader scope. This effect operates via a social psychology channel whereby efficacy leads people to assign blame for their problems to more systemic causes.

scholarly journals GENDER, HEALTH, AND EXTENDED WORKING LIFE IN IRELAND

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S820-S820
Author(s):  
Aine Ni Leime
Keyword(s):  
Health Care Workers ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Forthcoming Book ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Gender And Health ◽  
Life Work

Abstract This presentation is based on a forthcoming book chapter which analyses policies, statistical evidence and qualitative data to investigate the gender and health implications of Extended Working Life policy in Ireland. The qualitative data is from a study conducted in 2018 that investigated attitudes to extended working life and experiences of late life work among sixty older workers, 30 men and 30 women in three different occupations, health care workers/cleaners, teachers and academic faculty.The data were analysed using a lifecourse approach. Workers in physically-demanding occupations, those in precarious employment and women were found to be more likely to be disadvantaged in relation to options for extending their working lives. It is recommended that policies be modified to address the disadvantages faced by these groups of workers.

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