Age Management Practices Research Articles

Age Management Practices and Benefits in Organisation: An Evaluation of the Effect of Economic Sector, Organisation Size, and Family Business Status

Abstract Background The ageing of the population impacts all areas and is also a challenge for human resources management. To solve this issue, age management practices are used in organisations. To get the best potential out of everyone, this concept should not only involve older employees but should be focused on all of them. Choosing the right practice to get the desired results is a task for managers. Objectives The paper aims to determine whether the sector of the economy, the size of the organisation, or the family business status plays a role in determining age management practices and observed benefits. Methods/Approach Using a questionnaire survey, the most commonly used practices and the observed benefits were identified. Using the chi-square test, differences in chosen categories were confirmed. Results It can be stated that choosing age management practices is influenced by the economic sector, and the size of the organisation influences observed benefits. Conclusions The results can guide organisations on which practices to choose and what benefits to expect from implementing age management practices.

What Do We Know about Age Management Practices in Public and Private Institutions in Scandinavia?—A Public Health Perspective

In view of global population ageing and of policies that support longer working lives, especially in developed countries, it is important to achieve diversity in organisations through age management. Age management is the “management of human resources, [often] with an explicit focus on the requirements of an ageing workforce.” Through age management practices, organisations will be better able to change their human resource management policies and practices towards accommodating their ageing workforce. Little is known about age management practices in Scandinavian organisations, considering the region’s high prevalence of workers beyond the age of 50 across both private and public organisations. There are indications that Scandinavian business organisations are already practicing age management for all ages, including older workers. Their age management practices include the dimensions of job recruitment, training, lifelong learning, development, and promotion. However, there is a dearth of knowledge on how the health and well-being of workers is ensured in the context of age management practices in these organisations. Given the current and future importance of age management for all organisations globally, public health and other health science professionals need to collaborate with other disciplines, such as management and sustainability science, to better understand how they can contribute to an aged and healthier workforce as well as workplace health promotion. This paper aims to contribute to the discussion concerning age management in public and private institutions in Scandinavia through the public health lens.

Text mining of veterinary forums for epidemiological surveillance supplementation

Web scraping and text mining are popular computer science methods deployed by public health researchers to augment traditional epidemiological surveillance. However, within veterinary disease surveillance, such techniques are still in the early stages of development and have not yet been fully utilised. This study presents an exploration into the utility of incorporating internet-based data to better understand smallholder farming communities within the UK, by using online text extraction and the subsequent mining of this data. Web scraping of the livestock fora was conducted, with text mining and topic modelling of data in search of common themes, words, and topics found within the text, in addition to temporal analysis through anomaly detection. Results revealed that some of the key areas in pig forum discussions included identification, age management, containment, and breeding and weaning practices. In discussions about poultry farming, a preference for free-range practices was expressed, along with a focus on feeding practices and addressing red mite infestations. Temporal topic modelling revealed an increase in conversations around pig containment and care, as well as poultry equipment maintenance. Moreover, anomaly detection was discovered to be particularly effective for tracking unusual spikes in forum activity, which may suggest new concerns or trends. Internet data can be a very effective tool in aiding traditional veterinary surveillance methods, but the requirement for human validation of said data is crucial. This opens avenues of research via the incorporation of other dynamic social media data, namely Twitter, in addition to location analysis to highlight spatial patterns.

Diagnóstico do Ageism no serviço público brasileiro: a necessidade de combater o preconceito projetado para o futuro do servidor

The Brazilian demographic context points to an effective workforce aged in the short term. The motivation for conducting this study is to reflect and analyze the scenario of the elderly as members of the workforce in the Brazilian public service. This paper aims to identify the perceptions among federal public servants in office in the Federal Executive Branch who are over 60 years old and the implications for the socioeconomic differences that exist in this class. For this, we proceeded with a field research carried out through interviews with federal civil servants in this age group, in addition to the purification of the database of the Integrated Personnel Administration System - Siape - through data mining techniques. Naturally, the socioeconomic aspects will serve as a basis for the implementation of a human resources management policy aimed at older people and combating ageism. Furthermore, the analysis of the Siape data indicated that gender, education, the region of the country, position and remuneration are conditions for the implementation of age management practices and, therefore, the professionalization of the elderly workforce in the federal public service.

