Voluntary Exit Research Articles

Antecedents of and experiences with voluntary early exit from working life before the expected retirement age in Sweden.

In most Western countries, senior workers have increased their participation in the workforce. However, at the same time, early retirement also increases. The reasons behind this early exit from the workforce are still unclear. This qualitative study aims to explore the antecedents of and experiences with a voluntary exit from working life before the expected retirement age of 65 in Sweden. Data consist of semi-structured interviews with 18 participants who exited working life between the ages of 61-63. In Sweden, these ages are considered as an early exit from working life since, for many years, the expected retirement age has been 65. Qualitative content analysis with an abductive approach was utilized. The analysis revealed four sub-themes: 1) Health benefits with an early exit from working life (with the categories: own health status, the possibility for recovery time, and avoidance of strain); 2) Having economic conditions that enable an early exit from working life (with the categories: offers from the employer and financial compromises); 3) Social benefits with an early exit from working life (with the categories: enabling more time with my social network and avoidance of unsatisfying social work environment); 4) Self-fulfillment activities during the senior years (with the categories: enabling time for activities beyond work and avoidance of decreased job satisfaction. This variety of antecedents of and experiences with a voluntary early exit from working life before the expected retirement age highlights that the ongoing increased statutory retirement age also increases the risk for extended inequalities among the aging population.

Granting leaders priority exit options promotes and jeopardizes cooperation in social dilemmas

Cooperation in human interactions often involves voluntary participation rather than obligatory requirements. This paper investigates the impact of voluntary exit strategies on cooperation within scale-free networks, employing spatial prisoner’s dilemma games as the framework. We analyze three distinct exit strategies: leader priority exit, fringe priority exit, and random exit, across varying dilemma strengths. Our findings reveal that in scenarios of weak dilemma strength, leader priority exit significantly diminishes cooperation, particularly when only a small subset of players is granted exit rights. In contrast, under strong dilemma strength conditions, both leader priority and random exits serve to unexpectedly bolster cooperation. This enhancement is primarily facilitated by high-degree nodes opting out, thereby enabling low-degree nodes to establish stable cooperation. Furthermore, our study underscores the pivotal role of network structure. In assortative networks, random exit emerges as the most effective strategy in promoting cooperation. On the other hand, disassortative networks exhibit a substantial increase in cooperation levels when employing leader priority exit. These results highlight the intricate interplay between exit strategies, dilemma strength, and network topology, offering critical insights for promoting cooperation in varied social contexts.

PROBLEMS OF INFORMATION AND ANALYTICAL PROVISION OF BUSINESS ACTIVITIES UNSHADOWING IN UKRAINE

According to the results of the systematization and analysis of the problems of information and analytical support of the of business activity unshadowing in Ukraine, it was determined that these problems are interconnected, and ignoring them significantly complicates the unshadowing process. It was found out that the peculiarities of shadow activity require the state to create proper conditions for the voluntary exit of entrepreneurs from the shadow sector of the economy. At the same time, the legalization of activity should be beneficial for entrepreneurs. The article emphasizes that the change in the status of entrepreneurs should be properly recorded by state bodies, which will lead to the accumulation of primary information and allow determining the success criteria of unshadowing, the ratios for the calculation of which are given above. To simplify the analysis, the indicator of tax revenues per legalized business entity is presented in the form of a two-factor multiplicative model, which will allow provide factor analysis of unshadowing processes and improve the given model by adding factor indicators. The final result of the article is the formulation of the stages of information and analytical support for the unshadowing of entrepreneurial activity. Prospective areas of research into the problems of information and analytical support for the unshadowing of entrepreneurial activity include: substantiation of practical proposals for motivating entrepreneurs to exit the shadow sector of the economy through the use of tax discounts, debt restructuring, etc.; clarification of the list of indicators that can be considered criteria for the success of entrepreneurial activity unshadowing; application of mathematical methods to substantiate hypotheses regarding the size and changes of the shadow sector of the economy of Ukraine.

