Thesis advisor: John B. Williamson / Today, against the backdrop of the demographic pressures to delay the retirement of older workers, sociologists of aging have begun exploring the impact of national labor market institutions on individual workers’ experiences of aging. Using semi-structured, life story interview data drawn from a sample of 52 male workers in the Tokyo area (born between 1940 and 1953), this dissertation research has contributed to uncovering the ways in which the institution of lifetime employment – the most foundational labor market institution of contemporary Japan – uses age to control individuals’ perceptions and behaviors over the course of their working lives. This dissertation research includes data from pre-mandatory retirement older workers (n=29, aged 55-59) and post-mandatory retirement older workers (n=23, aged 60-68). Based on a social constructionist perspective, this dissertation research has explored three areas of these workers’ experiences of aging over the course of their working lives: (1) perceived instances of being subjected to age discrimination; (2) changes to their attitudes toward these age discrimination experiences; and (3) changes to their self-concepts as workers. A series of thematic data analyses of the interview data, drawn with a life course approach and a grounded theory method, has generated two sets of findings. First, the pre-mandatory retirement experiences of aging of the interview participants (n=52) have contributed to uncovering and describing a social process through which ‘older workers’ are socially constructed within the institutional framework of lifetime employment. Second, the research has found that after mandatory retirement, the post-mandatory retirement workers (n=23) rejected the label of ‘older workers’ and critically viewed lifetime employment as a 'total institution' (Goffman 1961), essentially an institution of social control, harmful to workers in their later working lives. This dissertation research has contributed to the literature by demonstrating that the lifetime employment institution in Japan serves as an intensive age-based social control mechanism that has constructed and reproduced ‘older workers’ in the country’s labor force. Based on the findings of post-mandatory retirement experience of aging, this dissertation research also suggests that the Japanese government should find ways to mitigate the social exclusion, marginalization, and stigmatization that workers experience in their post-mandatory retirement working lives. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

Due to the ageing population, an increasing number of older workers form the labour force. Unfortunately discriminatory practices against older workers are well documented and the antecedents of such discrimination are assumed to be negative attitudes towards older workers. No previous research has investigated implicit attitudes towards older workers or their behavioural consequences. Accordingly, the present research aimed to investigate both implicit and explicit attitudes towards older workers, and their predictive utility in an employment-related context. In addition, attitude malleability and the role it may play in the attitude-behaviour relationship was investigated. This thesis reports findings from 5 studies, a pilot study and 4 main studies. The pilot study determined that the Implicit Association Test (IAT; A.G. Greenwald, D. E. McGhee & J. L. K. Schwartz, 1998) was to be used in the main studies. The 4 main studies investigated implicit attitudes, and the malleability of such attitudes towards older, relative to younger, workers. The malleability of attitudes was investigated with a mental imagery intervention where the experimental group participants were asked to imagine and describe respected and valued older workers in their surroundings. The control group participants were asked to imagine holiday destinations they would like to visit. In general, it was expected that negative implicit and explicit attitudes would be found towards older workers but that such bias could be alleviated with a mental imagery intervention. In all studies, negative implicit attitudes against older workers were found and such attitudes were relatively uninfluenced by the mental imagery manipulation. Three studies included explicit measures of attitudes. Although some variation was found between the studies and the measures used, overall positive attitudes towards older and younger workers were found. The mental imagery manipulation was also found to influence the explicit attitudes to a greater degree than implicit attitudes. The final study investigated the relationship between attitudes and behaviour. Specifically, both implicit and explicit attitudes’ relationships with spontaneous and controlled-type behaviours towards an older and a younger target were examined. Overall, some evidence for youth-bias in the participants’ behaviour was found, as well as evidence for the relationship between explicit attitudes and spontaneous behaviours. Implicit attitudes were largely unrelated to behaviour. In general, the mental imagery intervention did not impact the attitude-behaviour relationship. Implications for older workers are discussed, as well as educational methods for reducing discrimination older workers face in employment.

