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Older Workers and Occupational Identity in the Telecommunications Industry: Navigating Employment Transitions through the Life Course

Author

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  • Robert MacKenzie

    (Karlstad University, Sweden)

  • Abigail Marks

    (Heriot-Watt University, UK)

Abstract

The article examines the relationship between restructuring and work-based identity among older workers, exploring occupational identity, occupational community and their roles in navigating transitions in the life course. Based on working-life biographical interviews with late career and retired telecoms engineers, the article explores the role of occupational identity in dealing with change prior to and following the end of careers at BT, the UK’s national telecommunications provider. Restructuring and perpetual organizational change undermined key aspects of the engineering occupational identity, inspiring many to seek alternative employment outside BT. For older workers, some seeking bridge employment in the transition to retirement, the occupational community not only served as a mechanism for finding work but also provided a sustained collective identity resource. Distinctively, the research points to a dialectical relationship between occupational identity and the navigation of change as opposed to the former simply facilitating the latter.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert MacKenzie & Abigail Marks, 2019. "Older Workers and Occupational Identity in the Telecommunications Industry: Navigating Employment Transitions through the Life Course," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 33(1), pages 39-55, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:33:y:2019:i:1:p:39-55
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017018760212
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Mats Alvesson & Hugh Willmott, 2002. "Identity Regulation as Organizational Control: Producing the Appropriate Individual," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(5), pages 619-644, July.
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    Cited by:

    1. Remnant, Jen, 2019. "Getting what you deserve: How notions of deservingness feature in the experiences of employees with cancer," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 237(C), pages 1-1.

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