Human Resources Churning

The term churning is defined by a multifaceted approach and is quite a complex concept that has been gaining relevance in the field of human resources, due to the problematic loss of investment, originating from the voluntary exits of worker-associated costs. This phenomenon is a direct result of the rising competitive job market, causing employees to leave organizations and carry with them all the knowledge and experience acquired in the starting organization, an organization which invested in the development of its workers. Even though churning is aligned with human resource practices, it is considered a multifaceted concept because of the different contexts in which it interferes, such as economic context, per activity sector, clients, the type of organization, geographic location, etc. Although, despite its own complexity, churning is related to turnover; however, there are differences between these two concepts. While turnover is linked to the workers’ rotation within an organization, churning is mainly focused on the costs associated with voluntary exits from workers. It is simply linked to investment losses inside an organization, which has the main goal of creating mechanisms that allow the creation of awareness in organizations about the relevancy of action using strategic measurements of holding in order to minimize the churning rate, and in this way, reducing the unexpected costs, creating revenue, increasing proficiency, standing out in business activity, bettering nimbleness and expanding profits. This initial manuscript introduces the churning concept in human resources, the main causes of churning, as well as approaching how organizations take action in order to appease this event using literature, which lacks major advertising and given relevance to its pertinence in human resources. Through the analysis of the existing, this entry was guided with the objective of demystifying the subject of human resource churning.

Two-Sided Cultural Fit: The Differing Behavioral Consequences of Cultural Congruence Based on Values Versus Perceptions

How do people establish and maintain cultural fit with an organization? Prior research has offered two perspectives that have heretofore been conceptually disconnected. One focuses on personal values, whereas another emphasizes perceptions of the cultural code. We develop a theoretical account that integrates these approaches by linking them to distinct mechanisms and behavioral consequences of cultural fit. We propose that value congruence—the match between one’s values and those that prevail in an organization—relates to the mechanism of group attachment and shapes behavior when one periodically steps back from day-to-day interactions, assesses one’s identification with an organization, and determines whether to stay or voluntarily depart. In contrast, we argue that perceptual congruence—the degree to which one implicitly understands an organization’s prevailing values and norms—relates to the mechanism of interpersonal coordination and influences behavior when one engages in routine peer interactions. Accordingly, we theorize that these two forms of cultural fit relate to distinct behaviors, voluntary exit and linguistic conformity with peers, respectively. Drawing on email and survey data from a midsized technology firm, we find support for our theory and discuss the implications of our findings for research on person-culture fit, dual-process models of culture and cognition, and the pairing of surveys with digital trace data. Funding: This work was supported by the Berkeley Culture Center, the Cortese Distinguished Chair in Management, the Grether Chair of Business Administration and Public Policy.

Literature Review on Human Resource Churning—Theoretical Framework, Costs and Proposed Solutions

As a result of the complexity and multiplicity of definitions of the concept of human resource churning, to guide this entire research, the cost resulting from replacements was taken as a premise. Although churning is related to turnover, there are differences, turnover has as its focus the turnover of workers and churning is also related to the same approach, but this concept has as its focus the costs associated with the replacements of workers derived from voluntary departures, i.e., churning is only related to the costs of hiring from replacements. Despite the complexity and multiplicity of definitions of the concept of churning, to guide the present research, we chose to adopt as our premise the costs resulting from the voluntary exits of workers, that is, the relationship between resulting costs associated with employee substitutions. The present investigation intended to identify the causes of churning through the identification of its main dimensions. This theoretical research resorted to the following methodology: a literature review and an empirical study review that approached the subject of the churning of human resources. The resulting outcome enabled us to identify how these dimensions had an influence on the management of human resources regarding the mitigation of the occurrence of churning and the application of strategic measures to retain workers. In this regard, we have identified as main dimensions the work environment; leadership; recognition; schedule flexibility; wage; career progression, responsibility, and retention of human resources.

Exiting far-right extremism: a case study in applying the developmental core need framework

ABSTRACT This article presents a case study of voluntary exit from a far-right group in the United States. Our analysis of ‘Tom’ (a pseudonym) foregrounds the role of psychological development in ‘Tom’s' narrative of disengagement. While developmental factors are sometimes referenced in the radicalization/deradicalization literature, they are often reduced to risk factors or early environmental adversities that are viewed as predictors for subsequent involvement in extremism. By contrast, we offer a deeper understanding of psychological developmental factors as a ‘core need.’ While the core need originates in normative development and attachment history, it also arises out of an individual’s idiographic context and unique path through development, helping to establish identity security and acting as the tacit background driver across entry and exit. In this case study, and in our qualitatively informed model, the developmental core need is crucial to understanding the often idiosyncratic processes of radicalization, disengagement, and deradicalization.