Due to the ageing population, an increasing number of older workers form the labour force. Unfortunately discriminatory practices against older workers are well documented and the antecedents of such discrimination are assumed to be negative attitudes towards older workers. No previous research has investigated implicit attitudes towards older workers or their behavioural consequences. Accordingly, the present research aimed to investigate both implicit and explicit attitudes towards older workers, and their predictive utility in an employment-related context. In addition, attitude malleability and the role it may play in the attitude-behaviour relationship was investigated. This thesis reports findings from 5 studies, a pilot study and 4 main studies. The pilot study determined that the Implicit Association Test (IAT; A.G. Greenwald, D. E. McGhee & J. L. K. Schwartz, 1998) was to be used in the main studies. The 4 main studies investigated implicit attitudes, and the malleability of such attitudes towards older, relative to younger, workers. The malleability of attitudes was investigated with a mental imagery intervention where the experimental group participants were asked to imagine and describe respected and valued older workers in their surroundings. The control group participants were asked to imagine holiday destinations they would like to visit. In general, it was expected that negative implicit and explicit attitudes would be found towards older workers but that such bias could be alleviated with a mental imagery intervention. In all studies, negative implicit attitudes against older workers were found and such attitudes were relatively uninfluenced by the mental imagery manipulation. Three studies included explicit measures of attitudes. Although some variation was found between the studies and the measures used, overall positive attitudes towards older and younger workers were found. The mental imagery manipulation was also found to influence the explicit attitudes to a greater degree than implicit attitudes. The final study investigated the relationship between attitudes and behaviour. Specifically, both implicit and explicit attitudes’ relationships with spontaneous and controlled-type behaviours towards an older and a younger target were examined. Overall, some evidence for youth-bias in the participants’ behaviour was found, as well as evidence for the relationship between explicit attitudes and spontaneous behaviours. Implicit attitudes were largely unrelated to behaviour. In general, the mental imagery intervention did not impact the attitude-behaviour relationship. Implications for older workers are discussed, as well as educational methods for reducing discrimination older workers face in employment.

This dissertation consists of three chapters that study issues related to unemployment and retirement decisions of workers.The first chapter examines the impact of additional pension benefits on the retirement timing of low-income female workers in Germany. Using administrative pension insurance records from Germany, it studies the impact of a pension subsidy program on retirement decisions of recipients. The kinked schedule of the policy allows me to identify the causal effect using a regression kink design. The estimation suggests that 100 euros in additional monthly pension benefits induce female recipients to claim pensions earlier by about 10 months. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that the ratio of the behavioral cost to the mechanical cost of this subsidy program is 0.3, which is smaller than that of other anti-poverty programs. The second chapter studies the total labor supply effects of Unemployment Insurance (UI) for older workers --- both at the extensive and the intensive margin. It documents sharp bunchings in UI inflows at age discontinuities created by UI eligibility for workers in their 50s. Using a combination of regression discontinuity designs and bunching techniques, we quantify the magnitude of these responses exploiting a variety of thresholds, kinks, and notches induced by the UI and retirement institutions. We estimate the total effect using a dynamic life-cycle structural model. Results suggest that the impact of UI extension on non-employment durations for older workers is almost twice as large as the impact for younger workers. The third chapter examines the impact of receiving written advance notification of layoff on the labor supply of displaced workers by exploring the California Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act. The California WARN Act, implemented in 2003, expands the requirements of the federal WARN Act. It provides protection to workers in smaller firms and at smaller layoff events. Using the Displaced Worker Supplement to the Current Population Surveys from 1996 to 2018 and a differences-in-difference method, I find that the displaced workers affected by the mini WARN Acts are 3\% more likely to claim unemployment insurance. Conditional on claiming UI, they are less likely to exhaust UI.

