"Regardless of age" : Australian university managers' attitudes and practices towards older academics
- Authors: Earl, Catherine , Taylor, Philip , Cannizzo, Fabian
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Work, Aging and Retirement Vol. 4, no. 3 (2018), p. 300-313
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- Description: As with other industrialized nations Australia's population is aging and older workers are encouraged to work for longer. At the same time, Australia's university sector, which is aging, is being reconfigured through changes that potentially marginalize its older workers as higher education institutions try to become more competitive in a global market. In this context, youthfulness appears to embody competitiveness and academic institutions are increasingly aspiring to a young workforce profile. This qualitative article builds on previous research to explore to what extent ageist assumptions shape attitudes to older workers and human resource management (HRM) practices within Australian universities even when HRM practitioners are well versed in antidiscrimination legislation that (unlike the Age Discrimination in Employment Act in the United States) applies to workers of all ages. Semistructured interviews conducted with 22 HRM practitioners in Australian universities reveal that university HRM practices generally overlook the value of retaining an older workforce by conflating "potential" with "youthfulness," assuming that staff potential and performance share a negative correlation with age. While mostly lower-ranked institutions have attempted to retain older academics to maintain an adequate labor supply, this study finds that university policies targeting the ongoing utilization of older workers generally are underdeveloped. Consequently, the availability of late career employment arrangements is dependent upon institutions' strategic goals, with favorable ad hoc solutions offered to academics with outstanding performance records, while a rhetoric of performance decline threatens to marginalize older academic researchers and teachers more generally.
Making the case for older workers
- Authors: Taylor, Philip , Earl, Catherine
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Management Revue Vol. 27, no. 1-2 (2016), p. 14-28
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- Description: Against a background of population ageing, and with it, concomitant effects on social welfare systems and labour markets, public policy makers in affected nations are seeking ways of pushing out the final age of withdrawal from their labour markets. Central to such efforts is promoting the contribution of older workers to organizations and overcoming labour market age barriers. Within this advocacy approach there has been recent interest in identifying and promulgating examples of employer best practice in order to emphasize new dimensions of the business case for employing older workers. Drawing on literature concerned with advocating an ethical concern in human resource management as it pertains to older workers, this article examines an exemplar set of employer case studies aimed at promulgating best practice. It considers the concept of age management and its manifestations to argue that many standard HRM practices are firmly, although probably unwittingly, grounded in ageist assumptions concerning the capacities, potentiality and contributions of both younger and older workers. This, we argue, is a consequence of an unnecessarily narrow conception of good employment practice based in an economic rationality that is not conducive to the effective management of age in organizations.
Planning for an ageing workforce
- Authors: Taylor, Philip
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Age management during the lifecourse: proceedings of the 4th Symposium on work ability p. 23-33
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Promoting worker resilience over the lifecourse
- Authors: McLoughlin, Christopher , Taylor, Philip , Bohle, Philip
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Resilience in Aging: Concepts, Research, and Outcomes p. 121-132
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- Description: In Australia, as in most other industrialized economies, there is growing concern about the work capacity of older workers and their retention in the workforce against a background of population aging and efforts to prolong working lives. It is widely recognized that working later will be promoted by equipping industry and workers with instruments that can gauge working potential. Although policy makers in most industrialized nations now consider an extension of working lives as the basis of sustaining welfare systems and offsetting decline in the number of young labor market entrants, globalization and the competition this fosters present as a strong countervailing force for both government and employers. Certain groups, including older workers with few or outdated skills, and those with declining health may be particularly affected by job insecurity and long-term unemployment. Reconciling these seemingly countervailing tensions is a problem now facing a number of industrialized economies. A resilient older worker whose skills and capabilities can easily adjust as the requirements of the market shift would help maintain labor productivity growth even as populations age (Hagemann and Nicoletti 1989). "From Introduction"
Age equality in education and training
- Authors: Taylor, Philip
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: International Encyclopedia of Education p. 262-268
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European employers policies concerning career management and learning from a life-span perspective
- Authors: Taylor, Philip , Brooke, Elizabeth , Di Biase, Tia
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Soziale Lebenslaufpolitik p. 474-497
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- Description: This chapter considers the characteristics of employer practices concerning age management, with specific reference to career management and learning among European employers. Using data collected for a recent European study of employer behaviour regarding workforce ageing we conceptualise the policy approach in organizations and how this is manifested in the experiences of employees. The chapter begins by examining recent changes in the way career management and learning are viewed, particularly the shift away from conceptualisations based on the notion that career management and learning are the prerogative of the young towards a perspective based on a more inclusive notion of career management learning taking place at different transition points in the lifecycle.
European employers policies concerning career management and learning from a life-span perspective
- Authors: Taylor, Philip , Brooke, Elizabeth , Di Biase, Tia
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Soziale Lebenslaufpolitik p. 474-497
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- Description: This chapter considers the characteristics of employer practices concerning age management, with specific reference to career management and learning among European employers. Using data collected for a recent European study of employer behaviour regarding workforce ageing we conceptualise the policy approach in organizations and how this is manifested in the experiences of employees. The chapter begins by examining recent changes in the way career management and learning are viewed, particularly the shift away from conceptualisations based on the notion that career management and learning are the prerogative of the young towards a perspective based on a more inclusive notion of career management learning taking place at different transition points in the lifecycle.
Older workers and organizational change: corporate memory versus potentiality
- Authors: Taylor, Philip , Brooke, Libby , McLoughlin, Christopher , Biase, Tia
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Manpower Vol. 31, no. 3 (2010), p. 374-386
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- Description: Purpose – Drawing on the recent work of Sennett and others who considered the position of older workers in dynamic economies subject to rapid change, this paper aims to examine the perceived fit between employees of different ages and their employing organizations in four Australian workplaces. Design/methodology/approach – Analysis of qualitative data, collected among workers and managers in four Australian organizations, was performed. Findings – Results suggests that potentiality tended to be prized as an asset over corporate memory. While managers were frequently paternalistic towards their older employees, ageing human capital was often devalued as managers tried to balance operational budgets and organizations sought to remain responsive to changing market demands. Originality/value – The paper discusses the implications for the prolongation of working lives.
Ageing and the labour market - A comparison of policy approaches
- Authors: Frerichs, Frerich , Taylor, Philip
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Social Policy in Ageing Societies: Britain and Germany Compared p. 46-81
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- Description: Both Germany and the UK are experiencing substantial ageing of their workforces and, simultaneously, their workforces are shrinking. At the same time it is important to note that older workers, particularly men, have been regarded by employers and policy makers as a reserve labour army in the past in both countries (Naegele and Walker, 2002a). Older workers have been confronted with numerous forms of direct and indirect discrimination in both the workplace and in the labour market in general. The result has been long-term unemployment and non-employment among older workers. Employment rates of older workers in both countries have declined dramatically over the past twenty years, although significant differences between the United Kingdom and Germany can be observed (Walker, 2002a). Low labour market participation rates are mainly due to early retirement schemes in Germany, which have been implemented in past decades (Naschold et aI., 1994; Ebbinghaus, 2001) and due to usage of occupational pension schemes, disability benefits as quasi-early retirement, early retirement schemes and discouragement from staying in work in the UK (Taylor and Walker, 1996; Taylor and Unwin, 1999). Although early exit pathways have been terminated or their scope limited and there is an increasing emphasis on prolonging working life, the legacy in terms of promoting negative views of older workers is persistent. [Introduction]
European union for older workers
- Authors: Taylor, Philip
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Ageing, Intergenerational Solidarity and Age-Specific Vulnerabilities p. 45-67
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