MP54-13 THE UPDATE FROM BLADDER CANCER ITALIAN ACTIVE SURVEILLANCE (BIAS) PROJECT FOR LOW-GRADE BLADDER TUMORS: LONG-TERM ONCOLOGICAL OUTCOMES OF PATIENTS UNDER ACTIVE SURVEILLANCE

MP54-13 THE UPDATE FROM BLADDER CANCER ITALIAN ACTIVE SURVEILLANCE (BIAS) PROJECT FOR LOW-GRADE BLADDER TUMORS: LONG-TERM ONCOLOGICAL OUTCOMES OF PATIENTS UNDER ACTIVE SURVEILLANCE

The influence of chronic diseases and poor working conditions in working life expectancy across educational levels among older employees in the Netherlands.

ObjectivesThis study aims to estimate the influence of chronic diseases and poor working conditions – across educational levels – on working life expectancy (WLE) and working years lost (WYL) in the Dutch workforce after age 50.MethodsInformation on demographics, chronic diseases, and working conditions from 11 800 Dutch workers aged 50–66 years participating in the Study on Transitions in Employment, Ability and Motivation (STREAM) from 2010/2015 was enriched with monthly information on employment status from Statistics Netherlands up to 2018. In a multistate model, transitions were calculated between paid employment and involuntary exit (disability benefits, unemployment) and voluntary exit (economic inactivity, early retirement) to estimate the impact of education, chronic diseases, and working conditions on WLE and WYL between age 50 and 66.ResultsWorkers with a chronic disease (up to 1.01 years) or unfavorable working conditions (up to 0.63 years) had more WYL due to involuntary pathways than workers with no chronic disease or favorable working conditions. The differences in WYL between workers with and without a chronic disease were slightly higher among workers with a lower education level (male: 0.85, female: 1.01 years) compared to workers with a high educational level (male: 0.72, female: 0.82 years). Given the higher prevalence of chronic diseases and unfavorable working conditions, WYL among lower educated workers were higher than among higher educated workers.ConclusionsThe presence of a chronic disease or unfavorable working conditions, more prevalent among lower educated workers, contribute substantially to WYL among older workers. This will increase educational inequalities in working careers.

Improving research recruitment through participant input

AbstractBackgroundRecruitment of older adults into aging research is a challenge. Several research studies and clinical trials have failed due to low participant enrollment. Older adults face many barriers to study participation (mistrust of research, lack of transportation, health status, etc.), so special efforts must be made to recruit them into research. We created a recruitment questionnaire with the goal of understanding how to better promote the study and to obtain participant suggestions of groups and locations where the study team could recruit new participants.MethodThe Health and Aging Brain Study: Health Disparities (HABS‐HD) is a community based research study of cognitive aging in diverse communities. We designed a voluntary exit questionnaire for current study participants regarding their recruitment preferences. The questionnaire included the following questions: 1) How did you find out about the study? 2) How can we promote the study to someone similar to you? 3)Which of the following advertising methods do you prefer? 4) Do you know any organization/group that would benefit from the study information? Questionnaire data was compiled and analyzed to assess recruitment preferences and suggestions.ResultThe total number of participants who responded to the questionnaire was 413. 26.9% of respondents stated that they would prefer TV as their main advertising method, followed by the internet (23%) and postal service (mail) (22.7%). Word of mouth was listed as the best way to promote the study (26.9%) followed by community engagement (16.2%) and church (8.2%). When asked for names of organizations, participants recommended tradition groups such as churches, senior centers, and retirement homes. Participants also recommended groups such as rotary clubs, veterans associations, libraries, and the community college senior education program.ConclusionParticipants can assist in recruitment efforts through suggesting organizations that study personnel may not have reached out to. The input allows for assessment of recruitment and the suggestions can broaden the study’s reach.

