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Age Management in Organizations: The Perspective of Middle-Aged Employees

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Ageing, Organisations and Management

Abstract

The study in this chapter contributes to the discussion of extending careers in ageing societies. The discussion of career extension has mainly focused on the older workforce and how to extend careers at the tail end. The Finnish baby boomer generation (born 1945–1949) is large (390,000 in 2010, Statistics Finland); every fifth Finnish citizen is at least 65 years old. Because of the sustainable economy in the future it is important to delay their retirement. Another popular approach to the discussion of extending careers is from the younger generations’ (generations Y and Z) viewpoint. However, there seems to be little discussion of the career extension objectives of the currently middle-aged workforce. This study examines the relationship between the career extension for Finnish middle-aged people and work well-being. It is arguable that objectives to prolong Finnish people’s careers should be recognized for the whole career and that career extension action should be directed at middle-aged employees. Many of the methods for prolonging careers relate to human resource management (HRM) practices. Increasing work well-being has an effect on the career extension desires of individuals. For example, a range of flexible work arrangements and opportunities for further education in middle age can promote a career extension. Therefore, age management practices can be understood as coming under the remit of human resource management practices. The key question is how human resource practices are applied to the age context. The qualitative research data includes 48 accounts gathered from middle-aged Finnish adult working students.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lappeenranta University of Technology, Lappeenranta, Finland

    Pia Heilmann

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  1. Pia Heilmann
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Iiris Aaltio

  2. Sobey School of Business, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

    Albert J. Mills

  3. Sobey School of Business, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

    Jean Helms Mills

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Heilmann, P. (2017). Age Management in Organizations: The Perspective of Middle-Aged Employees. In: Aaltio, I., Mills, A., Mills, J. (eds) Ageing, Organisations and Management. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58813-1_7

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