Are high performance work systems compatible with the extending working life agenda?
ISSN: 0048-3486
Article publication date: 27 January 2021
Issue publication date: 11 March 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The paper examines the compatibility of two UK policy priorities – extending working life (EWL) and the promotion of national economic performance through high performance work practices (HPWP).
Design/methodology/approach
Empirical analysis has been conducted using data from WERS2011 to test hypotheses on whether age moderates the link between HPWP and employee well-being outcomes.
Findings
Development-oriented human resource strategies are found to compromise the wellbeing of older workers relative to younger ones, while some dimensions of HPWP lead to more favourable wellbeing outcomes for older workers relative to their younger counterparts (flexible working, performance-related pay and appraisal systems).
Research limitations/implications
At older ages those still in the workforce may be over-represented by happier and psychologically more robust individuals who have settled into jobs they find fulfilling, matching their personal characteristics and abilities. If so, the adverse well-being influence of development-oriented strategies may be understated, while favourable well-being outcomes for older workers may be overstated.
Practical implications
HRM strategies may need to be more age sensitive to support the EWL agenda better.
Originality/value
While many studies have examined the link between HPWP and a range of individual-level outcomes, less widely researched is whether responses vary by age, which the paper addresses.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author acknowledges the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research as the originators of the 2011 Workplace Employee Relations Survey data, and the Data Archive at the University of Essex as the distributor of the data.Funding: The research was supported by funding from the ESRC (ES/L002884/1). The views are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the ESRC.
Citation
Haile, G. (2022), "Are high performance work systems compatible with the extending working life agenda?", Personnel Review, Vol. 51 No. 1, pp. 176-193. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-03-2020-0157
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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