Supervisors' Attitudes About the Early Retirement of Subordinates¹

Abstract

This article presents the results of a study among 273 supervisors regarding the early retirement of older subordinates. The assumption is that attitudes of supervisors will stimulate early retirement in downsizing organizations and organizations where the employees are exposed to physical pressures. Next, the performance of older employees and supervisors' expectations regarding future performance are deemed important. The results show that supervisors are not in favor of encouraging large numbers of older employees to continue working until official retirement age (65 years). The results suggest that supervisors' attitudes are only weakly influenced by overall corporate goals, such as achieving a younger work force and decreasing employment, and that expectations regarding the loss of human capital and health and sickness absenteeism are important in retirement/retention recommendations.

Moving European research on work and ageing forward: Overview and agenda

“…The organizational context (stressful events such as reorganization and lack of challenge at work) was also found to be related to retirement decisions (Henkens & Tazelaar, 1997;Mein et al, 2000). Group cohesion and supervisory attitudes towards early retirement of the subordinates (Henkens, 2000), co-workers' group norms towards retirement (Poto cnik, Tordera, & Peiro´, in press), as well as factors in personal life, such as the family situation or the influence of the social network (partner, peer group: see Hansson, Dekoekkoek, Neece, & Patterson, 1997;Henkens, 1999;Henkens & Tazelaar, 1997;Henkens & van Solinge, 2002;Hwalek, Firestone, & Hoffmann, 1982) had an effect on retirement decisions. In short, decisions concerning withdrawal are usually complex, and workers take multiple reasons into consideration, push as well as pull factors (Schultz et al, 1998).…”

The Employer’s Perspective on Retirement

“…In the next section we will discuss empirical findings from the literature. Much of what we know about employers and retirement comes from studies designed from the supervisor's (Henkens 2000;Henkens, Van Solinge, and Cozijnsen 2009;Rosen and Jerdee 1982) or employer's (Taylor and Walker 1998; Hendrikse, and Schippers 2010) point of view. These studies, using samples of employers or supervisors, reveal a huge variety in organization's age management policies, which is reflected in considerable differences in the extent to which organizations support delaying labor force exit of their older workers, are willing to hire older workers, as well as in the policies employed to maintain and enhance the productivity of their workers.…”

Unraveling the Age-Productivity Nexus: Confronting Perceptions of Employers and Employees

“…Kirchner and Durnette (1954) and Bird and Fishers' (1986) replication of this study led to the conclusion that supervisors had less positive attitudes towards older workers than did production workers. Several other studies have shown that biases against older workers are quite pervasive (Blocklyn, 1987;Chui et al, 2001;Finkelstein et al, 1995;Finkelstein & Burke, 1998;Hassel & Perrewe, 1995;Henkens, 2000;Lee & Clemons, 1985;Loretto et al, 2000;McGregor & Gray, 2002;Remery, et al, 2003;Rosen & Jerdee, 1976 a, b;Taylor & Walker, 1994, 1998Wagner, 1998;Warr & Pennington, 1993). This body of research has shown that attitudes and stereotypes about older workers are mixed, that is, older personnel is viewed as having both positive and negative attributes.…”