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Retirement adjustment is the process by which aged workers become accustomed to the changed facts of life in the transition from work to retirement and develop psychological well-being in their post-working life. The purpose of this paper is to explore the psychosocial factors that significantly explain retirement intentions and retirement adjustment, using two separate empirical studies.

Retirement self-efficacy, low work involvement, older worker identity and relative deprivation significantly explained retirement intentions (bridge employment engagement, part-time retirement, late retirement and full retirement) of workers over 60 years (Study 1, n=157). Retirement adjustment indices (retirement satisfaction, feelings of anxiety and depression) were associated with psychosocial factors for retirees (Study 2, n=218).

The findings highlight that retirement self-efficacy and older worker identity positively and significantly explained both full retirement of aged workers and retirement satisfaction of retirees. Relative deprivation negatively significantly explained partial and late retirement intentions and retirement satisfaction of retirees.

The implications of these studies are discussed for understanding retirement planning and counselling practice.

Retirement adjustment conceptualized as a process has important implications for retirement planning, and consequently can influence the project of the life course, as well as career’s decisions.

Social contexts should consider all factors that can negatively affect self-efficacy, work involvement and identity of employees in the mid and late-career stages, and thus contribute to reinforce and strengthen personal and psychosocial resources involved in planning and adaptation to retirement, and to increase the insight into the planning and decisions older workers make to face retirement.

This work had two goals, pursued by two empirical studies with two samples: workers over 60 years, and retirees. The authors contend that the availability of two different sets of data increases the generalizability of the findings.

This research aims to look at preferences for retirement, in particular, later retirement, amongst a sample of older employees in the UK in the financial services industry. It seeks to investigate specifically the influence of personal, psychological and psychosocial determinants of preferences for retiring later. Additionally, the study presents a typology of different retirement preferences based on psychological and psychosocial variables.

The data are based on questionnaires from 556 employees of a UK financial services organisation (aged 40‐60) and measures include psychological expectations of retirement (expected adjustment to retirement, attitudes towards leisure and social interaction), psychosocial attitudes (job satisfaction, intrinsic motivation, organisational comment and work commitment) and attitudes towards working beyond normal retirement age. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted and one‐way ANOVA was conducted to identify differences between groups.

The data show very negative attitudes towards working later than the normal retirement age and that expectations of adjustment to retirement were the most significant predictor towards retirement preferences, followed by work commitment. Significant differences in retirement attitudes and intentions were found between different groups of employees.

Some of the practical implications of the work suggest that retirement preferences are shaped only to a moderate degree by psychosocial attitudes. In seeking to retain older workers in the workforce for longer employers should encourage employees to develop strong social relationships at work and allow gradual transitions to ultimate retirement.

The paper looked at preferences for retirement, particularly later retirement, and found that, if employers wish to retain the knowledge, skills and expertise of their employees, then it would seem that they need to devise means of allowing people to achieve some of the more desirable aspects of retirement (greater free time, opportunity to pursue hobbies and interests) at the same time as retaining some of the benefits of work (status, professional interest, income etc.). Phased and flexible retirement initiatives therefore seem to be one of the solutions.

The study aims to elucidate the relationship between five work experiences or conditions (age-related stereotypes, perceived organizational support [POS], coworker support, career satisfaction, and reaching a job plateau) and two different organizational withdrawal intentions – early retirement and turnover – in light of trends to abolish or increase the mandatory retirement age in Israel and elsewhere in the Western world.

The study is based on a survey of a heterogeneous age sample of 170 unionized employees working in medium-sized Israeli industrial firms.

POS and perceived age stereotypes were negatively related to early retirement intentions and not to turnover intentions. Job plateau was found to be related to the other work-related variables, with the exception of coworker support, and also was found to be a strong mediator between these variables and employees ' turnover intentions, and a partial mediator between the variables and early retirement intentions.

The study suggests a managerial focus on the person-job fit over time as a tool for reducing employees ' turnover intentions, and encouraging continued employee development as a way to reduce early retirement intentions.

The study focuses on the potential role of correctable contextual characteristics in triggering withdrawal responses, in light of the aging of the workforce.

