The Role of Job related Factors to Prolong Working Life: An Analysis for the German Labour Market
- Labour markets and companies in some developed countries have to consider general demographic changes. While the group of elderly workers grows, their sustainment will become more important in future (e.g. Höhn et al. 2008; Dittrich et al. 2011). Especially in combination with an ageing population and a later entrance into the labour market a future shortfall of active workers can be assumed. Germany – as one example of such countries – has only a limited number of options that policy makers and companies can use in the coming decades. One of these is the increased use of the three growing segments in the population: older people, immigrants and an increased participation of women in the labour market. This study focuses the first segment as a potential work force. When promoting that a higher employment rate of older workers can be considered as serious alternative for dealing with the current shortfall of skilled labour force, the motivation of these workers has to be investigated. The works of Alavinia et al. (2007) and Wang,Labour markets and companies in some developed countries have to consider general demographic changes. While the group of elderly workers grows, their sustainment will become more important in future (e.g. Höhn et al. 2008; Dittrich et al. 2011). Especially in combination with an ageing population and a later entrance into the labour market a future shortfall of active workers can be assumed. Germany – as one example of such countries – has only a limited number of options that policy makers and companies can use in the coming decades. One of these is the increased use of the three growing segments in the population: older people, immigrants and an increased participation of women in the labour market. This study focuses the first segment as a potential work force. When promoting that a higher employment rate of older workers can be considered as serious alternative for dealing with the current shortfall of skilled labour force, the motivation of these workers has to be investigated. The works of Alavinia et al. (2007) and Wang, Shultz (2010), which discuss factors influencing the decision to prolong the working age, can be used as starting point. In this context, we analyse the German labour market as an example for a developed country. For the analysis, we use a representative data set of the Federal Institute for Population Research of Germany from published in2008. Here, 1,500 employees (blue collar workers, white collar workers, civil servants) aged between 55 and 64 years were asked about their work situation, motivation and related factors (e.g. further education, job rewards; Büsch et al. 2010). During the data analysis we identify groups of elderly workers using cluster analysis (e.g. Cormack 1971) to develop recommendations for companies. By using existing work motivation and related findings, as well as a representative empirical data set, our study reveals a possibility to identify, classify, and enhance the motivation of workers at the end of their career. This is necessary to keep the quality of goods and service production at an appropriate level. The value of the paper comes from the large number of respondents of the data set and the high relevance of the German situation for other developed countries. At the end, powerful recommendations for companies how to involve and motivate elderly workers for longer periods of employment can be derived.…
Author: | Prof. Dr. Michael Brusch, Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Victoria Büsch |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:0298-opus4-2690 |
Parent Title (English): | Proceedings of the 15th QMOD Conference on Quality and Service Sciences |
Document Type: | Conference Proceeding/Conference Report |
Language: | English |
Date of Publication (online): | 2014/02/10 |
Year of first Publication: | 2012 |
Publishing Institution: | SRH Berlin University of Applied Sciences |
Contributing Corporation: | QMOD Conference on Quality and Service Sciences |
Release Date: | 2014/02/10 |
Tag: | Elderly Workers; Further Education; Work Motivation; Workability |
First Page: | 272 |
Last Page: | 281 |
Link author profile: | https://www.srh-berlin.de/hochschule/hochschulteam/buesch-victoria/ |
Date: | 05.-07.09.2012 |
Institutes: | Silver Workers Research Institute (SWRI, SRH Berlin) |
JEL-Classification: | J Labor and Demographic Economics |
Licence (German): | ![]() |