Hanna Salminen, Mikaela von Bonsdorff and Monika von Bonsdorff
Human resource management (HRM) scholars’ interest in older employees’ resilience has only recently started to emerge. Little is known about how resilience and perceived HRM are…
Abstract
Purpose
Human resource management (HRM) scholars’ interest in older employees’ resilience has only recently started to emerge. Little is known about how resilience and perceived HRM are linked to different retirement intentions. Drawing on the conservation of resources and social exchange theories, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the links between perceived HRM practices, resilience and retirement intentions. Additionally, the paper examines the possible mediating role of resilience in the relationship between perceived HRM practices and retirement intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
In 2016, a cross-sectional study was conducted among older (50+) nursing professionals working in a Finnish university hospital. Statistical methods, including mean comparisons and linear and logistic regression analyses, were used to analyze the data.
Findings
The results indicated that resilience partly mediated the relationship between perceived HRM practices and early retirement intentions, and fully mediated the association between perceived HRM practices and intentions to continue working after retirement age.
Originality/value
This study produces new knowledge regarding the links between resilience, perceived High involvement work practices and retirement intentions.
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Keywords
Hanna Salminen, Monika E. von Bonsdorff, Deborah McPhee and Pia Heilmann
By relying on a sustainable career perspective and recent studies on senior employees’ late career phase, this study aims to examine senior (50+) nurses’ late career narratives in…
Abstract
Purpose
By relying on a sustainable career perspective and recent studies on senior employees’ late career phase, this study aims to examine senior (50+) nurses’ late career narratives in the context of extending retirement age. Given the current global nursing shortage, there is a pressing need to find ways on how to promote longer and sustainable careers in the health-care field. Yet, there is limited knowledge about the extended late career phase of senior nurses.
Design/methodology/approach
Empirical data were derived from 22 interviews collected among senior (50+) nursing professionals working in a Finnish university hospital. The qualitative interview data were analysed using a narrative analysis method. As a result of the narrative analysis, four career narratives were constructed.
Findings
The findings demonstrated that senior nurses’ late career narratives differed in terms of late career aspirations, constraints, mobility and active agency of one’s own career. The identified career narratives indicate that the building blocks of sustainable late careers in the context of extending retirement age are diverse.
Research limitations/implications
The qualitative interview data were restricted to senior nurses working in one university hospital. Interviews were conducted on site and some nurses were called away leaving some of the interviews shorter than expected.
Practical implications
To support sustainable late careers requires that attention be based on the whole career ecosystem covering individual, organizational and societal aspects and how they are intertwined together.
Originality/value
So far, few studies have investigated the extended late career phase of senior employees in the context of a changing career landscape.
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Anu Järvensivu and Monika E. von Bonsdorff
The negative stereotypes concerning late-career workers are found to prevail and lead to negative circulation of narratives and actions between individuals and societies. Using…
Abstract
Purpose
The negative stereotypes concerning late-career workers are found to prevail and lead to negative circulation of narratives and actions between individuals and societies. Using the context of late-career entrepreneurs, the paper aims to find an alternative and a more positive narrative concerning late-career work by focusing on entrepreneurs and the narrative positioning related to them.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used a narrative-positioning analysis, cycling through three levels of analysis and then returning to level two, in order to study our sample of seven narratives written by Finnish late-career entrepreneurs. The authors present in detail one story-telling narrative, by Matthew, and then layer the remaining six narratives to present themes, positioning and actions surrounding being a late-career entrepreneur.
Findings
A more positive narrative circulation was found, which related to the master narrative of entrepreneurs as continuing “until the end” and taking care of themselves, their enterprises and different stakeholder groups even after exiting the enterprise into so-called “retirement.” The entrepreneurs were found to actively use this positive narrative to position themselves both in the story-telling world and in their local interactions. By positioning themselves as “never ending caretakers,” the entrepreneurs gave a strong account that their reasons to continue working centered on the factors social.
Research limitations/implications
The research findings and analysis should be interpreted in the context of the Nordic countries and especially Finland.
Practical implications
The results of this study can inform the ways in which these “never ending caretakers” can transition into retirement and adjust to life spent in retirement.
Originality/value
In the study, entrepreneurs' written answers were analyzed with narrative-positioning analyses. An alternative story of people at work was found, and a more positive narrative circulation was constructed based on their narratives.
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Mikko Rönkkö, Monika E. von Bonsdorff and Susanna Mansikkamäki
Entrepreneurial exit research has overlooked the unique context of exits at retirement age when an exit marks the end of an entrepreneurial career (i.e. retirement). To better…
Abstract
Purpose
Entrepreneurial exit research has overlooked the unique context of exits at retirement age when an exit marks the end of an entrepreneurial career (i.e. retirement). To better understand retirement exit decisions and transitions, this study introduces the concept of work ability (i.e. an individual’s ability to meet work demands) into the entrepreneurial exit literature and, based on role theory, hypothesises its effect and interaction with general life satisfaction in explaining the entrepreneurial exits to retirement. The study clarifies the dynamics between the voluntary and non-voluntary aspects behind exit to retirement.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use mixed-effects ordinal logistic regression with four-wave panel data on 198 Finnish small business entrepreneurs who intend to retire to test hypotheses on the relationship between work ability, general life satisfaction and entrepreneurial exit to retirement.
Findings
The study provides partial support for the hypothesis that work ability negatively impacts entrepreneurial exit to retirement and strong support for the idea that this effect is affected by general life satisfaction. Entrepreneurs who experience higher life satisfaction are likely to retire on their own terms, whereas those less satisfied continue working until declining work ability forces them to retire.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the entrepreneurial exit literature by showing how the exit dynamics unfold in the unique context of entrepreneurial exit to retirement. The theoretical discussion opens up the potential psychological mechanisms behind such dynamics.
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Stefanie Ruel, Iiris Aaltio, Tarja Römer-Paakkanen and Banu Ozkazanc-Pan
Aino Tenhiälä, Anne Linna, Monika von Bonsdorff, Jaana Pentti, Jussi Vahtera, Mika Kivimäki and Marko Elovainio
The aim of this paper is to study age-related differences in how perceptions of two forms of organizational justice, i.e. procedural and interactional justice, are related to…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to study age-related differences in how perceptions of two forms of organizational justice, i.e. procedural and interactional justice, are related to short (i.e. non-certified) spells and long (i.e. medically certified) spells of sickness absence.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a study on a large sample of Finnish public sector employees (n=37,324), in which they matched employees' 2004 survey data with their records-based sick absences in 2005 and 2006.
Findings
The results suggest that age moderates the association between perceptions of procedural justice and long sickness absences after controlling for gender, tenure, occupational group, work unit, job demands and health behaviors. When older employees experienced a high level of procedural justice, they were 12 percent less likely to miss work due to medically certified illnesses. Overall, older employees were less likely to take short, non-certified sickness absences from work. Finally, the results suggest that high-quality relationships with supervisors can prevent both short and long spells of sickness absence at all ages
Originality/value
The study contributes to the literature on age-related differences in the effects of psychosocial workplace conditions (organizational justice) on employee behavior (absenteeism).