Autonomy and optimism matter more to older than younger nurses | Workforce factors decreasing/increasing the propensity of early retirement | Perceived resources are important for life satisfaction in the retirement transition .. and life satisfaction influences our perception
Autonomy and optimism matter more to older than younger nurses
Yaldiz, L. M., Truxillo, D. M., & Cadiz, D. M. (2020). Who Benefits More? The Moderating Role of Age on the Relationship Between Work and Person Characteristics and Employee Attitudes and Wellbeing. Occupational Health Science, 1-22.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s41542-019-00053-1
The current study examines whether certain work (decision-making autonomy) and person (optimism) characteristics would be differentially related to job attitudes and wellbeing of nurses of different ages. We draw upon lifespan development perspective (Selection-Optimization-Compensation) to argue why decision-making autonomy and optimism would be more strongly related to work engagement and emotional exhaustion for older nurses compared to their younger colleagues. The findings supported our hypotheses in that autonomy and optimism had greater utility for older nurses. That is, compared to their younger colleagues, when older nurses had greater levels of autonomy and optimism, they had greater work engagement and less emotional exhaustion. Overall, these findings support lifespan development perspective to explain age-based differences in how work and person characteristics relate to occupational outcomes. We discuss the implications of our findings for an age-diverse workforce and outline several avenues for future research.
Workforce factors decreasing/increasing the propensity of early retirement
Aart-Jan Riekhoff, Noora Järnefelt, Mikko Laaksonen, Workforce Composition and the Risk of Labor Market Exit Among Older Workers in Finnish Companies, Work, Ageing and Retirement, Volume 6, Issue 2, April 2020, Pages 88–100.
https://doi.org/10.1093/workar/waz023
This article investigates how a firm’s workforce characteristics affect an individual’s timing of exit from the labor market. It analyzes the relations between the age, skill, and wage structures of companies and the risk of labor market exit of Finnish older workers by using the detailed longitudinal register-based Finnish Linked Employer–Employee Data. The study follows the Finnish working population born between 1942 and 1950 (N = 216,713). Multilevel discrete-time survival analysis with individuals nested in firms is applied to estimate the risk of permanent exit from work between the ages of 53 and 68. The results show that these risks differ between firms: greater diversity in age and education levels among the workforce as well as seniority-based wage systems within a firm decrease the propensity of early exit, while being employed at a firm with an older staff increases the risk of exit. The findings from interactions between individual- and firm-level characteristics further illustrate that one’s individual characteristics matter in relation to the characteristics of the overall firm’s workforce. Being dissimilar from one’s coworkers, especially in terms of skills and education, can reduce the risk of early exit.
Perceived resources are important for life satisfaction in the retirement transition .. and life satisfaction influences our perception
Isabelle Hansson, Sandra Buratti, Valgeir Thorvaldsson, Boo Johansson, Anne Ingeborg Berg, Disentangling the Mechanisms of Retirement Adjustment: Determinants and Consequences of Subjective Well-Being, Work, Ageing and Retirement, Volume 6, Issue 2, April 2020, Pages 71–87.
https://doi.org/10.1093/workar/waz021
Retirement from work is a major life event requiring adaptation to new life circumstances. The resource-based dynamic model of retirement adjustment suggests that well-being will change due to changes in individual resources. In the present study, we test this hypothesis by investigating longitudinal and bidirectional associations between life satisfaction and perceived resources (i.e., self-esteem, autonomy, social support, self-rated physical health, self-rated cognitive ability, and financial satisfaction) over a 4-year period in the transition from work to retirement. Our sample included annual assessment data from 497 older adults (aged 60–66) in the population-based HEalth, Ageing, and Retirement Transitions in Sweden (HEARTS) study. Results from bivariate latent change score models showed weak but consistent associations between changes in perceived resources and changes in life satisfaction over the retirement transition. Analyses of cross-lagged effects also revealed bidirectional associations. Self-esteem, self-rated physical health, and total resource capability were positively related to changes in life satisfaction, and life satisfaction was positively related to changes in self-esteem, autonomy, self-rated physical health, and self-rated cognitive ability. The total resource capability accounted for 12% of the changes in life satisfaction in the first years following retirement. Life satisfaction accounted for 16% of the changes in autonomy in the transition from work to retirement. Our findings demonstrate that perceived resources are important for life satisfaction in the retirement transition, at the same time as overall life satisfaction accounts for how we perceive and evaluate our own resources during this process.