Relaciones laborales para el futuro: politicas de gestion de la edad para la retencion de trabajadores de mayor edad.

AutorCardoso de Souza Rodrigues, Ana Raquel
CargoMONOGRAFICO texto en ingles

[en] Labour relations for the future: aging management policies to retain older workers

Contents. 1. Introduction. 2. Method. 2.1. Participants and procedure. 2.2. Measures. 2.3. General procedures and data analysis. 3. Findings. 4. Conclusion. 5. References

  1. Introduction

    In 2060 more than half of the Portuguese population will be 65 years old or older (European Commission, 2015). Indeed, declining birth rates, coupled with declining mortality rates along with the rising of the average life expectancy, have led to an aging population in both Portugal and most developed countries.

    These demographic changes have an impact on the composition of the Portuguese workforce that will become aged (Pinto, Ramos y Nunes, 2015). The aging of the European workforce is widely recognized in the literature (Armstrong-Stassen, 2008; Hedge, Borman y Lammlein, 2006; National Statistics Institute, 2014; Pinto, Ramos y Nunes, 2015; Pordata, 2016; Winkelmann-Gleed, 2011). As a result, the demographic situation, the aging of the workforce and the management of older workers have become a political concern for both governments and employers (DeLong, 2004; Eurostat, 2015; Winkelmann-Gleed, 2011). However, most organizations are not prepared to deal with the challenges associated with older workers (Armstrong-Stassen, 2008; Hedge, Borman y Lammlein, 2006).

    Nonetheless, population ageing has a strong impact on the world of work (Hedge, Borman y Lammlein, 2006) and requires changes in both labour market and human resources [HR] strategies and policies (Ciutiene y Railaite, 2015). In fact, the maintenance of this workforce composed of older workers in the labour market has been a concern of governments, in general, and human resource management [HRM], in particular (Armstrong Stassen, 2008; Barroca, Meireles y Neto, 2014; Pinto, Ramos y Nunes, 2015). In this sense, several authors have focused their attention on the factors that promote this retention. Indeed, it is well established in the literature that the retention of senior workers is of the utmost importance due to the (expected) labour shortage and competition for talent (Armstrong-Stassen y Lee, 2009; Armstrong-Stassen y Schlosser, 2011; Armstrong-Stassen y Ursel, 2009; Hedge, Borman y Lammlein, 2006; Kooij et al., 2008; Shacklock y Brunetto, 2011).

    One of the most studied factors has been age management in organizations. Age management practices is an opportunity to stay for as long as possible in the organization and to constantly adapt to change through training and practice in old age (Fabisiak y Prokurat, 2012). For Ciutiene and Railaite (2015) age management can be understood as a set of measures to mitigate the consequences of aging that allow the person to remain productive despite his age. Taking this into account, to ensure the productivity of various age groups, it is essential to provide adequate working conditions and to pay more attention to age management practices of the members of the organizations (Ciutiene y Railaite, 2014). A good practice in age management is one that fights age barriers, promotes age diversity and provides an environment where each individual is able to reach his or hers potential without prejudice related to the individuals age (Walker, 2005).

    In order to face this demographic situation, organizations must prepare their policies and practices, adapting them to the reality that is approaching (Beatty y Visser, 2005). To successfully adapt to dynamic changes in the workforce, organizations must ensure that their organizational policies and actions are designed in a way that encourages and promotes continued investment in older workers (Hedge, Borman y Lammlein, 2006). HR practices aimed at meeting the needs and desires of older workers may be seen by the latter as a sign that the organization values their contribution, so they respond by remaining active in it (Armstrong-Stassen, 2008).

    However, little research has been done in the development and implementation of efficient HRM practices that fit an aging workforce (Hedge, Borman y Lammlein, 2006). In addition, according to Hedge, Borman and Lammlein (2006) until recently, few organizations have focused on developing and implementing comprehensive policies and practices for older workers. This may be because there is a discrepancy between the HRM practices implemented by the organization and HRM practices valued by the workers (Pinto, 2015).

