Abstract
This chapter aims to understand the organizational practices of disengagement of senior employees, focusing primarily on the final phase of the careers of this class of employees and their entry into retirement. It analyzed the challenges of adaptation to retirement, as well as the disengagement practices used by organizations, and characterized the individual career management of seniors. The methodology used was qualitative, using a semi-structured interview complemented by a socio-demographic survey for data collection. The results of the study point to the fact that the whole process of end-of-career and retirement has a significant impact on both individuals and organizations. The evidence shows that factors such as aging and the importance of health and family are some of the main concerns of individuals. At the same time, organizations focus mainly on career management, succession processes, and employee satisfaction at the end of their careers and, consequently, on acceptable entry into retirement.
TopIntroduction
Aging is a natural and unstoppable biological process in any individual’s life; this phenomenon directly impacts each country’s available labor force (Cepellos, 2018; de Oliveira & Anderson, 2020). Of the various factors that have contributed to the increase in demographic aging, we can mention that the most important and impactful have been the low birth rate associated with a better quality of life and public health systems leading to an increase in average life expectancy (Cepellos, 2018; de Oliveira & Anderson, 2020).
We are currently experiencing a phenomenon of demographic aging as never been seen before. This phenomenon is no longer European, where it initially occurred, but is now a global reality. Such an event forces the countries to adjust, by increasing the retirement age, to guarantee not only the general maintenance of the labor force but, in many cases, the very subsistence of the Social State or the States’ Welfare systems. Organizations are currently facing an exodus regarding the departure of senior employees, and consequently, much of the knowledge was neither written down nor passed on to future generations. Adjacent to this phenomenon, it is easy to see that in the coming decades, population aging is expected to continue to be one of the main problems of current and developed societies due to the globalization of demographic aging (Cepellos, 2018; de Oliveira & Anderson, 2020).
As mentioned by Tavares (2020), aging will have a direct and marked impact on the available workforce within each country and, consequently, within each organization, which implies that societies and organizations need to start looking with special care to this segment of the population (older or senior people), since global trends simultaneously project an increase in average life expectancy and an increase in this age segment. On the other hand, a decrease in the young population is launched, which necessarily implies that a large part of this aging workforce that until then was seen as expendable and without a place in current organizations will remain active, thus demonstrating the critical role that senior employees will play in organizations and society.
Tavares (2020) reiterates that organizations must start preparations for the challenges inherent in this paradigm shift regarding the aging workforce available to organizations. Therefore, investing in the quality of work life is essential to mitigate the effects of an aging workforce on organizational performance. Since human capital is the differentiating factor in organizations, this capital inevitably includes the added value of senior employees with the skills and knowledge inherent in their years of experience. Thus, it is essential to create specific career management for this particular stage of individuals’ working lives to, on the one hand, optimize their potential and, on the other hand, allow this knowledge and skills to flow naturally to employees of younger generations, thus improving a better succession when the senior employee leaves (Rupp et al., 2006; Ramos, 2010).
The central theme of this study is the career management of senior employees, more specifically, the whole process inherent to the final phase of the career until the succession process and consequently the entry into retirement since there is little literature on the interaction and relationship of the transition phase to retirement and the adaptation of retirement.
Thus, the present study will use a qualitative research methodology of an inductive nature since it is a subject on which there is little literature. It also aims to understand the phenomenon under study more deeply. Thus, the research question “How are senior employees’ disengagement practices defined in organizations?” was identified. The general objective of this study is to understand the organizational practices of disengagement of senior employees, and more specifically: to identify the challenges in adaptation to retirement (of senior employees), to define the disengagement practices used by organizations, and to characterize the individual career management (of senior employees) in preparation for retirement.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Retirement: This is the final stage of an individual's career, where he/she leaves active life and enters a new phase.
Senior Collaborators: Those who are 65 years or older and have not yet retired.
Untying: The process of leaving an organization.
Career: The entire journey within any organization, where an individual performs a specific task or function.
Aging Workforce: Consists of a labor force for organizations that are older and closer to retirement.
Aging: A worldwide phenomenon of aging (the world's population getting older) resulting from improved living conditions, better health services, increasing life expectancy, and declining birth and mortality rates, directly impacting the labor force nationally and globally.
Succession Plan: It is strategic planning for replacing an employee who will leave the organization, either to change the organization or to retire, where this employee will help his substitute orient himself in his new function for a complete transition without loss of knowledge.
Career Management: Managing an individual's career within an organization.