Research: Health and return to work after retirement | Successful ageing at work

The Effects of Taking Up Employment After Pension Age on Self-Rated Health in Germany and the UK | Successful Aging at Work: A Process Model to Guide Future Research and Practice

The Effects of Taking Up Employment After Pension Age on Self-Rated Health in Germany and the UK

Lux, T. and Scherger, S. (2018).The Effects of Taking Up Employment After Pension Age on Self-Rated Health in Germany and the UK: Evidence Based on Fixed Effects Models. Work, Aging and Retirement, 4(3), 262-273.

https://doi.org/10.1093/workar/way003

This article analyses the effects on self-rated health of taking up paid work again after pension age. With the United Kingdom and Germany, two different institutional contexts are studied. Using fixed effects models and based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) and the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), we estimate the individual effects of taking up work again on self-rated health, and differentiate between taking up work in a low occupational class and in a middle or high occupational class. In Germany, taking up work again after pension age tends to have positive effects on self-rated health in both class categories. In the United Kingdom, no effect at all can be seen in the case of taking up work in a low class, whereas working in a middle or higher class leads to small improvements in self-rated health. We discuss these results with regard to their limitations and their generalisability.

Successful Aging at Work: A Process Model to Guide Future Research and Practice

Kooij, D. T., Zacher, H., Wang, M., & Heckhausen, J. (2019). Successful aging at work: A process model to guide future research and practice. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology: In press.

Although aging workforces result in numerous practical challenges for organizations and societies, little research has focused on successful aging at work. The limited existent research has generated rather diverse conceptualizations of successful aging at work, which are often broad and difficult to operationalize in practice. Therefore, to advance research and practice, we offer a specific and practical conceptualization of successful aging at work by developing a process model, which identifies relevant antecedents and mechanisms. In particular, we define successful aging at work as the proactive maintenance of, or adaptive recovery (after decline) to, high levels of ability and motivation to continue working among older workers. We also argue that proactive efforts to maintain, or adaptive efforts to recover and restore, high ability and motivation to continue working result from a self-regulation process that involves goal engagement and disengagement strategies to maintain, adjust, and restore person–environment fit. Further, we propose that at various levels (i.e., person, job, work group, organization, and society) more distal factors function as antecedents of this self-regulation process, with age- related bias and discrimination potentially operating at each level. Finally, we offer a roadmap for future research and practical applications.