A qualitative analysis of older workers' perceptions of stereotypes, successful ageing strategies and human resource management practices

Because of the progressive ageing of the world’s population in the last 25 years, the contributions of older age groups of workers have become increasingly important in many countries. Yet, older workers (those aged 55 years and over) are not always utilised or valued as much as they could be in the workplace. As a part of an EU funded cross-cultural and cross-sectoral programme we are investigating what features of work and work environment both older workers and Human Resource managers find increasingly important for older workers’ well-being and performance. We are discussing workers’ individual approaches in the utilisation of successful ageing strategies as well as the types of organisational support valued by older workers. Our findings based on a literature review and interview data from over 40 interviews in nine employment organisations from two countries (United Kingdom and Bulgaria) and two industrial sectors (healthcare and IT) suggest that workers in their late career are likely to acknowledge the occurrence of some age-related changes in their work values, needs, approaches and capacity. These changes, in turn shape workers’ views about the types of work environment and organisational support they want

The experience of being an older worker in an organization: a qualitative analysis

This qualitative study with 37 older workers from ten employing organizations in two countries (United Kingdom and Bulgaria) and two industrial sectors (healthcare and ICT) identifies key themes around workers’ conceptualizations of being an older worker and aging at work, and the types of organizational support they considered most beneficial in late career. The study integrates current fragmented theories around work performance and well-being in late career and also introduces new concepts in this context. We find that overall older workers are likely to view their late career more in terms of development than decline. This is reflected in their positive perceptions of themselves and their conceptualizations of beneficial age-related changes such as ability to see the big picture and freedom to speak frankly. Many of these stem from their accumulated knowledge and experiences, and valuing meaning and contribution over career advancement. Whilst some concern with coping and getting by is evident (we call this surviving), interviewees were able to articulate many ways in which they felt they were thriving (Porath et al., 2012) at work. We identify nine types of organizational support perceived by these older workers as most desirable (whether or not available). Four concern intrinsic features of work, three are to do with social integration and respect, and two concern extrinsic factors. Hence there is much that organizations can do apart from retirement programs and flexible work options to enable workers in late career to thrive and survive

Behavioral influences on driver crash risks in Ghana: A qualitative study of commercial passenger drivers

Objectives: While there is a growing body of literature on crash risks in the developed world, little is known about how well these models apply to motoring in developing countries, the context in which the majority of road traffic fatalities occur. This qualitative study explores factors perceived to influencinge crash risks for commercial drivers in Ghana. Method: Twenty commercial drivers of varied ages and experience were sampled from 7 major lorry terminals in 3 regions (Greater Accra, Ashanti, and Volta) of Ghana. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Results: The participants identified some issues that are shared with drivers in the developed world, though moderated by the Ghanaian context. These included working pressures (e.g., fatigued driving), speeding, distracted driving and inadequate vehicle maintenance. Other factors identified by the participants are infrequently less frequently considered in research addressing driving behavior in developed countries. These included aggressive competition over passengers and corruption (e.g., improper licensing practices) among others. Conclusion: The findings have implications for building a research base to support the development of road safety policy and interventions in developing countries

Enriched biodiversity data as a resource and service

Background: Recent years have seen a surge in projects that produce large volumes of structured, machine-readable biodiversity data. To make these data amenable to processing by generic, open source “data enrichment” workflows, they are increasingly being represented in a variety of standards-compliant interchange formats. Here, we report on an initiative in which software developers and taxonomists came together to address the challenges and highlight the opportunities in the enrichment of such biodiversity data by engaging in intensive, collaborative software development: The Biodiversity Data Enrichment Hackathon. Results: The hackathon brought together 37 participants (including developers and taxonomists, i.e. scientific professionals that gather, identify, name and classify species) from 10 countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the UK, and the US. The participants brought expertise in processing structured data, text mining, development of ontologies, digital identification keys, geographic information systems, niche modeling, natural language processing, provenance annotation, semantic integration, taxonomic name resolution, web service interfaces, workflow tools and visualisation. Most use cases and exemplar data were provided by taxonomists. One goal of the meeting was to facilitate re-use and enhancement of biodiversity knowledge by a broad range of stakeholders, such as taxonomists, systematists, ecologists, niche modelers, informaticians and ontologists. The suggested use cases resulted in nine breakout groups addressing three main themes: i) mobilising heritage biodiversity knowledge; ii) formalising and linking concepts; and iii) addressing interoperability between service platforms. Another goal was to further foster a community of experts in biodiversity informatics and to build human links between research projects and institutions, in response to recent calls to further such integration in this research domain. Conclusions: Beyond deriving prototype solutions for each use case, areas of inadequacy were discussed and are being pursued further. It was striking how many possible applications for biodiversity data there were and how quickly solutions could be put together when the normal constraints to collaboration were broken down for a week. Conversely, mobilising biodiversity knowledge from their silos in heritage literature and natural history collections will continue to require formalisation of the concepts (and the links between them) that define the research domain, as well as increased interoperability between the software platforms that operate on these concepts

The first OSCE; Does students' experience of performing in public affect their results? Assessment and evaluation of admissions, knowledge, skills and attitudes

Background: Personal qualities have been shown to affect students' exam results. We studied the effect of experience, and level, of public performance in music, drama, dance, sport, and debate at the time of admission to medical school as a predictor of student achievement in their first objective structured clinical examination (OSCE). Methods: A single medical school cohort (n=265) sitting their first clinical exam in 2011 as third year students were studied. Pre-admission statements made at the time of application were coded for their stated achievements in the level of public performance; participation in each activity was scored 0-3, where 0 was no record, 1=leisure time activity, 2=activity at school or local level, 3=activity at district, regional or national level. These scores were correlated to OSCE results by linear regression and t-test. Comparison was made between the highest scoring students in each area, and students scoring zero by t-test. Results: There was a bell shaped distribution in public performance score in this cohort. There was no significant linear regression relationship between OSCE results and overall performance score, or between any subgroups. There was a significant difference between students with high scores in theatre, debate and vocal music areas, grouped together as verbal performance, and students scoring zero in these areas. (p<0.05, t-test) with an effect size of 0.4. Conclusions: We found modest effects from pre-admission experience of verbal performance on students' scores in the OSCE examination. As these data are taken from students' admission statements, we call into question the received wisdom that such statements are unreliable