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The purpose of this paper is to propose and test a model of the underlying mechanisms linking perceived availability of human resource (HR) practices relevant to older nurses and older nurses’ intentions to stay with their hospitals.

Quantitative data were collected from randomly selected older registered nurses (N=660) engaged in direct patient care in hospitals in Canada. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypothesized model.

The relationship between perceptions of HR practices (performance evaluation, recognition/respect) and intentions to stay was mediated by the perceived fairness with which nurse managers managed these HR practices and nurse manager satisfaction. When nurse managers were perceived to administer the HR practices fairly (high perceived procedural justice), older nurses were more satisfied with their nurse manager and, in turn, more likely to intend to stay.

The cross-sectional research design does not allow determination of causality.

It is important that nurse managers receive training to increase their awareness of the needs of older nurses and that nurse managers be educated on how to manage HR practices relevant to older nurses in a fair manner. Equally important is that hospital administrators and HR managers recognize the importance of providing such HR practices and supporting nurse managers in managing these practices.

The findings increase the understanding of how HR practices tailored to older nurses are related to the intentions of these nurses to remain with their hospital, and especially the crucial role that first-line nurse managers play in this process.

This study aims to employ a resource‐oriented theoretical perspective to examine retirees' desire to return to their former organization.

Using a cross‐sectional field study design, data were collected from 243 retirees under 65 years of age who had been retired from a career job less than ten years.

Regression results indicate that retirees who had experienced financial and pervasive role loss as well as retirees who perceived a higher fit with their former organization and the availability of desired job role options expressed significantly greater interest in returning. Retirees who experienced gains in leaving work as well as gains in their life satisfaction following retirement reported significantly less interest in returning to their former organization.

The cross‐sectional design and self‐report data create a potential for bias. Even though the findings are based on respondents' “interest” in returning to their former organization, it is not known if they actually did return.

Programs should focus on creating an environment that values older workers, and provides them with opportunities such as mentoring other workers.

Policy changes are needed to ensure that returning to work following retirement results in resource gains and not resource losses.

This study uses resource theory with a diverse sample of retirees and considers their desire to return to their original employers, thus adding value to human resources and management who wish to retain or re‐engage their own knowledgeable retirees.

Many organizations with quality management programs in place have also engaged in downsizing. Aims to show how employees' perceptions of their organization's quality management practices provide some indication of how organizational downsizing affects an organization's quality management initiative.

Managerial and professional employees from 343 Canadian organizations completed a questionnaire assessing their perceptions of the extent to which their organization was currently engaging in quality management practices.

Respondents in organizations that had downsized their workforce perceived significantly lower organizational‐level quality management practices (management commitment to quality management program, management communication of mission and goals, customer service focus, provision of quality‐related training) than respondents in organizations that had not downsized. Respondents in downsized organizations also perceived significantly lower employee‐level quality management practices (empowerment, employee commitment to quality management, job security).

The cross‐sectional research design does not allow insight into whether prior differences existed in quality management practices. Future research is needed to investigate how other issues related to organizations and to downsizing influence employees' perceptions of their organization's quality management practices following downsizing.

For practitioners and managers, this study illustrates the need for careful planning of downsizing efforts to avoid their organization's quality management practices being seriously undermined.

Little research has been conducted on the effect of downsizing on an organization's quality management program. The findings show that employees from diverse organizations perceive organizational downsizing to have a detrimental effect on those factors that are critical in promoting and sustaining quality management.

Drawing from attitude-behavioral intentions correspondence and target similarity, the aim of this paper is to examine the role of target-specific satisfaction facets in the relationship between factors related to professional development and older nurses' intention to remain with their organization.

In this longitudinal panel study, 422 hospital-employed registered nurses aged 45 to 64 completed a questionnaire (T1) and a second questionnaire (T2) a year later. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized model.

Availability of training and development practices targeted to older nurses at T1 was linked to intention to remain with the organization at T2 through T1 satisfaction with professional development opportunities and T2 satisfaction with the organization as a whole. Job challenge at T1 was related to intention to remain through T1 satisfaction with the job itself and T2 satisfaction with the organization.

The occupation-specific sample may limit the generalizability of the findings.

Organizations need to ensure that older nurses have the opportunity to upgrade their current job skills, to acquire new skills, to be adequately trained on the use of new technology, and to support professional development through release time, tuition reimbursement, and education leaves. Attention also needs to be directed towards job design and ensuring older nurses' jobs fully utilize their skills and expertise.

The findings demonstrate that target-specific facets of satisfaction are an important underlying mechanism linking professional development factors and older nurses' intention to remain. Organizational satisfaction, an under-researched construct, played an especially prominent role in this process.

This longitudinal panel study examined the relationship of three dimensions of control (personal, job and organizational) assessed in the initial phase of a hospital amalgamation on nurses’ reactions two years later during the amalgamation period. The participants were 179 full‐time nurses employed in four community hospitals being amalgamated into two. Nurses reported low organizational control, a finding consistent with the sense of powerlessness frequently associated with nurses. The hypothesis that the three types of control would differentially predict nurses’ reactions to the hospital amalgamation was supported. Personal control significantly predicted changes in perceived co‐worker support and help‐seeking coping over the amalgamation period. Job control significantly predicted changes in perceived supervisor support and direct action coping (putting more effort into doing one’s job) over the amalgamation period. Organizational control significantly predicted changes in perceived hospital support and trust in the hospital over the amalgamation period. The findings indicate the need to include more than one dimension of control in investigations of nurses’ sense of powerlessness and the importance of matching the type of control to outcome variables.

