Employment Exits Near Retirement Age: An Agency-analysis

Abstract

Population aging has prompted international governing bodies to recommend extending work careers and postponing retirement age. Retirement decisions cannot be fully reduced to either structural influences or individual agency. Older workers may face several limiting factors when continuing their careers beyond the official retirement age, including internalized attitudes towards aging at work. Our aim is to develop agency analysis that involves both structural and individual components to fully illustrate the heterogeneity of older workers and their retirement decisions. By studying qualitative interview data via thematic content analysis and a modality-based agency framework, we found that agency manifests in various different ways in older employees’ work exit accounts and that the relationship between individual agency and structures is complex. We conclude that agency analysis of aging employees offers insights into the complexity of the retirement process and may thus inform us about how to help extend work careers.

Individual agency and structure perceptions in intentions to withdrawal from work early/late in the mid-and late-career

“…Our results are consistent with previous evidence highlighting the central role played by agency and structure factors in this research domain (Damman and Henkens, 2017; Henkens, 2015; Higgs et al. , 2003; Kosonen et al. , 2020).…”

“…As a first study applying the agency/structure perspective to the Latin American context, our study complements others carried out in different countries and socio-economic contexts on constrained agency in later working lives (e.g. Heisig and Radl, 2017; Hyde and Dingemans, 2017; Kosonen et al. , 2020).…”

“…In general, the perception of involuntariness/structure at these career stages, whether concerning early retirement or prolonged working life, is associated with negative consequences, while the perception of voluntariness/individual agency is usually associated with positive outcomes (Alcover et al. , 2012; Dingemans and Henkens, 2014; Kosonen et al. , 2020; Topa et al.…”

“…organizational disturbances or changes in the labor market) factors. It should also focus on when and how agency factors may play a role beyond personal initiative, for example, when individuals adopt an active resistant role to organizational offers, as recently noted by Kosonen et al. (2020).…”

Existential Driving Forces to Work after Retirement: The Example of Physicians’ Mentoring

“…n Europe, politicians have emphasized that more people need to work at higher ages to ensure the general welfare level and supply of skills (Eurostat 2018). Whether a work career is extended has been shown to be a matter of health, financial incentives, the retirement decisions of spouses or friends, as well as social factors such as gender, class and institutionalized norms (Berglund et al 2017;Kadefors et al 2016Kadefors et al , 2018Kosonen et al 2021;Nilsson et al 2011;Solem et al 2016). Moreover, work-related factors as work demands, job autonomy, social support, learning and development opportunities, challenging work, organizational retirement culture, recognition and respect, and mentoring opportunities have been shown to influence older workers' continued workforce participation (Carr et al 2016;Chen & Gardiner 2019;Dal Bianco et al 2015;Thorsen et al 2012;Van Solinge & Henkens 2014).…”