This thesis examines the capacity and desire of older workers to provide discretionary effort and skilled contributions in what some researchers consider to be the predominant form of new career, the 'boundaryless career'. Features of the 'boundaryless career' include multiple employers, and the demise of the organisational loyalty that was embodied within the image of the 'company man'. The research is justified by the fall in Australia's fertility rates and the simultaneous ageing of Australia's population. In combination, these are predicted to produce significant shortfalls in skilled labour, which experts believe will require organisations to better manage and utilise its older workers. The case study and pattern matching methodology involved interviews with forty volunteer older workers who worked in the headquarters of Australia Post, which enjoys a formidable local and international reputation. 'Career plateau' was a term used by many to describe their perception of their current career position and prospects. Their descriptions of their work situation and their ambitions, at work and in retirement, were analysed for patterns which were then compared with literature on career plateaus, motivation and job design, and the 'boundaryless career'. This analysis was overlaid onto a foundation of contemporary management practice with regard to older workers, current business environments and issues, and views on the skill sets needed for the future. This foundation emerged from a review of academic literature, business and government reports and from an ongoing review of the Australian Financial Review over the six years of the study. Contributions to theory and practice are claimed in the parent theories of career plateau, and older worker motivation; together with the focus theory of boundaryless careers. Although there are legitimate organisational constraints on optimising the older worker contribution, older workers do not contribute to capacity, and organisations do little to optimise their contribution. Joint organisational and individual worker attention to skills maintenance and career management over an entire working life will likely be 'boundaryless' for both organisations and the older workforce.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Increasing numbers of older people are working past retirement age. However, older women are leaving the work force earlier compared with men, despite having longer life expectancies. Given the economic and health benefits of staying in the labor force in later life, it is important to understand which factors may contribute to older women exiting the labor force. With advancing ages, women may experience increasing work discrimination due to ageism and sexism. Using data from Wave 11 (2012) the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), I examine whether age is a predictor of work discrimination among older women workers. I conducted multivariable linear regression to assess whether age predicts perceived work discrimination among older women workers, net of all covariates. Additionally, an interaction between race and age was investigated to assess whether women of color experienced more work discrimination with advancing ages. I observed that age was negatively associated with work discrimination. Findings suggest that experiences with work discrimination may push older women out the labor force prematurely. Older women may desire to escape discriminatory work environments with less favorable conditions.

Thesis advisor: Christina Matz-Costa / Despite the fact that older workers (50+) are much overrepresented among the long-term unemployed and often suffer from multiple mental health problems, the social work literature has rarely tackled this issue. In my dissertation, guided by Jahoda’s Latent Deprivation Theory and the productive aging framework, I examined the positive coping strategies of unemployed older workers. I set out to understand whether engaging in formal volunteering in an organization would buffer the negative impact of unemployment on older workers’ mental health. I also fill out the gap in the literature regarding the mechanism of the positive effect of volunteering on mental health by examining two latent benefits from working as mediators: purpose in life and perceived social status. I used fixed effects modeling for the moderation analysis. I analyzed six waves (12 years) of longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). I used structural equation modeling and analyzed two waves of HRS for the mediation analysis. I used full information maximum likelihood method to handle missing values. I found that there was a significant moderation between engaging in formal volunteering and unemployment status on older workers’ depressive symptoms. Unemployed older workers who engaged in volunteering fared better than those unemployed workers who did not volunteer. Consistent with previous studies using the HRS, I also found that those unemployed older workers who volunteered over 200 hours/year did not benefit from volunteering compared to those volunteered under 100 hours/year. Mediation analysis results showed that perceived social status and purpose in life mediate the protective effect of volunteering. Both the moderation and mediation results varied by race and ethnicity. Results from this dissertation have important implications for future intervention development. For example, interventions targeting the unemployed older workers may incorporate formal volunteering as one element for participants to gain social contact, purpose in life, and enhance perceived social status. Interventions can also create an environment that mirrors an office to enhance these latent benefits (mediators) in order to improve mental health. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Social Work. / Discipline: Social Work.

