Content area
Full text
Introduction
There is a lack of knowledge about the factors affecting older workers' intentions to continue in employment. At a general level, this is significant because Australia is similar to many OECD countries in that we face an ageing population and a shortage of skilled labour ([39] Productivity Commission, 2006). Further, ageing tends to cause a decline in participation rates because, as people grow older, they tend to participate less in the labour force, by either retiring or leaving the workforce well before their sixties ([5] Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006), and age discrimination still exists ([15] Encel and Studencki, 2004; [9] Branine and Glover, 1997; [21] Glover and Branine, 1997; [29] Lyon and Pollard, 1997).
However, there is relatively little written about the factors influencing older workers' intentions to continue working, and there is a lack of a model or framework for examining and explaining why people choose to stay at work ([27] Lee and Mitchell, 1994). Further, few organisations have implemented strategies specifically aimed at older worker retention ([41] Schramm, 2006). One reason may be the lack of knowledge about appropriate strategies for older workers.
Therefore, this paper proposes an extension to parts of the Meaning of Working (MOW) theoretical model (MOW International Research Team, 1987; [50] Westwood and Lok, 2003) to explain older workers' intentions to continue paid working and then develops and tests a scale for measuring the impact of work-related factors upon their intentions. Work-related factors associated with the meaning of working, which affect older workers' intentions to continue paid working (OWICW), are therefore examined. By identifying new influences, this paper is able to extend the MOW model to explain the work-related factors influencing OWICW and consequently, suggest older worker retention strategies for organisations and HRM.
Conceptual development
Working is usually considered to be of relatively high importance when compared with meaning in other areas in a person's life ([16] England, 1991). Working is also generally known to be more important than leisure, community and religion and was found in several studies to be ranked second only to family ([23] Harpaz, 1999; MOW International Research Team, 1987). Work is apparently so important to some individuals that they are willing to work even though they have enough money to maintain their...