    Thus, it is important to understand the capacities, motivations, interests and expectations of these workers to develop such practices (Hedge, Borman y Lammlein, 2006). Armstrong-Stassen and Ursel (2009) suggest that the challenge for employers is to make the workplace attractive and appealing to older workers in order to encourage them to stay in the organization, and the challenge for researchers is to determine which practices oriented towards older workers are most effective in producing this retention. Therefore, it seems to be essential to contribute to the identification and promotion of organizational practices related to the age, employability and intention to remain active of older workers, this being the main goal of the present investigation. 2

  2. Method

    The model of Quivy and Campenhoudt (2013) was adopted to guide our research. We decided on an exploratory study to obtain new knowledge about the subject under analysis, describing the results obtained and seeking to establish relationships between the variables under investigation. Therefore, after analysing the existing literature, we establish the following hypothesis:

    H1: Portuguese enterprises use appropriate HRM practices for older workers.

    H2: Age-appropriate HR strategies favour the intention to remain active.

    2.1. Participants and procedure

    A website was created to disseminate and facilitate the participation in the study. This link was sent to several private enterprises, professional orders and unions. Our population concerned all individuals aged 50 years old or older, working in Portugal. Therefore, we used a non-probabilistic sampling technique, namely, criterion sampling, meaning, selecting segments of the population according to pre-defined criteria (Coutinho, 2015). After confirmation of both inclusion / exclusion criteria, we achieved a sample size of 434 subjects. The demographic characteristics of the sample can be seen in table 1.

    Regarding the job and enterprise characteristics of the sample, this can be examined in table 2.

    2.2. Measures

    Sociodemographic and organizational data questionnaire. The questionnaire included questions regarding the individual's age, sex, marital status, district of residence and literacy. Also, to characterize labour related data, questions were posed concerning the individual's profession, function, years in the function and years in the enterprise in which the subject works. Finally, questions were raised regarding enterprises in particular, namely, the sector, the economic activity sector and the size.

    HR practices scale used was developed by Armstrong-Stassen (2008) and consists of a list of 28 HR practices, integrated into seven HR strategies. Subjects were asked to select to what extent they think that the organization in which they work is engaged with each of these practices. The answers are evaluated on a Likert scale from one (not doing this at all) to five (highly engaged in doing this).

    Importance of HR strategies was developed by Armstrong-Stassen (2008). This scale aims to assess the importance of HR strategies in influencing the individual's decision to remain active in the workforce. Each respondent is asked to identify how much each of the seven strategies (eg, flexible working options strategy) influences his decision to remain in the labour market and is asked to respond in a Likert scale from one (not at all important) to five (extremely important).

    Reasons why organizations are not engaging in the HR practices scale (Armstrong-Stassen, 2008) consists in a list of nine possible reasons why organizations are not committed to HR practices. To answer, the subject must select all of those that he considers to be true. There is also an other option, which the individual can fill freely.

    Intention to remain (Armstrong-Stassen y Ursel, 2009), is composed by three items that aim to assess the respondents' intention to remain working in their organization. To answer the subject must select a Likert scale from one (strongly disagree) to five (strongly agree).

    2.3. General procedures and data analysis

    Data were processed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences [SPSS] (version 23.0). Missing values were not considered, because the instrument was elaborated online and had validation assumptions that required a response, so the absence of one is due to items considered not applicable, meaning, the response was not required. Also, outliers were inexistent.

    Because the variable sector (public, private and public-private), specifically, public-private, had only 11 observations, it was decided to create a new variable, changing the sector variable to be composed of two categories, namely public and private and public-private.

    Due to the large sample size, we assumed that the presented data approaches a normal distribution, and did not carry out a normality analysis (Coutinho, 2015; Pestana y Gageiro, 2008).

    Because there was a large sample size of the same area (education), we chose not to consider the economic activity sector in the data analysis. Instead, public or private and public-private ownership was considered, assuming that the public sector has the same HRM practice, so no differences would be expected, nor would the data be skewed.

    Next, the internal consistency was assessed, checking the Cronbach's alpha, of the scales used, as can be seen in the table 3.

    Concerning data analysis, we used descriptive statistics and frequencies analyses to clarify the hypotheses under study. Also, means were compared...

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