Australia's population and workforce are ageing. The reason for an ageing population is the post World War II baby boom, followed by low birth rates in subsequent generations. Combined with healthier lifestyles, advances in medical science and the subsequent increase in longevity, this means that there are more older people than ever before and this trend will continue for several more decades. However, workforce demographics are also affected by ageing, and Australian organisations will need to employ more older workers in the near future to meet predicted shortfalls of skilled workers. Although there have been studies examining the current low employment rates of older workers, the identification of negative stereotypes associated with older workers, and related problems and challenges (such as age discrimination), no study of the working intentions of older Australian workers has been reported. Therefore, the aim of this research is to explore the meaning of working for older workers to better understand whether and why older Australian workers might want to continue working. In particular, this thesis explores what it is about working that makes some people want to continue beyond the traditional age of retirement, while others wish to cease work as soon as they are able. There are clear implications for individuals, organisations and public policy emanating from the extension to working lives. The research aims and objectives were best met within a phenomenological approach, and the data collection consisted of four studies. The setting for the research was a single organisation; an Australian university. Three of these studies were qualitatively-driven, within an interpretivist paradigm: (i) in-depth interviews with older employees (aged 50 years or older) to determine their meanings of working; (ii) interviews with managers to determine whether there were any organisational factors encouraging older workers to retire early; and (iii) interviews with retirees to determine their meanings of working and retirement. The fourth study was quantitative and examined the demographics of the organisation and the relevant HRM policy documents. The thesis uses the meaning of working as the initial theoretical conceptual perspective, and derives a new conceptual perspective for managing older workers, which is outlined in the last chapters. The research draws from two perspectives - the organisation and the individual. The organisational perspective examines the management of organisational staffing in the context of future demographic changes. The individual perspective is explored via the meaning of working to older workers. The key findings from the research in the chosen university suggest that despite the Commonwealth Government's attempts to encourage older workers to continue working, the majority of the older workers, irrespective of employment category, did not want to continue working beyond the traditional retirement age of 65 years. Reasons included wanting to spend more time with a life partner, becoming more involved with interests outside of work, and removing themselves from the negative circumstances in the organisation. However, of those who wanted to continue working, the majority was from the academic employment category (both employees and retirees), and the minority was from the administrative or general employment category. Additionally, the academic participants rated working in their lives as important or very important; higher than the ratings provided by the general staff participants. Explanations are offered as to reasons for such differences between the employment categories. The consequences of these findings include the need for a new approach to managing older workers, and particularly at the end of their working lives and into retirement. Australian organisations cannot afford to continue losing staff to early retirement, yet this trend appears to continue. Suggestions to meet this challenge are made at three levels: public policy, the organisation and the individual. Implications for future research are presented in the final chapter.

Economic changes have resulted in a new contextual spectrum for career development with relatively secure, hierarchical, organizational structures at one end and flatter, de-layered, insecure environments at the other. This narrative review explores the literature relating to the psychological determinants of career plateauing in older managers against such a background. The body of literature informing this issue was analysed using the systematic review method. This is designed to produce a transparent and replicable account of how pertinent studies are located and the basis on which they are either included or rejected through use of explicit relevance, generalisability, and quality criteria. The overall outcome is a synthesis and summary of what is known about the topic, the limitations of the review, and identification of gaps in knowledge - the latter forming recommendations for future research. The findings of this review indicate that a range of subjective determinants may play a part in career plateauing in older managers including fairly stable attributes such as personality, and individual and social identity, and more fluid factors such as attitudes, and motivation. Motivation may be driven by one or more goals including future success, present job satisfaction or ongoing personal development. Numerous other determinants may play a role but little evidence is available as to how the range of potential influences operates at an individual level. Further qualitative research is needed into individual older managers’ experiences and how they may differ according to gender.

This study explores what UK managers aged 50 and over perceive as career progression at a time in life when opportunities for further promotion may have ceased. It examines motivational drivers and subjectively significant personal and organizational influences on career progression. It also investigates whether motivation for career progression is perceived to have changed over the career and the extent to which it may differ between male and female older managers. The research adopted a qualitative, inductive approach using a phenomenological methodology. Fieldwork comprised semi-structured interviews with 27 male and 13 female managers aged 50 and over from two large, UK financial services organizations. The findings show how motivation for career progression in managers aged over 50 is driven by individually diverse patterns of career drivers, personal and work-related influences, and attitudes towards career opportunities. These can be classified into a number of career progression orientations. The study contributes to knowledge in the area of subjective psychological career mobility in late career and the balance which individuals maintain between the organizational and personal aspects of their career. It demonstrates that motivational drivers of career progression are perceived to change over the career and that career progression is linked, on an individual basis, to past, current and future career mobility which may extend past the traditional retirement transition. It also reveals that, in general, older female managers may exhibit a greater drive for self-realisation through later life career renewal than their male counterparts.