Latent profile analysis in recovery homes: A single quantitative dimension captures most but not all of the important details of the recovery process

Background: Our study explored whether latent classes adequately represented the social capital recovery indicators at the resident level and whether latent class membership predicted subsequent exits from the recovery homes. Method: Our sample included about 600 residents in 42 recovery homes. Over a 2-year period of time, every 4 months, data were collected on eight elements of recovery capital. Results: We found 5 latent classes were optimal for representing 8 elements of recovery capital. Representing 79% of the sample, 3 of the 5 latent class profiles of the means of the 8 recovery indicators were roughly parallel and differed only in level, but the remaining 2 latent class profiles, representing 21% of the sample, were not parallel to the first 3, suggesting that a single quantitative dimension of perceived recovery may capture most but not all of the important details of the recovery process. Next, using longitudinal data from homes, the distal outcomes of resident eviction and voluntary exit were found to be related to latent class membership. Resident level pre-existing predictors (e.g., employment status, educational attainment, gender, Latinx ethnicity) and house level pre-existing predictors (e.g., financial health, poverty level of typical population served, new resident acceptance rate) significantly discriminated the classes. In a model that combined both pre-existing predictors and distal outcomes, latent class membership was still the strongest predictor of evictions controlling for the pre-existing predictors. Conclusions: These classes help to clarify the different aspects of the recovery latent score, and point to classes that have different ethnic and gender characteristics as well as outcomes in the recovery homes. For example, the high levels of self-confidence found in class 3 suggest that Latinx might be at higher risk for having some difficulties within these recovery communities.

Minding the gap: academic outcomes from pre-college programs

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes the effects of assignment to a one-year college preparatory program on academic performance in college. We use a large dataset of United States Naval Academy students from the 1988 to 2018 graduating classes, of which a little over 22% received remediation. Exploiting the Academy's unique admissions criteria, we instrument for pre-college treatment using the number and quality of other applicants originating from the same Congressional district. We find that these pre-college programs promote significant but short-lived improvements in academic grades. They also can encourage students to choose STEM-oriented majors, and promote retention by lowering voluntary exits.

Educational Inequalities in Labor Market Exit of Older Workers in 15 European Countries

AbstractThis article examines country differences in the association between education and voluntary or involuntary labor market exit and whether these country differences map onto institutional characteristics of the countries. Work exit is defined as involuntary or voluntary based on the reasons of exit. Four different types of institutional factors, push and pull, aiming for an earlier work exit and need and maintain factors to retain older workers in employment are considered. Using data from 15 European countries from the longitudinal Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), discrete-time event history models with a categorical outcome are estimated for each country separately. In a second step, we add macro-level indicators and conduct meta-analyses to analyze country differences. Results show that in almost all countries a social gradient in involuntary work exit exists but not in voluntary exit. Lower-educated workers are more likely to involuntarily exit the labor market. Institutional factors, especially those supporting older workers’ retention in employment, are associated with a smaller social gradient in work exit. Our findings suggest that investments in active labor market expenditures, especially in lifelong learning and rehabilitation for lower educated workers, may help to reduce the social gradient in involuntary work exit.

Minding the Gap: Academic Outcomes from Pre-College Programs

This paper analyzes the effects of assignment to a one-year college preparatory program on academic performance in college. To measure the value added from pre-college programs, we use a large dataset of United States Naval Academy students from the 1988 to 2018 graduating classes, of which a little over 22% received post-high school remediation. Given the Academy's unique admissions criteria that members of each incoming class originate from an even distribution of congressional districts, we instrument for pre-college treatment using the number and quality of other applicants originating from the same district. After incorporating these instruments as well as a wide range of outcome measures and background characteristics, we find that preparatory programs have positive but limited effects for human capital development for undergraduate students. Specifically, these pre-college programs promote significant but short-lived improvements in academic grades. They also can encourage students to choose STEM-oriented majors, and promote retention by lowering voluntary exits.

Structural Changes in Japanese Firms: Business Dynamism in an Aging Society

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed a serious threat to the survival of Japanese firms, highlighting the importance of understanding how and why firms exit. In this paper, we use a rich firm-level dataset of Japanese firms to document how firm exit patterns have evolved between 2007 and 2017. Firm exit patterns have been heavily influenced by Japan’s demographic trends, as a majority of exits in recent years were voluntary exits of firms (business closures) owned by CEOs aged 65 years or older without business successors. In contrast to this increase in voluntary exits, other “traditional” firm exits (such as bankruptcies), have declined. These findings underscore the importance of addressing business transition issues in a rapidly aging society.

Structural Changes in Japanese Firms

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed a serious threat to the survival of Japanese firms, highlighting the importance of understanding how and why firms exit. In this paper, we use a rich firm-level dataset of Japanese firms to document how firm exit patterns have evolved between 2007 and 2017. Firm exit patterns have been heavily influenced by Japan’s demographic trends, as a majority of exits in recent years were voluntary exits of firms (business closures) owned by CEOs aged 65 years or older without business successors. In contrast to this increase in voluntary exits, other “traditional” firm exits (such as bankruptcies), have declined. These findings underscore the importance of addressing business transition issues in a rapidly aging society.