The purpose of this study is to identify antecedents of intentions to unretire among a group of retirees that included both those who had not returned to the workforce since their retirement and those who had previously unretired.

A cross‐sectional survey collected data from 460 recent retirees between the ages of 50 and 70.

Results of hierarchical regression indicated that retirees are more likely to remain retired if they feel financially secure and have a positive retirement experience. Conversely, they are more likely to intend to return to the workforce if they experience financial worries, wish to upgrade their skills or miss aspects of their former jobs.

Aging boomers who anticipate early retirement have created a dwindling labor pool. Simultaneously, the global pension crisis has impacted on the financial decisions of retirees. A trend to abolish mandatory retirement and/or increase mandatory age in various countries provides individuals with more freedom in their retirement decisions. Accordingly, managers must be creative in their HR planning strategies to retain or recruit skilled retirees.

Previous research has addressed retirement as a final stage, however, given simultaneous global demographic changes and economic concerns, this study provides new knowledge regarding the factors that push and pull retirees to participate in the labor market.

The workforce is aging in all industrialized nations and the retention of older workers will become one of the dominant issues in the coming decades. Training is an important component of retention and the availability of training is critical for retaining older workers.

Studies conducted in 2001 and 2003 assessed the extent to which Canadian organizations are adapting their training practices to respond to the aging workforce. Human resource executives were asked the extent to which their organization was currently engaging in training practices targeting older managerial and professional employees.

Organizations were most likely to be providing access to training and retraining, but fewer than 10 percent of the organizations in 2003 were highly engaged in doing this. Organizations were less likely to be adjusting training methods to accommodate the needs of older employees. There was little attempt to provide age awareness training to managers of older employees.

The challenge for organizations will be to close the gaps that currently exist between the practices that are important in retaining older managerial and professional employees and the extent to which organizations are engaging in these practices. Ensuring access to training, customizing training methods, and providing age awareness training require immediate attention.

Little research has been conducted on older workers in Canada. The findings raise some serious concerns about the response of Canadian organizations to the aging workforce and identify areas of training and development that need to be addressed.

This study aims to test a model of the relationships among older workers' propensity to engage in development activities (development orientation), their perceptions of the development opportunities associated with their job (job development climate), their commitment to their organization, and their intention to remain with their organization.

Separate questionnaires were completed by 395 individuals aged 50 to 70, who were in their career job and 195 individuals aged 50 to 70 who were employed in a bridge job. Both questionnaires included measures of development orientation, job development climate, affective commitment and intention to remain as well as individual characteristics and organizational characteristics.

The findings supported the proposed model in that development orientation was positively related to job development climate which, in turn, was positively related to affective commitment and affective commitment was positively related to intention to remain with the organization. There were both similarities and differences in the patterns of relationships for career‐job and bridge‐job respondents.

The question of causality cannot be determined because of the cross‐sectional research design.

To create a supportive development climate and retain older workers, employers need to foster older workers' development orientation and ensure that their work assignments provide opportunities to learn new knowledge and skills.

There is little empirical research addressing issues related to the development and retention of older workers. No previous studies have investigated both development orientation and job development climate in the context of older workers.

The purpose of this paper is to identify demographic and work‐related antecedents of the motives that influence the decision of older workers to remain in the workforce.

A cross‐sectional study was conducted with three groups of respondents aged 50‐70 years: those in their career job (n=395); those employed in a bridge job (n=195); and those who were self‐employed (n=174).

In general, the demographic variables (age, gender, marital status) predicted the financial motive for continuing to work whereas the work‐related variables (work centrality, career satisfaction, and perceived contribution/perceived reward of owning one's own business) predicted the work fulfillment and generativity motives. However, the pattern of relationships differed across the three groups of older workers.

The three groups could not be directly compared because of differences in some of the measures. Only one variable, work centrality, was a significant predictor across all three groups, suggesting that instead of seeking to identify universal antecedents, the focus of future research should be on identifying antecedents specific to different groups of older workers.

To promote the retention of older workers, policies, practices and programs should be customized to the different needs of career, bridge and self‐employed individuals.

Little research exists on the antecedents of older workers' motives for continuing to work. Prior research has either not differentiated among older workers or focused solely on one specific group of older workers.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between organizational downsizing and the extent to which organizations are engaging in human resource practices tailored to the needs of older workers (Study 1) and are providing a supportive training and development climate for older workers (Study 2).

Study 1 data were obtained from 449 employed individuals aged 50 to 68 years. Study 2 data were obtained from 395 employed individuals aged 50 to 70 years. Respondents were from a broad cross‐section of occupations and organizations across Canada.

Respondents in downsized organizations indicated that their organizations were significantly less likely to be engaging in human resource practices tailored to older workers and that their organizations had a less supportive training and development climate than their counterparts whose organizations had not downsized.

The findings are based on older workers' perceptions of organizational practices, which may or may not be an accurate reflection of what organizations actually have in place.

Organizations, especially those that have downsized, will be at a disadvantage if they continue to ignore the needs of older workers. Employers will have to change how they view older workers and put in place organizational practices geared to older workers such as those examined in the paper. Ensuring that older workers have the requisite skills and competencies to extend their working lives may require government involvement.

The paper illustrates that downsizing is detrimental to organizational practices that the aging workforce literature identifies as especially important to older workers.