The purpose of this paper is to holistically study barriers in the path of implementation of retirement planning, as the need is increasing with decrease in mortality. The proper retirement planning can be one of the most important tools to control financial expenses on healthcare and welfare on old age population in government budgets.

The paper is a blend of theoretical framework and practical application and uses interpretive structural modeling (ISM) analysis to draw linkage and impact of identified barriers in the path of achievement of goals of retirement planning. The study has used three different research phases: identification of barriers from the literature, interviews with experts of industry at second stage and designing an ISM impact matrix cross-reference multiplication model. The identification phase led to the selection of 15 factors from past literature and by suggestion from industrial experts.

This study seeks to identify which barrier is acting as the most dominant one for the mass adoption of retirement planning and this result is helpful for policymakers to remove the dominant barrier. The result of this analysis can make retirement planning easy by elimination of highlighted barriers on the basis of their importance in the path of achievement of retirement goals. In the ISM level diagram, barriers such as marital status, number of financial dependents at the bottom, gender, income level, educational level, financial literacy, financial dependency, policy regulation, terms and conditions, goal clarity and psychological and cultural factors are on the top. Barrier of macroeconomic and bureaucratic impediments are also very important factors for achievement of retirement goal of an individual, but they cannot be controlled directly by the associated members of industry.

The concern for providing sufficient retirement resources is growing with the increase in life expectancy for human beings. Such requirement has attracted views from not only academicians but also policymakers. This paper is one of the preliminary attempts to identify barriers in implementation of retirement planning and rank them according to their importance.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the conceptual framework about human resources downsizing and restructuring and how organizations of the public sector can do that effectively and efficiently. These facts drive to the conclusion that the implementation of early retirement incentives requires the most elaborate planning and execution to be effective, predictable and safe in the long term.

This paper adopts an analytical, descriptive methodology approach to describe the basic features of the data by using the descriptive research design. Data have been collected through different sources, which include secondary data, to introduce the theoretical literature of the subject as books, journals, articles, published working papers and referred previous studies related to the same subject.

Downsizing process is a deliberate administrative process that includes, but is not limited to, workforce reduction and is primarily aimed at achieving efficiency in public organizations. The definition of workforce downsizing may be narrowed to reducing the number of workers, or more likely to refer to general efforts to restructuring human resources in public organizations, Early Retirement Incentive Programs (ERIP) represents a viable alternative for organizations seeking to reduce staff. For the ERIP to be successful, the program coordinator must understand the business objectives and goals that the organization is trying to obtain.

Human resources strategies concerning downsizing public administration workforce should be more appropriate to those who leave the organization and those who stay at work, reducing the negative psychological, administrative and economical effects. This could be achieved through a strategy called early retirement incentive programs.

Based on the theory of conservation of resources (Hobfoll, 1989), the purpose of this paper is to propose job satisfaction as a mediator between the use of generativity and affective occupational commitment. The authors tested the mediating role of affective occupational commitment on the relationship between job satisfaction and retirement preparation.

A sequential mediation model was tested by the method of indirect effects based on a bootstrap analysis (Preacher and Hayes, 2004) based on 3,000 replications with a 95% confidence interval. The statistical treatments were carried out with the AMOS software V.22. Data were collected for a sample of 340 older workers (bridge and retirees) in Québec, Canada.

Results indicate that generativity was related positively to affective occupational commitment via job satisfaction. Moreover, job satisfaction was also related positively to retirement preparation through affective occupational commitment.

The results can be helpful to guide organizational efforts at retaining older workers, and also recruiting and selecting those who want to return to work after retiring. They provide an insight on the effect of one of the main human resources practices or strategies, that is, programs aiming to attract and retain older workers to stay in the workplace and to encourage retirees to return to work in the form of bridge employment for example.

The study adds to the existing literature by examining a sequential mediation model to understand the relationship between organizational resources, job attitudes and retirement planning. It thus answers the call for more research and a theoretical framework on these critical variables for the retirement decision-making process. The findings can also contribute to the field of knowledge retention and fulfill some gaps in the literature on this topic. Indeed, examining the use of generativity in the study can help researchers and practitioners to better understand the reasons that encourage older workers to continue working and retirees to return to work.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which perceived financial preparedness, social retirement anxieties, and level of income influence mature aged workers' preferences to enter different retirement employment options within the contingent and the flexible work arrangements (FWA) types of bridge employment.