Variety is the Spice of Internal Hiring: How Pool Diversity Affects Post-Hire Performance and Exit

Although internal hiring is associated with a number of benefits for firms, organizations may only be able to fully capture these benefits when they create complementary person-job matches. This can be difficult, as hiring managers have incomplete information about how internal candidates will perform in a new job even within the boundaries of the firm. I introduce internal-external candidate pool heterogeneity as a source of information to aid internal hiring decisions. I argue that, by enabling hiring managers to benchmark characteristics of their internal candidates against those available in the external market, heterogeneous pools (i.e., interview pools that include both internal and external candidates) lead managers to select higher-performing internal hires than they would if they only interviewed internal candidates. I argue that interviewing external candidates is not without risk, however, as doing so also provides information to internal hires about their future internal and external mobility prospects. Using data on over 2,000 internal hires at a large, U.S.-based health services firm, I show that internal hires from heterogeneous pools are 1.43 times more likely to be rated a top-performer in their first year in the new job but also 2.01 times more likely to voluntary exit, compared to internal hires from pools containing only internal candidates. I conclude with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of this tradeoff for both firms and workers.

The perceived well-being and health costs of exiting self-employment

We explore how involuntary and voluntary exits from self-employment affect life and health satisfaction. To that end, we use rich longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel from 1985 to 2017 and a difference-in-differences estimator. We find that while transitioning from self-employment to salaried employment brings small improvements in health and life satisfaction, the negative psychological costs of business failure (i.e., switching from self-employment to unemployment) are substantial and exceed the costs of involuntarily losing a salaried job. Meanwhile, leaving self-employment has no consequences for self-reported physical health and behaviors such as smoking and drinking, implying that the costs of losing self-employment are mainly psychological. Moreover, former business owners fail to adapt to an involuntary self-employment exit even 2 or more years after this traumatic event. Our findings imply that policies encouraging entrepreneurship should also carefully consider the nonmonetary implications of business failure.

Evaluating pharmacy student perceptions and effectiveness of procrastination prevention events

Background and purposeProcrastination is common among collegiate students and has been associated with negative academic performance. Avoidance of procrastination may improve learning efficiency and outcomes, especially in course-intensive doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) programs. This study investigated the perceptions of pharmacy students on student-organized procrastination prevention events (PPEs) and determined whether participation in these events affected assessment grades. Educational activity and settingQuarterly, voluntary PPEs for professional year one (PY1), professional year 2 (PY2), and professional year three (PY3) PharmD students were hosted by the Rho Chi Society. These events occurred one to two weeks prior to historically challenging assessments. Faculty of related courses were invited to lead review sessions. Rho Chi members designed and delivered interactive learning activities and were available for peer-led group study. Attendance was recorded and anonymous voluntary exit surveys were conducted. Assessment scores on topics of focus were compared between the group that attended the event vs. the group that did not attend. FindingsBased on the 153 pooled anonymous survey results, the majority of participants were < 25 years of age, female, and did not have children. Perception data from the surveys were universally positive. Most assessment score comparisons of PPE attendees vs. non-attendees were not statistically significant. Immunology showed improved scores in event attendees. SummaryAlthough attending PPEs did not significantly improve assessment scores in most courses, students recognized the benefits of the events. Future research could study the overall impact of these events and best practices for hosting them.

The Perceived Well-Being and Health Costs of Exiting Self-Employment

We explore how involuntary and voluntary exits from self-employment affect life and health satisfaction. To that end, we use rich longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel from 1985 to 2017 and a difference-in-differences estimation. Our findings suggest that while transitioning from self-employment to salaried employment (i.e., a voluntary self-employment exit) brings small improvements in health and life satisfaction, the negative psychological costs of business failure (i.e., switching from self-employment to unemployment) are substantial and exceed the costs of involuntarily losing a salaried job (i.e., switching from salaried employment to unemployment). Meanwhile, leaving self-employment has no consequences for selfreported physical health and behaviors such as smoking and drinking, implying that the costs of losing self-employment are largely psychological. Moreover, former business owners fail to adapt to an involuntary self-employment exit even two or more years after this traumatic event. Our findings imply that policies encouraging entrepreneurship should also carefully consider the costs of business failure.