Job satisfaction and retirement age intentions in Finland

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect of job satisfaction on the intended retirement age of self-employed and organisationally-employed white-collar professionals. The analysis also examines potential boundary conditions imposed by other domains of life for the applicability of this relationship. Design/methodology/approach -The study employs ordered probit regressions to analyse primary survey data comprising 1,262 Finnish white-collar professionals. Findings -The econometric results suggest that job satisfaction is a significant determinant of the intention to retire later and thus prolong a career. The analysis does not find a difference in the effect of job satisfaction between salary earners and self-employed individuals. However, the analysis finds that other domains of life influence how job satisfaction affects retirement-age intentions, and that these influences differ between self-employed and salaried respondents. Practical implications -The findings imply that developing measures to improve the job satisfaction of (highly educated) older workers is an alternative to the widely debated regulatory approach of prolonging working careers by increasing the statutory retirement age. The principal limitation is the focus on white-collar professionals in a single country. Originality/value -This is the first empirical comparison of the effect of job satisfaction on the intended retirement age between salary earners and self-employed individuals. It is also the first examination of the effect of job satisfaction on retirement intentions or behaviour that accounts for the effects of other domains of life satisfaction.

Attitudes Among Male and Female University Professors, and other Categories of University Employees, to Working up to and Beyond Normal retirement age

“…This is in agreement with results from earlier research covering a wide spectrum of occupations (e.g., Buyens et al 2009;Kautonen et al 2012;Sibbald et al 2003). For instance, in a study of retirement intentions among employees of a large public employer, Oakman and Wells (2013) found that of work factors that were analyzed, low job satisfaction indicated an increased likelihood of retiring soon.…”

Trabalho, Aposentadoria e Satisfação de Vida em Aposentados de uma Multinacional

“…Apesar de parte da amostra ter assinalado que a aposentadoria foi voluntária, 64% afirmaram que, se pudessem, voltariam a trabalhar. Os participantes que descreveram a satisfação no trabalho como ótima, com maior frequência do que os demais, disseram terem aposentado de forma involuntária, por motivos externos, indicando que quanto maior a satisfação com a carreira, menor a voluntariedade para se aposentar, o que vem ao encontro de estudos anteriores que apontam a satisfação no trabalho como um importante determinante da intenção de prolongar a carreira (Kautonen et al, 2012). Para Fontoura et al (2015), as pessoas que tendem a adotar uma postura de realizar muitas atividades de busca de valor instrumental para o período pós-aposentadoria são geralmente as que, em seu percurso laboral, conferiam centralidade ao trabalho.…”

“…Estudos sobre os antecedentes da decisão para o bridge employment têm demonstrado que, além da saúde e dos atributos financeiros (Bonsang & Klein, 2012), variáveis psicológicas relacionadas com o trabalho, como as atitudes de emprego, estressores da função de trabalho (Pengcharoen & Shultz, 2010;Wang et. al., 2008) e satisfação com o trabalho (Kautonen, Hytti, Bögenhold, & Heinonen, 2012) são fortes preditores da decisão de aposentadoria. Outras pesquisas revelam que participar de bridge employment pode ser benéfico para a saúde física e mental e para a satisfação de vida (Dingemans & Henkens, 2014) dos aposentados.…”

Healthcare Professionals’ Retirement Intentions: The Roles of Financial and Work Factors

“…In addition to financial influences, work related factors are also important determinants of retirement intentions (Fisher, Chaffee, & Sonnega, 2016;Heponiemi et al, 2008;Schmidt & Lee, 2008. Job satisfaction, "a positive (or negative) evaluative judgement one makes about one's job situation" (Weiss, 2002, p. 175) has emerged as a key determinant of retirement intentions and retirement (Bidewell, Griffin, & Hesketh, 2006;Kautonen, Hytti, Bögenhold, & Heinonen, 2012). Past studies have shown low job satisfaction pushed workers towards early retirement (Fisher et al, 2016;Shultz et al, 1998; whereas, workers with high job satisfaction were pulled towards work and retired later (Fisher et al, 2016;Steger & Dik, 2009).…”