Matching the Pieces: The Presence of Idiosyncratic Deals and Their Impact on Retirement Preferences Among Older Workers

AbstractDespite working life prolongation having been at the center of the policy agenda in Europe for the last two decades, organizations’ engagement in formal age-management activities intended to strengthen older workers’ motivation and work ability appears limited. Given policies to extend working lives, negotiated individualized work arrangements—often called idiosyncratic deals (I-deals)—can be an informal and complementary approach to formalized age-management practices, improving the person–job fit and helping older workers extend their working lives. Nevertheless, research on I-deals and retirement preferences remains scarce in the Nordic context, where collective agreements regulate conditions of employment and the employer–employee relationship. Using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling, this study examines five areas of I-deals (i.e., Task and Work Responsibilities, Workload Reduction, Schedule Flexibility, Location Flexibility, and Financial Incentives) and their relationships with retirement preferences among Swedish public-sector employees aged 55 years or older (n = 4,499). Findings show that I-deals are generally less prevalent among women and older employees, as well as among those with poor health, in lower socioeconomic positions, and with shorter organizational tenure. Regarding retirement preferences, we found Task and Work Responsibilities to be related to later preferred retirement age, while, surprisingly, the opposite was observed for Workload Reduction, probably because individuals who received workload reductions also reported poorer health. Comparatively, factors such as matching employees’ competence, experience, and growth opportunities seem to be the most important for public-sector employees’ retirement preferences.

Action Research in Age Management: The Quality of Ageing at Work Model

Abstract This article discusses the introduction of age management practices within organizations and the possible resistance to their implementation, linked to the persistence of stereotypes and barriers associated with employee age and the presence of hostile organizational cultures. The article proposes to adopt an action research approach to facilitate the implementation of these practices, presenting for this purpose an action research model, the Quality of Ageing at Work, tested in 31 organizations in Italy and Spain. In light of a review of the literature on age management and action research, it describes the methodology of the Quality of Ageing at Work model and discusses it through the presentation of an organizational case. The Quality of Ageing at Work model consists of alternate phases of action and reflection through which researchers, in constant dialogue with field actors (in this case, managers, work councils, and workers), analyze organizational needs, by applying qualitative and quantitative tools, discuss them, and propose solutions. The main result of the intervention can be considered the increased awareness and autonomy of the organization in implementing an age management plan. This result confirms the effectiveness of interventions built on the dialogical and iterative principles of action research, generating, in a democratic way, new awareness and knowledge and producing organizational change.

Impact of Age Management on Sustainability in Czech Organisations

Age management is becoming an increasingly important part of strategic human resources management practices and can ultimately lead to a competitive advantage. Research results confirmed that a strategic focus on the efficient use of all age categories of employees yields retention, the successful achievement of organisation goals, development, and, ultimately, a competitive advantage. The aim of this article is to identify and evaluate approaches to age management practices in organisations in 1271 organisations in the Czech Republic. Quantitative research was carried out in selected organisations operating over a three-year period. Data was gathered from these organisations and evaluated using descriptive and multidimensional statistics. The results show that those organisations focusing on the application of age management practices achieved a competitive advantage regardless of size or sector of the organisation. Statistical analysis (χ2 test, Cramer’s V, factor analysis) on survey data shows that many of these organisations achieved significant perceived benefits from the application of age management. The approach to age management application varies in organisations depending on whether it is an internal branding of an employer or response to a crisis. Organisations either use of best practices to implement age management or it is a carefully planned process in advance. Follow-up research can focus on the use of age management in crisis management or employer branding. This study is a non-experimental quantitative correlation analysis utilising longitudinal empirical data.

Age management practices toward workers aged 45 years or older: an integrative literature review.

Age management practices refer to the development and implementation of workplace strategies to support and improve the health and productivity of workers aged 45 years or older. The objective of this study was to analyze the scientific evidence available to support age management practices toward older workers. An integrative review was conducted, with the following databases searched in February 2019: LILACS, MEDLINE, Web of Science, and SCOPUS. Inclusion criteria consisted of original primary studies with full-text availability, published in Portuguese, English or Spanish. Secondary studies were excluded. No restrictions were imposed on publication dates given the paucity of literature on this topic. The final sample consisted of 11 primary studies published between 2006 and 2017, which addressed the following age management practices: workplace health promotion; employment exit and transition to retirement; knowledge transfer, training and lifelong learning; career development; flexible working time practices; and occupational safety and health management. Age management practices are promising tools to promote a work environment that is adequate to the needs of older workers.

