This research will focus on a significant problem of modern time: Increasing life expectancy: benefits and negative aspects in employing aging workers. The skills of effective employment and management about the aging population become exceptionally demanded in the labor market. The trend stems from the growing life expectancy. The increasing life expectancy reinforces the employment of the aging population which, in turn, provokes the changes of conventional approaches towards the management that are worthwhile a deaailed research. At the same time, the trend of increasing life expectancy directly impacts the administrative and management studies. The future managers and administrators have to be aware of how to prevent ageism and reinforce the performance effectiveness of elderly employees.
The trend of increasing life expectancy is certainly a global trend. Subsequently, the managers and administrators should become aware of the specific issues associated with the growing share of elderly employees regardless of the place of residence. In this regard, it is worth mentioning each world’s region is characterized by its’ own specific features shaping the agenda around the issue of increasing life expectancy. For example, in Europe, the older employees are in most cases well-qualified, and these are rather the public perception stereotypes that the workers and employees have to tackle (Ciutiene & Relate, 2015). At the same time, in Asia, and specifically Singapore, improving the skills of the older employees to make the latter capable of working not only in the low-skilled positions is the major challenge. Nevertheless, the majority of the challenges and opportunities stemming from the increased life expectancy are the same in each part of the world (Thang, 2011).
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"Ageism in the Workplace".
For the sake of developing a research proposal seven sources have been analyzed as related to the subject. All of the researches chosen for the assignment are focused primarily on demolishing the widely cultivated myths associated with the issue of increasing life expectancy as well as characteristics of the elderly workers. Alcover and Topa (2018) argue that, in most cases, the training opportunities available for older workers decrease forcing elderly employees to put more efforts into improving their skills. Johnson, Machowski, Holdsworth, Kern, and Zapf (2017) examine the elderly workers’ learning capacity and their ability to adjust to the new market demands. The authors argue that older workers can accomplish sophisticated tasks with fewer chances of burnout compared to their young colleagues. The study by Hennekam (2016) is largely supportive in this regard, as it is stated that the older workers are more engaged and, therefore, more likely to receive more satisfaction from job compared to the young employees.
Hertel, Rauschenbach, Thielgen, and Krumm (2015) present clear empirical evidence demolishing the widely accepted myths regarding the lack of skills that is believed to be a common problem for elderly workers. Finally, in the study Why older workers work beyond the retirement age: a qualitative study it is argued that the raising employment rates of the elderly population do not necessarily mean that the job opportunities for the young people are becoming worse (Sewdas, de Wind, van der Swan, van der Borg, Steenbeek, van der Beek, & Boot, (2017). Each study represents the trend of increasing life expectancy as an opportunity for growth rather than obstacle undermining the labor market development. For example, in a more or less explicit form, the researches demonstrate that the increasing share of the elderly employees in the labor market does not necessarily mean that the young workers may face substantial challenges during the employment process (Sewdas et al., 2017). In contrast, the growing life expectancy may reinforce the overall health and sustainability of the labor market. At the same time, the trend can turn into a genuine win-win situation only in case the managers and administrators will adjust to the new trend effectively.
This shows, how important it is to undertake a academic research on the mentoned above topic. The results of this research will not only have theoretical value, but will also be able to be practically implemented.
- Alcover, C.-M., & Topa, G. (2018). Work characteristics, motivational orientations, psychological work ability and job mobility intentions of older workers. PLoS ONE, 13(4), 1–24.
- Ciutiene, R., & Railaite, R. (2015). Age Management as a Means of Reducing the Challenges of Workforce Aging. Engineering Economics, 26(4), 391–397.
- Johnson, S. J., Machowski, S., Holdsworth, L., Kern, M., & Zapf, D. (2017). Original: Age, emotion regulation strategies, burnout, and engagement in the service sector: Advantages of older workers. Revista de Psicología Del Trabajo y de Las Organizaciones, 33, 205– 216.
- Hennekam, S. (2016). Vitality of older workers and its relationship with performance, career satisfaction and career success. Revue Management et Avenir, (83), 15–32.
- Hertel, G., Rauschenbach, C., Thielgen, M. M., & Krumm, S. (2015). Are older workers more active copers? Longitudinal effects of age-contingent coping on strain at work. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36(4), 514–537.
