Ageing Organizations: Reviewing the Literature and Making a Few Recommendations for Human Resource Management
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
- Managing older professionals;
- Recruitment and training of older professionals;
- Intergenerational relations in organizations;
- Ageism in the workplace.
2.1. Inclusion Criteria
2.2. Literature Search and Evaluation
3. Results
3.1. Managing Older Professionals
“Basically the thinking behind it is there’s no good or bad employees, there’s just differences in the profiles. So we help managers have an understanding of what appeals to different profiles in the workforce. The message is let’s acknowledge those differences and their diversity and what appeals to them, and let’s help you manage them”.(Senior HR)
3.2. Recruitment and Training of Older Professionals
3.3. Intergenerational Relations in Organizations
3.4. Ageism in the Workplace
“(…) countering myths concerning the extent and nature of age barriers in the labour market; avoiding and challenging the use of age stereotypes in making the business case for older workers’ employment; recognition that age interacts in complex ways with a range of other factors in determining people’s experiences of the labour market; challenging public understanding that is grounded in the notion that generational conflict is inevitable; and discarding traditional notions of the lifecourse in order to overcome disjunctions and contradictions that hamper efforts to encourage and support longer working lives”.
4. Discussion
- Accommodate the needs of older professionals;
- Support and nurture their work performance, intrinsic motivation, and physical and psychological well-being;
- Eradicate preconceptions, stereotypes, and discrimination against them;
- Foster engagement with older professionals, avoiding their premature exclusion from the organization;
- Promote a sense of intergenerational unity within the organization;
- Eliminate the practice of the “age norming of jobs”.
- Introduce phased retirement options, allowing for a gradual reduction of working hours until retirement;
- Provide flexible work schedules, catering to part-time or full-time arrangements and diverse hour allocations;
- Offer remote work opportunities (“flexlocation”);
- Facilitate intergenerational interaction, encouraging older professionals to mentor or coach younger colleagues, enhancing their own well-being and sense of purpose while increasing commitment and productivity;
- Enable job crafting, where HR departments align older professionals with roles that resonate with their expertise and innovative thinking, igniting their intrinsic motivation for greater innovation and productivity;
- Establish conflict resolution mechanisms;
- Ensure consistent feedback on performance;
- Champion visible leadership concerning issues linked to an ageing workforce;
- Deliver high-quality training for all employees, including targeted professional development for older professionals when suitable;
- Adapt the physical work environment to cater to the needs of older workers (e.g., ergonomic structures, proper lighting and acoustics);
- Construct an ethics framework, fully communicating it throughout the organization. Clearly outline organizational values and the consequences of deviating from them. Ethical core values may guide all aspects of human resource activities, from goal setting and resource allocation to communication dissemination, performance evaluation, and job promotion. Incorporate ethics training and education as an integral part of employees’ professional development, with the ethics framework undergoing ongoing management review.
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Author(s)/Year | Source | Country |
---|---|---|
Egdell et al. (2020) [21] | Ageing & Society | Scotland |
Stengård et al. (2021) [22] | European Journal of Ageing | Sweden |
Liff and Wikström (2020) [23] | Ageing & Society | Sweden |
Arman et al. (2021) [24] | Ageing & Society | Sweden |
Kooij et al. (2022) [25] | European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology | Netherlands |
Fasbender and Gerpott (2021) [26] | European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology | Germany |
Reed and Thomas (2021) [27] | Management Learning | Literature |
North (2022) [28] | Frontiers in Psychology | China, US |
Manzi et al. (2021) [29] | Frontiers in Psychology | Italy |
WHO Global Report on Ageism (2021) [1] | Report | Global |
Berger (2021) [6] | Book Chapter | Canada |
Woolever (2021) [20] | Book Chapter | US |
Author(s)/Year | Source | Country |
---|---|---|
Previtali and Spedale (2021) [30] | Journal of Aging studies | Italy |
Garthe and Hasselhorn (2021) [31] | Ageing & Society | Germany |
Laliberte Rudman and Aldrich (2021) [32] | Journal of Aging studies | US |
Halvorsen et al. (2022) [33] | Research on Aging | US |
Neumark (2022) [34] | Journal of Aging & Social Policy | US |
Helleseter et al. (2020) [35] | Journal of Human Resources | Mexico, China |
Hebl et al. (2020) [36] | Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior. | Literature |
Cebola et al. (2021) [4] | Ageing & Society | Literature |
WHO Global Report on Ageism 2021 [1] | Report | Global |
Berger (2021) [6] | Book | Canada |
Ciampa and Chernesky (2021) [19] | Book Chapter | US |
Author(s)/Year | Source | Country |
---|---|---|
Jarrott and Lee (2022) [37] | Research on Aging | Literature |
Hsu et al. (2022) [38] | Journal of Aging & Social Policy | Taiwan, South Korea, Japan |
Fasbender and Gerpott (2021) [26] | European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology | Germany |
Fasbender and Drury (2021) [10] | European Journal of work and Organizational Psychology | Germany |
Yeung et al. (2021) [39] | Frontiers in Psychology | Hong Kong |
Rožman and Milfelner (2022) [40] | Frontiers in Psychology | Slovenia |
WHO Global Report on Ageism (2021) [1] | Report | Global |
Jarrot et al. (2021) [41] | Research on Aging | Literature |
Author(s)/Year | Source | Country |
---|---|---|
Previtali and Spedale (2021) [30] | Journal of Aging Studies | Italy |
Sugisawa (2022) [9] | Ageing & Society | Japan |
Cebola et al. (2021) [4] | Ageing & Society | Literature |
Taylor and Earl (2021) [11] | Ageing & Society | Australia |
Van der Horst and Vickerstaff (2021) [42] | Ageing & Society | Literature |
Kleissner and Jahn (2020a) [7] | Frontiers in Psychology | Germany |
Kleissner and Jahn (2020b) [8] | Research on Aging | Germany |
Axelrad (2021) [43] | Journal of Aging & Social Policy | Israel |
Kim et al. (2021) [44] | Journal of Aging & Social Policy | 15 OECD countries |
Fasbender and Gerpott (2021) [26] | European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology | Germany |
Goecke and Kunze (2020) [45] | European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology | US |
Hebl et al. (2020) [36] | Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior | Literature |
Kreiner et al. (2022) [46] | Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior | Literature |
Reed and Thomas (2021) [27] | Management Learning | Literature |
Crozier and Woolnough (2020) [47] | Management Learning | England |
North (2022) [28] | Frontiers in Psychology | China, US |
Manzi et al. (2021) [29] | Frontiers in Psychology | Italy |
WHO Global Report on Ageism (2021) [1] | Report | Global |
Berger (2021) [6] | Book | Canada |
Blackstone (2021) [18] | Book Chapter | US |
Ciampa and Chernesky (2021) [19] | Book Chapter | US |
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Salomão Filho, A.; Tillmanns, T.; Corrigan, T. Ageing Organizations: Reviewing the Literature and Making a Few Recommendations for Human Resource Management. Merits 2023, 3, 640-653. https://doi.org/10.3390/merits3040038
Salomão Filho A, Tillmanns T, Corrigan T. Ageing Organizations: Reviewing the Literature and Making a Few Recommendations for Human Resource Management. Merits. 2023; 3(4):640-653. https://doi.org/10.3390/merits3040038
Chicago/Turabian StyleSalomão Filho, Alfredo, Tanja Tillmanns, and Trudy Corrigan. 2023. "Ageing Organizations: Reviewing the Literature and Making a Few Recommendations for Human Resource Management" Merits 3, no. 4: 640-653. https://doi.org/10.3390/merits3040038