IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bit/bsrysr/v10y2019i1p120-137n9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Responses to an Ageing Workforce: Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom

Author

Listed:
  • Cebulla Andreas

    (South Australian Centre for Economic Studies, University of Adelaide, Australia)

  • Wilkinson David

    (Department of Social Science, University College London, England)

Abstract

Background: An ageing workforce is a challenge for businesses that are increasingly expected to adapt workplaces to enable employees to remain in work longer. Emerging evidence highlights employer practices to attract or retain older workers. This paper explores employers’ motivations for introducing measures to accommodate an older workforce in three European case study countries. Objectives: The objective is to illustrate and understand different approaches to, and stages in, adjusting workplaces to accommodate an ageing workforce. Methods/Approach: The study combines case studies, including site visits and interviews, with expert consultations. Results: The research finds marked between-country differences, with United Kingdom case studies highlighting a strong emphasis on age-neutral practices shaped by legislation; age-confident practices in Germany resulting from collaborative arrangement between employers and trades unions (with legislation permissive towards age discrimination); business in Spain remaining relatively inactive, despite evidence of people expecting to work longer in life. Conclusions: Diverging employer motivations and responses to the challenge of an ageing workforce risk a multi-speed Europe in age-confident workplace innovation. A concerted effort that draws on the multiple factors that motivate initiative would be required to achieve good working conditions for older workers across Europe.