Data for this study was collected in 2008 using a questionnaire with 31 items. A total of 144 mature aged workers from multiple firms, aged 50 years and over, working full‐time, in the construction industry participated in the study. The collected data was analysed using correlation and regression analyses.

The results indicate that the study variables have positive and negative influences on pre‐retirees' preference for the retirement employment options within the contingent and the FWA bridge employment. It was also found that while income failed to moderate, social retirement anxieties did significantly moderate the relationship between perceived financial preparedness and the different employment options within the contingent bridge employment.

This study clearly provides practitioners and career counsellors a new insight that the work and non‐work predictors for the retirement employment options within each of the contingent and the FWA bridge employments vary between factors of perceived financial preparedness, social retirement anxieties and level of income.

In contradiction to the existing literature that “comfortable” social retirement adjustment as a determinant for bridge employment, this study's findings revealed that if pre‐retirees perceive that they are not adequately financially prepared for retirement, they would opt for bridge employment irrespective of levels of social retirement anxieties.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between different categories of person–environment (P–E) fit and two types of retirement intentions (i.e. full retirement and bridge employment).

Data were collected from a convenience sample of 357 executives aged 50 and over, employed in French private sector companies. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling.

Perceptions of value congruence at vocational level and needs and supplies fit at organizational and job levels were positively related to the intention to hold bridge employment after retirement. The fit between older worker’s abilities and job demands was positively related to the two types of retirement intentions.

The complexity of retirement transition is taken into account with the introduction of two types of retirement intentions. P–E fit is shown to be an antecedent of career intentions after retirement.

The purpose of this review is to integrate and organize past research findings on affective, normative and continuance occupational commitment (OC) within an integrative framework based on central life span concepts.

The authors identified and systematically analyzed 125 empirical articles (including 138 cases) that examined OC with a content valid measure to the here applied definition of OC. These articles provided information on the relationship between OC and four distinct life span concepts: chronological age, career stages, occupational and other life events, and occupational and other life roles. Furthermore, developmental characteristics of OC in terms of construct stability and malleability were reviewed.

The reviewed literature allowed to draw conclusions about the mentioned life span concepts as antecedents and outcomes of OC. For example, age and tenure is more strongly positively related to continuance OC than to affective and normative OC, nonlinear and moderating influences seem to be relevant in the case of the latter OC types. The authors describe several other findings within the results sections.

OC represents a developmental construct that is influenced by employees’ work- and life-related progress, associated roles, as well as opportunities and demands over their career. Analyzing OC from such a life span perspective provides a new angle on the research topic, explaining inconsistencies in past research and giving recommendation for future studies in terms of dynamic career developmental thinking.

By relying on a sustainable career perspective and recent studies on senior employees’ late career phase, this study aims to examine senior (50+) nurses’ late career narratives in the context of extending retirement age. Given the current global nursing shortage, there is a pressing need to find ways on how to promote longer and sustainable careers in the health-care field. Yet, there is limited knowledge about the extended late career phase of senior nurses.

Empirical data were derived from 22 interviews collected among senior (50+) nursing professionals working in a Finnish university hospital. The qualitative interview data were analysed using a narrative analysis method. As a result of the narrative analysis, four career narratives were constructed.

The findings demonstrated that senior nurses’ late career narratives differed in terms of late career aspirations, constraints, mobility and active agency of one’s own career. The identified career narratives indicate that the building blocks of sustainable late careers in the context of extending retirement age are diverse.

The qualitative interview data were restricted to senior nurses working in one university hospital. Interviews were conducted on site and some nurses were called away leaving some of the interviews shorter than expected.

To support sustainable late careers requires that attention be based on the whole career ecosystem covering individual, organizational and societal aspects and how they are intertwined together.

So far, few studies have investigated the extended late career phase of senior employees in the context of a changing career landscape.