No description available.

The primary purpose of this study was to consider the extent to which the intent to retire early before age 65) is influenced by organizational commitment, job satisfaction, self-perception of faculty vitality, department head’s perception of faculty vitality, retirement salary, age and academic rank. A survey was administered to all male faculty (N=309) between 50 and 60 years of age and to the department heads of the respondents at a comprehensive research university. Complete data sets were received from 48% of the respondents (N=147). Intent to retire early was assessed by one open ended question. The Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (Mowday, Steers, & Porter, 1979) was used to assess organizational commitment while the Specific Satisfactions scale (Hackman & Oldham, 1975) measured over-all job satisfaction. Self-perception of faculty vitality and department head’s perception of faculty vitality were measured with a seven point Likert scale to determine perceived level of performance as compared to departmental colleagues in research, teaching, and service. Retirement salary (the percentage of final salary available as a retirement benefit), age, and academic rank were provided by administrative offices on campus. The variables were arranged in a fully recursive path model. Intent to retire early was significantly influenced by organizational commitment, retirement salary and self-perception of faculty vitality. Higher salaries and greater vitality led to a later intended age of retirement, while greater organizational commitment led to early retirement. Job satisfaction had a significant direct effect on organizational commitment. Both self-perception of faculty vitality and department head’s perception of faculty vitality had significant direct effects on job satisfaction. Self-perception of faculty vitality was significantly influenced by the department head’s perception of faculty vitality. Department head’s perception of faculty vitality was influenced significantly by the rank of the faculty. Results are discussed in terms of the policies that universities might implement to influence faculty to retire at a later age. These suggestions may provide alternative to the projected imbalance of faculty supply and demand. Recommendations for future research are discussed. / Ph. D.

The influence of demographic factors, work schedule flexibility, job satisfaction, job involvement, job seeking self-efficacy, certainty of retirement plans, familial and marital satisfaction, and attitude toward retirement on older workers' decision to fully retire, continue career employment, or participate in bridge employment was examined in this study.

This thesis investigates ‘the doing’ of the Swedish social insurance program Activity Compensation (AC). AC is an example of disability policies in Western welfare states. These policies have two goals: to ensure financial security and to promote social participation. In 2003 AC replaced Early Retirement Pension for persons aged 19 to 29 years and who, for medical reasons, have reduced work capacity. Three features characterize AC. Young adults are differentiated in a separate system. For them, benefits are time-limited. Benefits include an established right to participate in activities. Doing AC is studied bottom-up. Interviews with two actor groups have provided the empirical base: 1) persons accorded AC and medically certified to have an anxiety and/or a depression diagnosis and 2) the respective administrator(s) at the Swedish Social Insurance Agency. National legislative preparatory texts and legal documents complete the data. The conclusions of this study are three-fold addressing goal displacement and non-contact. Firstly, a discursive change in respect to the denotation of social participation within the politics of principle has appeared throughout OECD countries over the last decennium. This goal displacement obscures the goal of economic security emphasizing the profitability of work. AC explicitly manifests this change in establishing a right to activity participation for beneficiaries. This displacement is without full impact in the politics of practice when actors’ experience of doing AC is examined. Financial security remains the foremost goal in the local politics of practice mirroring the initial function of safeguard for those with reduced work capacity due to certified illness. Relating to this lexical displacement, the study concludes that social participation is revealed as a goal to be realized in a specific form, salaried employment, within a distinct arena, the labor market. Values such as life-quality are neglected as regulatory efforts to get persons on the track to work have been underscored. Finally, the prescribed contact between the insured young adults and their administrator(s) is not consistently present. This contact is a necessary condition for the intended planning of activities to take place. When non-contact prevails, the established regulatory right to participate in activities can not materialize.

The thesis is focused on the part of the pension reform, the issue pre-retairments as alternatives to early retirement. The thesis also includes assessing the impact of these two options to employees and employers.

No description available.

The primary purpose of this study was to ascertain institutional and individual responses to legislated changes in faculty retirement policies. This study focused on the impact and influence of early retirement incentive programs on faculty retirement behavior in selected Commonwealth of Virginia Universities. Fundamental changes in federal and state statutes directly affected the staffing and retirement patterns of tenured faculty in higher education. Some changes in the retirement process purported to save institutional dollars while other changes broached broader philosophical issues regarding the role of older workers and retirees in an aging society; the issue of productivity of younger and older workers; the compatibility of the tenure system with the elimination of mandatory retirement; and related issues pertaining to the faculty supply/demand equilibrium. This study described the legal and organizational domains of the faculty retirement process in the Commonwealth of Virginia and identified pertinent federal and state statutes applicable to the early retirement process. Selected state and university officials provided insight into their processes for adapting retirement legislation to institutional goals, needs, agenda, and expectations. Faculty staffing patterns and retirement trends were analyzed in detail for one of the participating institutions and analyses of institutional and personal variables relative to the faculty retirement process were provided. The results of the research confirmed that the State-authorized faculty Early Retirement Incentive Program served its purpose in selected instances. Similarly, the Governor’s one-time early retirement window successfully encouraged attrition from the faculty ranks. Consistent with other findings, the federal legislation raising the mandatory retirement age had little affect on faculty retirement behavior; however, the need for state legislative action applicable to the retirement process to be consistent and compatible was evident. / Ed. D.

