Older workers and extended working life - Managers' experiences and age management
2024 (English)In: Work: A journal of Prevention, Assessment and rehabilitation, ISSN 1051-9815, E-ISSN 1875-9270, Vol. 79, no 3, p. 1323-1331Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
BACKGROUND: In 2020 the Swedish Government started a gradual raising of the retirement age, but employers have been silent on the issue. Little is known about whether and how they reflect on what it will mean for their organization, or whether they already have, or are going to, make arrangements in order to facilitate and motivate older workers to stay longer.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to explore and describe managers' experiences of older workers and age management in connection with the increase of the retirement age in Sweden.
METHODS: Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with fourteen managers from a broad set of organizations in the public and private sectors, and from the Middle and East of Sweden. The transcribed material was analysed in line with qualitative content analysis.
RESULTS: The analysis ended up in seven main categories with associated sub-categories: Older Workers, Retirement Ages, Transition Initiatives, Competence Transfer, Competence Development, Increased Retirement Ages, Knowledge Gaps.
CONCLUSION: Our findings reveal that there is an ambivalence in addressing the issue of age among the interviewed managers, what we have interpreted and labelled as "silent age discrimination", and it was shown that they do not have elaborated strategies for age management.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
IOS Press, 2024. Vol. 79, no 3, p. 1323-1331
Keywords [en]
competence development, Competence transfer, knowledge gaps, prolonged working life, transition, Adult, Aged, Ageism, Female, Humans, Interviews as Topic, Male, Middle Aged, Qualitative Research, Retirement, Sweden, human, interview, procedures, psychology
National Category
Work Sciences Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified Social Work
Research subject
Wellbeing in long-term health problems (WeLHP)
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:his:diva-24727DOI: 10.3233/WOR-230468ISI: 001368360900025PubMedID: 38820043Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85208772237OAI: oai:DiVA.org:his-24727DiVA, id: diva2:1915148
Projects
Age@Work project
Funder
Chalmers University of Technology
Note
CC BY 4.0
Address for correspondence: Anita Björklund Carlstedt, Department of Rehabilitation, School of Health and Welfare, Jönköping University, Box 1026, 551 11 Jönköping, Sweden. Tel.: +46 33 101266, Mobile: +46 708 261250; E-mail:Anita.Bjorklund@ju.se; ORCID: 0000-0003-3594-4805.
The study was partly financed by Chalmers’ Innovation Office for funding the data collection of this study (ID: V510-A), and partly from the Age@Work project run by the Baltic Sea Labour Forum.
2024-11-212024-11-212025-11-13Bibliographically approved