Analysis of The Effect of Employee Age, Human Resource Management Practices and Employee Competence on Employee Performance in Kenyan State Corporations

Age plays an important role in a wide range of employee behaviors that determine their performance. Measurement of employee performance indicates organization performance. This study was anchored on the premise that, age alone is not sufficient to determine employee performance, other factors come in as moderators. The study objective was to investigate the joint effect of employee age, human resource management practices and employee competence on employee performance as compared to the effect of the individual predictor variables on employee performance in Kenyan state corporations. A descriptive cross sectional survey research design was used to find out the relationship between the study variables. A population sample of 384 employees was drawn using Webster (1995) formula. A stratified and simple random sampling technique was used to pick the number and type of respondents. The study relied on primary data collected on employee age, HRM practices, employee competence and employee performance using a structured questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Pearson product moment correlation (r) assessed the relationship between the study variables and stepwise regression analysis technique was used to test the study hypotheses. Results indicated a statistically non significant relationship between employee age and employee performance. The study confirmed that HRM practices and employee competence significantly influenced the relationship between employee age and employee performance. It was also confirmed that the joint effect of the study variables was greater than the effect of the average individual predictor variables on employee performance. The study concludes that age alone is not enough to make decisions on issues pertaining human resource management such as recruitment, placement and retirement. It is recommended that State Corporations should formulate human resource policies and practices that will help reap maximum benefits from their employees. The study extends the body of knowledge in age management practices. Policy makers in state corporations should consider applying these study variables jointly rather than individually to effectively improve employee performance. Key words: State corporations, employee age, employee performance, moderators, competence, HRM practices, variables, correlation, regression, significance, theory, effect, analysis and measurement. DOI : 10.7176/EJBM/11-30-14 Publication date :October 31 st 2019

Ageing in organizations

PurposeThis paper aims to show which factors influence the perception of human resources professionals about managers over 50 years old and which factors guide the age management practices adopted in the surveyed companies.Design/methodology/approachTo this end, a survey was conducted with 140 companies accessed from a database of a human resources association. Through the answers obtained through the online questionnaire, an exploratory factor analysis was made with the aid of Software R.FindingsThus, it was possible to identify four factors that explain the work posture of professionals 50 years of age and older (company expectations, performance, morality and knowledge and professionalism) and three factors that guide the adoption of age management practices in organizations (recruitment & selection and integration, retention and continuity in the company, adaptation to the needs).Originality/valueThe results suggest that, even considering the high performance of older managers, perceived by HR professionals, the adoption of age management practices is still insufficient, making it difficult for these professionals to enter and remain in organizations. Moreover, it can be inferred that such posture indicates biases of discrimination and age stereotypes.

Age Management of Industrial Workers Based on the Multiple Decrement Modelling

Ageing of the workforce and early retirement of industrial workers is influencing a shortage of skilled workers in European industrial systems. Automatic adjustment mechanisms recently introduced in some of the EU member states will increase the retirement age of workers to 71 years until 2060. However, many industrial workers will not be fully productive to the extent of the increased retirement age. Therefore age-productivity profiles, which is an under-researched area, will be of crucial importance for organizations and national policy makers. In this paper, we present a multiple decrement model of workforce transitions and exits, related to age-productivity profiles of industrial workers. Based on this model, we present the calculation of the expected duration of working life and study the drivers that influence transitions among different states of productivity and exits from the workforce, which have not been developed yet. The workforce availability in ageing economies can be influenced by implementing appropriate age management practices, where workplace ergonomics and smart production cells are playing an increasingly important role. This paper introduces the expected duration of work-life based on an actuarial multi-state transition model as a measure of the quality of the organizational age management systems and serves as a policy tool for taking corrective actions at the organizational and national level. The numerical example is based on data from the Statistical office of the Republic of Slovenia.

Integrative leadership for technology innovation

Leading teams to bring about new technologies successfully during fast-changing times can be challenging. In the current era, people are more connected than before and able to access knowledge, networks, equipment and services themselves without corporate structures and management permission. Industrial age management practices appear inadequate for technology innovation in the innovation economy, while the literature reveals surprisingly little evidence of research into leader competencies across the technology innovation process. This paper reports the results of an exploratory mixed-methods study involving successful technology innovation leaders who were identified through peer-referenced snowball sampling. Qualitative research triangulated expert opinions, case materials, workshops results and the literature to identify leadership competencies. A measurement instrument was developed for the quantitative research, which involved eligible respondents rating the significance of identified leader behaviours. Statistically significant relationships were found in a hypothetical competency model through exploratory PLS-SEM analysis. The results reinforced some previously identified competencies, and contributed to understanding and identifying additional innovation leader competencies, including integrative leader competencies, to lead technology innovation into the future.