Background. In Sweden 10 percent (550,000) of the labour force, aged 18 to 65 years are disability pensioners and about four percent are on sick leave. The knowledge of the course from healthy individual to disability pensioner is not well known and was the theme of this thesis. Objectives, Material and Methods. The aims of the thesis were to follow the study population regarding sickness absence, health care utilisation, quality of life, and survival. Population based data including 14,538 women and men from three cities in Sweden were used, of whom 1,952 were granted a disability pension at baseline or received one during follow up. Register data, including sickness spells, health care utilisation, and mortality data during 30 years of follow up, and questionnaire data including socio-economic and quality of life data were used. Results. The most powerful determinant for being granted a disability pension was cumulative annual sick leave days, more powerful than all other tested determinants together. The degree of explanation for all determinants combined was 96%. Health care utilisation among disability pensioners continued to be high also after disability pension, 2.3 times higher for hospital admissions and 8 times higher for primary health case appointments than among referents. Disability pensioners had lower quality of life than non-pensioners and old age pensioners. For those who became disability pensioners after the baseline measurements quality of life measures decreased progressively until disability pension was granted and were then stabilised on a low level. During follow up 525 (7.6%) subjects died. Compared with subjects who did not become disability pensioners the hazards ratio was 2.78 among women and 3.43 among men, even when the effect of a number of other outcome affecting variables were taken into account. The mortality differences were not explained by underlying disease. Conclusions. The risk of disability pension may be predicted but only late in the course of events. Disability pensioners continue to have a high level of health care utilisation, and have a worse quality of life development and a higher mortality rate than non-pensioners. Given the unfavourable outcome of disability pension, other means of managing the reduced work capacity might be considered.

We examined military retirement. We sought to determine if preretirement planning, having knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) that are readily transferable, and being committed to, and/or identifying with, the Navy would affect the retirement satisfaction and adjustment of a retired naval officers sample. Results indicated that both planning and transferability influenced retirement satisfaction and adjustment, while organizational commitment and identification did not. Implications of our findings, as well as a brief overview of some general retirement issues are included.

The purpose of this thesis has been to analyse seven major factors that tend to influence the rate of early retirement in Sweden. The scope of data was gathered for every municipality in Sweden. Economic theories of labour supply, Moral Hazard, Adverse Selection and the Insurance Model were used to analyse the empirical results. In the analysis, earlier studies of the rate of sickness absence were important and used as a framework in choosing the explanatory variables for the econometric model. The analysed variables were; average income, average sickness days, educational level, foreign born, public sector employment, unemployment and the share of women in the population. As a consequence of the rift that occurred in 2003, when the average sickness days decreased and disbursed early retirements simultaneously increased, the relationship between these two variables was given special attention. The empirical findings confirmed our conjectures and were consistent with earlier research. Average income and the level of education were negatively related to the rate of early retirement. Moreover foreign born, average sickness days and unemployment showed a positive relation to early retirement. The relationship between average sickness days and early retirement had statistically changed and decreased between the years. A possibility is that other factors, such as changed social norms and increased stress in society (which are difficult to measure in a statistical and economical sense) might have become more relevant in explaining the rate of early retirement. / Syftet med denna uppsats har varit att analysera sju viktiga faktorer som tenderar att påverka graden av förtidspensionering i Sverige. Data omfånget insamlades för alla kommuner i Sverige. Ekonomiska teorier om arbetsutbud, Moral Hazard, Adverse Selection och Insurance Model användes för att analysera de empiriska resultaten. I analysen var tidigare studier utav graden av sjukfrånvaro viktig och användes som ramverk i valet av de förklarande variablerna till den ekonometriska modellen. De analyserade variablerna var; medelinkomst, genom-snittliga sjukdagar, utbildningsnivå, utlandsfödda, offentligt anställda, arbetslöshet och andelen kvinnor i befolkningen. Som en konsekvens utav den klyfta som uppstod 2003, när de genomsnittliga sjukdagarna minskade och utbetalda förtidspensioner samtidigt ökade, gavs sambandet mellan dessa två variabler speciell uppmärksamhet. De empiriska iakttagelserna bekräftade våra förväntningar och stämde överens med tidigare forskning. Medelinkomst och utbildningsnivå var negativt relaterade till graden av förtidspensionering. Dessutom var utlandsfödd, genomsnittliga sjukdagar och arbetslöshet positivt relaterade till förtidspensionering. Relationen mellan de genomsnittliga sjukdagarna och graden av förtidspensionering hade statistiskt sätt ändrats genom att ha minskat mellan åren. En tänkbar förklaring till detta skulle kunna vara att andra faktorer, såsom skiftande sociala normer och en ökande stress i samhället (vilka är svåra att mäta statistiskt och ekonomiskt) kan ha blivit mer relevanta i att förklara graden av förtidspensionering.