Perspectives: Aligning Business Needs with Older Workers\u27 Preferences and Priorities

Perspectives: Aligning Business Needs with Older Workers’ Preferences and Priorities An Issue Brief Prepared by Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes and Michael A. Smyer for What An Aging Workforce Can Teach Us About Workplace Flexibility July 18, 2005

Age & Generations: Understanding Experiences at the Workplace

Examines differences in employees' perceptions of the quality of their jobs by generation, career stage, whether they have dependent care responsibilities, and length of tenure. Discusses elements of employment quality, including flexible work options

Legal and Research Summary Sheet: Phased Retirement

During the first decade of the 21st century, significant attention has been paid to the widely anticipated retirement of the Baby Boom generation from the U.S. workforce. Employers and policymakers have considered important questions such as: What percentage of older workers are likely to retire on a full-time basis between the ages of 62-65? What might the implications of a “mass exodus” of Baby Boomers mean for different types of businesses? Which types of policies and practices might encourage some older workers to extend their labor force participation, thereby enabling employers to retain the knowledge and skills of these experienced workers? Of course, older workers are also engaged in conversations about workplace innovations that might offer them more employment and employment-to-retirement choices. Surveys consistently find that older workers (particularly those aged 50 and older) plan to work past the traditional retirement ages of 62-65 years. However, the majority of older workers indicate that they would prefer not to work on a full-time or year round basis. As indicated by Figure 1 below, a recent Merrill Lynch Survey conducted by Harris Interactive & Dychtwald (2006) found that 38% of Baby Boomers would like to be able to cycle in and out of work

Discussing Work-Life Fit: Factors That Predict Supervisor Promotion of Flexible Work Arrangements.

Purpose: Increased access to flexible work arrangements has the prospect of enhancing work-family reconciliation. Under consideration is extent that managers assumed lead roles in initiating discussions, the overall volume of discussions that occurred, and the outcomes of these discussions. Methodology approach: A panel of 950 managers over one and a half years examines factors predicting involvement in a change initiative designed to expand flexible work arrangement use in a company in the financial activities supersector

Perspectives: Aligning Business Needs with Older Workers\u27 Preferences and Priorities

Perspectives: Aligning Business Needs with Older Workers’ Preferences and Priorities An Issue Brief Prepared by Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes and Michael A. Smyer for What An Aging Workforce Can Teach Us About Workplace Flexibility July 18, 2005

Manager attitudes concerning flexible work arrangements: fixed or changeable?

Flexible work arrangements (FWAs) present a vehicle for supporting caregiving responsibilities, but have yet to be widely implemented, in part, because of limited support from managers. This study examines transformation of manager attitudes toward FWAs in the context of a change initiative. Panel surveys of 721 managers revealed positive and negative attitudes concerning the use of FWAs and predictors of changes in these attitudes. Over the course of one year, the attitudes shifted in positive and negative directions consistent with conservation of resources and symbolic interactionism theory. Experience in supervising workers in FWAs, exposure to training, and perceived career rewards predicted favorable changes in attitudes. Findings offer support for advocacy for FWAs on the basis of a positive spiral of affirmation that connects experience and attitudes toward FWAs. The viewing of a personalized report on support of flexible work use by peers predicted development of more favorable attitudes in the merits of schedule flexibility. Findings indicate that manager attitudes about FWAs can be influenced, which in turn has potential to enhance family responsive employment practices

Charting new territory: Advancing multi-disciplinary perspectives, methods, and approaches in the study of work and family

For the past 30 years, there has been a sustained surge in academic interest in work-family issues. However, despite the increase in scholarly studies about work-family relationships and the explosive growth in work-family publications, until now there has not been any single handbook that compiled the work of scholars across the disciplines and also compared and contrasted their approaches to the study of work-family phenomena. This handbook, the cu 1mination of efforts of 63 leading work and family researchers, fills that gap and offers an overview of the major insights, challenges, and opportunities present in the work-family field. But, what exactly is the “work-family” field, when did it emerge, and why

The work and family handbook: Multi-disciplinary perspectives and approaches

The Work and Family Handbook is a comprehensive edited volume, which reviews a wide range of disciplinary perspectives across the social sciences on the study of work-family relationships, theory, and methods. The changing demographics of the labor force has resulted in an expanded awareness and understanding of the intricate relations between work and family dimensions in people’s lives. For the first time, the efforts of scholars working in multiple disciplines are organized together to provide a comprehensive overview of the perspectives and methods that have been applied to the study of work and family. In this book, the leading work-family scholars in the fields of social work, psychology, sociology, organizational behavior, human resource management, business, and other disciplines provide chapters that are both accessible and compelling. This book demonstrates how cross-disciplinary comparisons of perspective and method reveal new insights on the needs of working families, the challenges faced by those who study them, and how to formulate policy on their behalf