Antecedents of older workers' motives for continuing to work

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to identify demographic and work-related antecedents of the motives that influence the decision of older workers to remain in the workforce. Design/methodology/approach -A cross-sectional study was conducted with three groups of respondents aged 50-70 years: those in their career job (n ¼ 395); those employed in a bridge job (n ¼ 195); and those who were self-employed (n ¼ 174). Findings -In general, the demographic variables (age, gender, marital status) predicted the financial motive for continuing to work whereas the work-related variables (work centrality, career satisfaction, and perceived contribution/perceived reward of owning one's own business) predicted the work fulfillment and generativity motives. However, the pattern of relationships differed across the three groups of older workers.Research limitations/implications -The three groups could not be directly compared because of differences in some of the measures. Only one variable, work centrality, was a significant predictor across all three groups, suggesting that instead of seeking to identify universal antecedents, the focus of future research should be on identifying antecedents specific to different groups of older workers. Practical implications -To promote the retention of older workers, policies, practices and programs should be customized to the different needs of career, bridge and self-employed individuals. Originality/value -Little research exists on the antecedents of older workers' motives for continuing to work. Prior research has either not differentiated among older workers or focused solely on one specific group of older workers.

Aging Workers and the Employee-Employer Relationship

“…Operationalizations in recent studies (e.g., Armstrong-Strassen, 2008;Kooij, 2010) include items such as: "If I were completely free to choose, I would prefer to continue working", "I want to keep working as long as I can", "I expect to keep on working as long as possible". Because the goals underlying ICW remain relevant regardless of retirement status (Kanfer et al), people who are retirees or who are in a transition phase to retirement or in bridge employment can also be included in studies on intentions to continue working (e.g., Templer et al, 2010).…”

“…In other words, we consider any form of paid work, in an organizational setting as well as self-employment. Most studies focus on the intention to retire and very few examine the factors contributing to the ICW (Shacklock, 2009;Templer et al, 2010). We summarize the results below.…”

“…However, the role of the economic aspects is suggested to be of lower importance than the realization of later-life employment preferences . In particular, older workers who are more satisfied with their careers are less likely to be motivated to continue working for financial reasons than their counterparts who express lower career satisfaction (Templer et al, 2010). Investigating older workers' motives and how the organization can contribute to their fulfillment therefore seems of prime importance.…”

Gender Differences in How Retirees Perceive Factors Influencing Unretirement

“…Dendinger et al recommended that future studies should investigate the difference in gender among the reasons for working in retirement. Templer, Armstrong-Stassen, and Cattaneo (2010) investigated the predictors of three of the four reasons in the context of continuing to work among older adults employed in bridge jobs. Templer et al (2010) found gender was a significant predictor of the financial reason for continuing to work.…”

“…Third, the respondents were asked how important they thought each reason was for why retired people in general may decide to return to the workforce instead of how important each reason was for why they personally decided to return to the workforce. This approach allowed insight into how retired women and men who currently may not be contemplating unretirement perceive the factors that foster as well as inhibit returning to the labor force, not just those unemployed older adults who are actively seeking to return to paid employment (Mor- Barak, 1995) or those retirees who are currently employed (Dendinger et al, 2005;Templer et al, 2010). Griffin and Hesketh (2008) argued that work-related variables that act to delay retirement will also influence whether or not a person engages in work activity in retirement.…”