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What do I make of the rest of my life? Global and quotidian life construal across the retirement transition

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  • Steiner, Jeff
  • Amabile, Teresa M.

Abstract

Retirement means relinquishing the daily structure that work provides and the career-dependent meanings that it offers life narratives. The retirement transition can therefore involve contemplating both how to spend newly-freed daily time and the implications of retirement for one’s life narrative. We investigate how American professionals construe their working and retirement lives, in a qualitative study drawing on 215 interviews with 120 participants, including 12 interviewed longitudinally throughout their years-long retirement transitions. We identify two orthogonal dimensions for contemplating the work and retirement domains of one’s life – global and quotidian life construal – and four basic modes of cognition that arise from variability across these dimensions. We induce a theoretical model describing how construal of working life prefigures construal of retirement life, which then shapes the retirement life experience. This study contributes to construal level theory, narrative psychology, and the literatures on retirement transitions and the meaning of work.

Suggested Citation

  • Steiner, Jeff & Amabile, Teresa M., 2022. "What do I make of the rest of my life? Global and quotidian life construal across the retirement transition," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jobhdp:v:171:y:2022:i:c:s0749597822000218
    DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2022.104137
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Bonsang, Eric & Klein, Tobias J., 2012. "Retirement and subjective well-being," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 83(3), pages 311-329.
    2. Marleen Damman & Kène Henkens & Matthijs Kalmijn, 2013. "Late-Career Work Disengagement: The Role of Proximity to Retirement and Career Experiences," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 68(3), pages 455-463.
    3. Joseph Henrich & Steve J. Heine & Ara Norenzayan, 2010. "The Weirdest People in the World?," RatSWD Working Papers 139, German Data Forum (RatSWD).
    4. Yudkin, Daniel A. & Liberman, Nira & Wakslak, Cheryl & Trope, Yaacov, 2020. "Better off and far away: Reactions to others’ outcomes depends on their distance," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 13-23.
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    Cited by:

    1. Lee Cunningham, Julia J. & Cable, Daniel M. & Petriglieri, Gianpiero & Sherman, David K., 2023. "Advances in self-narratives in, across, and beyond organizations," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    2. Sheprow, Elizabeth & Harrison, Spencer H., 2022. "When regular meets remarkable: Awe as a link between routine work and meaningful self-narratives," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).

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