Attitudes toward elderly workers and perceptions of integrated age management practices

This qualitative study investigates attitudes toward elderly workers and their work situation in different sectors, and explores perceptions and organizational measures that can enable an extended working life. Previous age management studies indicate that there are several interconnected measures and key areas of importance, and that there is a general need for strategies to strengthen sustainable age management at the organizational level. A structured content analysis was used to analyze data from focus group interviews with informants from a variety of organizations. The study identified three themes that highlight attitudes and perceptions of integrated age management practices: (a) contemporary policies and practices in the work environment; (b) social participation and attitudes; (c) experience and mentorship. These themes can form the basis of a good approach to an integrated age management strategy. Such a strategy can be achieved through intervention studies where research on sustainable working life meets the real problems faced by employees and managers.

Value of Age Diversity – Declarations and Practice in Polish Organizations

The present article relates to management of age diverse teams in organisations and enterprises located in Poland. Managing diversity is an active and conscious process leading not only to a lack of discriminatory conduct but above all to making full use of the potential of the team. The potential resulting from the diversity of knowledge, skills and experience. The diversity of the age of the team members is in fact a differentiation of this exact type, which in addition allows for not only using but also transferring unique competences and rich experience. Past studies promoting age diversity management often emphasized the need to implement such solutions due to ‘demographic coercion’. Without denying the consequences of demographic changes, the present study focuses not on necessity (weak age management practices) but on the possibility to use the diversity of the team to achieve the goals of the organization (strong age management practices). The need for such research is often emphasized in the literature (Kunze, Boehm and Bruch, 2011, 2013; Bieling, Stock and Dorozalla, 2015) The main aim of the study presented in this article was to examine the awareness of the value of age diversity among the human resources management professionals employed by enterprises and organizations located in Poland, as well as to confront it with the actual activities related to management of age diverse teams in these organizations. The test results indicate that, while most respondents declare their awareness of the value of age diverse teams, they are definitely less likely to implement actual activities related to the management of such teams. It can therefore be concluded that the most common form of management in this area is weak age diversity management practice characterized by only fulfilling legal requirements related to non-discrimination. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ss.89.3.13670

Challenges of managing an ageing workforce

The growing number of elderly people in Europe and other countries promotes to think about age management aspects and practices. Changing demographics and increasing average age of employees highlights such organizational threats as unique knowledge loss, lack of qualified personnel, and so on. So t he purpose of this study is to examine age management practices and challenges at the organization level. This article presents empirical study which was implemented at the institution of high education in Lithuania and was based on theoretical analysis of managing the ageing workforce. Authors used scientific literature analysis, questionnaire survey and data structuring, evaluation methods. Accomplished theoretical r esearch highlights that key age management areas are: job recruitment and exit, learning and knowledge management, changing attitudes, flexible working practices, health management, workplace environment and ergonomics. So the empirical research has focused namely on these areas. Results of the empirical research shows, that organization values older workers, their knowledge’s and competencies. Department of university encourages employee diversity; however health management and flexible working practices is one of the weakest places in the particular organization. In the contexts of workforce ageing organization should pay more attention to problematic areas and age management practices.

Employee Development in Small and Medium Enterprises in the Light of Demographic Evolution

Trends in the job market taking worker knowledge, abilities and skills into account show that the demand for qualified, experienced workers has been rising and that the trend will continue into the future. Accordingly, companies must put a life-long learning and development strategy in place so that even older employees (55+), the proportion of whom has been rising in organizations and in the marketplace, may maintain their positions in the job market for as long as possible. This paper aims to assess how small and medium enterprises in the Czech Republic reflect current demographic developments in terms of age management support and employee development. The data was obtained from small and medium enterprises in the Czech Republic (n = 432). The results show that age management is not an official primary focus of small and medium enterprises; but they naturally act in line with age management practices nevertheless. Any efficient solution to demographic development in the enterprises studied here, however, must be based upon an overall change of attitude coming from both entrepreneurs and company leadership focusing on young employees, as well as older employees themselves, where their ability to pass on their experience to younger coworkers is stressed. To maintain economic prosperity, continuous development is important for both categories.

Evaluation of the sensitivity of faecal sampling for detection of monophasic Salmonella Typhimurium and other Salmonella in cattle and pigs.