Suggested Citation

  • Cebulla Andreas & Wilkinson David, 2019. "Responses to an Ageing Workforce: Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom," Business Systems Research, Sciendo, vol. 10(1), pages 120-137, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bit:bsrysr:v:10:y:2019:i:1:p:120-137:n:9
    DOI: 10.2478/bsrj-2019-0009
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2478/bsrj-2019-0009
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2478/bsrj-2019-0009?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. van Dalen, Hendrik P. & Henkens, K. & Wang, Mo, 2015. "Recharging or retiring older workers? : Uncovering the age-based strategies of European employers," Other publications TiSEM 69faa9f6-fef8-4b59-aa70-8, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    2. Jürgen Bauknecht & Andreas Cebulla, 2016. "Extending Working Lives–Sticks and Carrots to Get the Older Unemployed Back into Employment," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 51(3), pages 134-139, May.
    3. Aurélien Colson & Patricia Elgoibar & Francesco Marchi, 2015. "Employee Representatives in France. Which are the perceptions and expectations by employers?," Post-Print hal-01804944, HAL.
    4. Riach, Peter A. & Rich, Judy, 2007. "An Experimental Investigation of Age Discrimination in the Spanish Labour Market," IZA Discussion Papers 2654, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Peter A. Riach, 2015. "A field experiment investigating age discrimination in four European labour markets," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(5), pages 608-619, September.
    6. David Wright, 2015. "How Have Employment Transitions for Older Workers in Germany and the UK Changed?," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 782, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    7. repec:ilo:ilowps:483344 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Wieteke S. Conen & Kène Henkens & Joop Schippers, 2012. "Employers’ attitudes and actions towards the extension of working lives in Europe," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 33(6), pages 648-665, September.
    9. Bispinck, Reinhard & Schulten, Thorsten, 2000. "Alliance for jobs: Is Germany following in the path of competitive corporatism? By Reinhard Bispinck and Thorsten Schulten," WSI Working Papers 84, The Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI), Hans Böckler Foundation.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kovács Erzsébet & Vaskövi Ágnes, 2020. "Pension Pessimism in the Young Generation: Basics or Instincts to Blame?," Business Systems Research, Sciendo, vol. 11(2), pages 117-131, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gaddis, S. Michael, 2018. "An Introduction to Audit Studies in the Social Sciences," SocArXiv e5hfc, Center for Open Science.
    2. Lössbroek, Jelle & Radl, Jonas, 2019. "Teaching older workers new tricks: workplace practices and gender training differences in nine European countries," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 39(10), pages 2170-2193.
    3. Xiaobo Yu & Pengyuan Wang & Xuesong Zhai & Hong Dai & Qun Yang, 2015. "The Effect of Work Stress on Job Burnout Among Teachers: The Mediating Role of Self-efficacy," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 122(3), pages 701-708, July.
    4. Bieling, Hans-Jürgen & Schulten, Thorsten, 2001. "Competitive restructuring and industrial relations within the European Union: Corporatist involvement and beyond?," WSI Working Papers 99, The Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI), Hans Böckler Foundation.
    5. Nicola Magnavita, 2018. "Obstacles and Future Prospects: Considerations on Health Promotion Activities for Older Workers in Europe," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-14, May.
    6. Baert, Stijn, 2017. "Hiring Discrimination: An Overview of (Almost) All Correspondence Experiments Since 2005," GLO Discussion Paper Series 61, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    7. Stijn Baert & Sunčica Vujić, 2018. "Does it pay to care? Volunteering and employment opportunities," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 31(3), pages 819-836, July.
    8. van Dalen, H.P. & Henkens, K., 2015. "Why Demotion of Older Workers is a No-Go Area for Managers," Other publications TiSEM cef69d5e-bcc2-4082-b9fa-0, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    9. Drydakis, Nick & MacDonald, Peter & Bozani, Vasiliki & Chiotis, Vangelis, 2017. "Inclusive Recruitment? Hiring Discrimination against Older Workers," IZA Discussion Papers 10957, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Eckhard Hein & Torsten Niechoj, 2005. "Leitlinien für ein dauerhaftes Wachstum in der EU? Konzept und Wirkung der "Grundzüge der Wirtschaftspolitik"," Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft - WuG, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik, vol. 31(1), pages 11-40.
    11. Sadia Shakeel & Muhammad Majid Khan & Rao Aamir Ali Khan & Bahaudin G. Mujtaba, 2022. "Linking Personality Traits, Self-Efficacy and Burnout of Teachers in Public Schools: Does School Climate Play a Moderating Role?," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 19-39, March.
    12. Van Borm, Hannah & Burn, Ian & Baert, Stijn, 2021. "What Does a Job Candidate's Age Signal to Employers?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    13. Garcia, Maria Teresa Medeiros & Fontainha, Elsa & Passos, José, 2017. "Hiring older workers: The case of Portugal," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 9(C), pages 71-77.
    14. Гильтман М. А. & Антосик Л. В. & Токарева О. Е. & Обухович Н. В., 2021. "Повышение Пенсионного Возраста В России: Итоги 2019 Г. Пример Тюменской Области," Вопросы государственного и муниципального управления // Public administration issues, НИУ ВШЭ, issue 2, pages 154-182.
    15. Piopiunik, Marc & Schwerdt, Guido & Simon, Lisa & Woessmann, Ludger, 2020. "Skills, signals, and employability: An experimental investigation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    16. Freyssinet, Jacques., 2010. "Les réponses tripartites à la crise économique dans les principaux pays d'Europe occidentale," ILO Working Papers 994567583402676, International Labour Organization.
    17. Henkens, Kène & van Dalen, Hendrik P. & Ekerdt, David J. & Hershey, Douglas A. & Hyde, Martin & Radl, Jonas & van Solinge, Hanna & Wang, Mo & Zacher, Hannes, 2018. "What We Need to Know About Retirement: Pressing Issues for the Coming Decade," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 58(5), pages 805-812.
    18. David Neumark, 2018. "Experimental Research on Labor Market Discrimination," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(3), pages 799-866, September.
    19. Jiří Bejtkovský, 2016. "The Age Management philosophy and the concept of Work-life balance in the selected Czech banking institutions," European Journal of Business Science and Technology, Mendel University in Brno, Faculty of Business and Economics, vol. 2(1), pages 32-42.
    20. Vânia de la Fuente-Núñez & Ella Cohn-Schwartz & Senjooti Roy & Liat Ayalon, 2021. "Scoping Review on Ageism against Younger Populations," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-24, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bit:bsrysr:v:10:y:2019:i:1:p:120-137:n:9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.sciendo.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.