There has been a rapid rise in the prevalence of cases of monophasic Salmonella Typhimurium (mST) in both humans and farm animals, and it has been found in pigs, cattle and poultry. It is therefore vital to have a good understanding of how to efficiently detect infected farms. The objective of this project was to determine sample type sensitivity in the detection of Salmonella to detect infected groups of animals on both pig (breeder, grower and finisher sites) and cattle (beef and dairy) farms, using data collected from a study investigating farms that were positive for mST, and to explore any variation between different age groups and management practices. A Bayesian approach in the absence of a gold standard was adopted to analyse the individual and pooled faecal sample data collected from each epidemiological group on each of the farms. The sensitivity of pooled sampling depended on the prevalence of infection in the group being sampled, with a higher prevalence leading to higher sensitivity. Pooled sampling was found to be more efficient at detecting positive groups of animals than individual sampling, with the probability of a random sample from a group of animals with 5% prevalence testing positive being equal to 15·5% for immature pigs (3·6% for an individual faecal sample, taking into account the sensitivity and infection prevalence), 7·1% for adult pigs (1·2% for individual sampling), 30% for outdoor cattle (2% for individual sampling) and 34% for indoor cattle (1% for individual sampling). The mean prevalence of each epidemiological group was higher in outdoor farms than indoor for both pigs and cattle (mean within-farm prevalence of 29·4% and 38·7% for outdoor pigs and cattle, respectively, compared to 19·8% and 22·1% for indoor pigs and cattle).

Knowledge creation, transfer and retention: the case of intergenerational cooperation

Intergenerational cooperation is an important source of individual learning, and a vehicle for creation, transfer and retention of organisational knowledge. This paper presents and describes a theoretical model of intergenerational cooperation in organisations that emphasises the cultural and institutional determinants of such age management practices. On the societal level it identifies four determinants: national legislation, prevalence of intergenerational cooperation programs in different areas of social life, higher educational system and institutions, and societal culture. All the aforementioned variables have an interrelated impact on organisational leadership and management, HRM systems and organisational culture that promote intergenerational activities.

Reactive and Proactive Age Management Strategies in Polish Companies – Research Results

Population aging is an objective process that will be unavoidable for the foreseeable future, because demographic changes cannot be quickly reversed. Populations are aging in Poland and other countries, particularly highly urbanised and industrialised ones. As a result, in addition to having to cope with the numerous challenges of globalisation, internationalisation, tertiarisation, informatisation, growth of competition and innovation, as well as changing consumption patterns and customs, organisations also face the effects of aging. Successive types of age management strategies and practices have arisen from how age management has been understood and handled, which shows that organisations develop linearly. Two early types are examples of reactive strategies that emerged in response to the requirements of the business environment. Other strategies, which I refer to in the paper as 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation strategies, are proactive. In this paper I classify age-management strategies adopted by Polish employers using an indicator that I designed. The study results demonstrate that while Polish employers differ in how they approach the problem of age and how they manage it in the instrumental and functional sphere, in the institutional sphere they are only somewhat advanced and differentiated. „Soft” age management is a necessary part of a company’s social model, and makes it possible for many stakeholders to benefit. The economic model, on the other hand, seems insufficient, particularly in the long term.

Extending working lives: age management in SMEs

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present a study of age management in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK.Design/methodology/approachQualitative data collection and exploratory research with six SMEs comprising of: initial interviews with representatives from the SMEs; action research activities designed to raise awareness of age management issues and age discrimination legislation; and follow‐up interviews to ascertain if awareness raising activities resulted in any changes, or planned changes, in policy, practice and attitudes towards older workers.FindingsGood practice in age management can be found in SMEs, but was not found to be part of a systematic strategy. Negative practices and attitudes towards older workers are observed, with positive and negative age stereotypes coexisting. Negative stereotypes displayed can undermine the perceived economic value of older workers. There may be a gap between policy and practice, but awareness raising campaigns that reach employers can influence existing ways of working by showing the benefits of an age diverse workforce and helping reduce prejudices against older workers.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample size is small and context specific. However, the study usefully illustrates different approaches to age management policies and practices in SMEs, and the potential benefits of age management awareness in influencing attitudes and practices towards older workers in SMEs.Originality/valueThe experience of age management in SMEs is under researched and examples of good practice in age management are often drawn from large organisations. The paper highlights that SMEs often lack the resources to seek advice regarding age management; therefore, those responsible for age management awareness raising activities may need to approach businesses directly.