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Influenced by postmodern and poststructuralist perspectives, cultural studies and humanities researchers have critiqued ways that old age plays out in lived realities – including effects of ageism and power loss in both private and public spheres. Generally, older people are perceived negatively and as less powerful than younger people. Age tends to trump most other social identity dimensions in negative ways so that aging is an eventuality that many people the world over dread or fear.

In recent years, age has been treated as a social, political and economic issue that draws from anxiety and fear associated with the advancing life course. Some nations outlaw age discrimination in the workplace, but others do not. So, while improved sanitation, diet and health care means that many people live longer, they still face enduring negative stereotypes about aging processes. Chapter 8 sharpens the focus on social identity marked by age and dimensions that overlap with age – in the larger social milieu and in organizational contexts. Several theoretical ties bind this chapter’s exploration of age and aging, including critical/cultural studies, feminism, critical gerontology, and postmodern and poststructuralist perspectives. To explore research on aging and identity, this chapter is divided into subthemes: sociocultural perspectives on and theorizing about aging, age categories and birth cohorts, aging effects for organizations, aging effects for employees, and age with other social identity intersectionalities.

Based on organizational support theory, the aim of this paper is to examine the associations among perceived organizational support, successful aging in the workplace, job satisfaction, and the intentions to stay in organization among older workers.

In total, 242 employees, aged over 45 years, were recruited to participate in a study from May to September 2009.

Correlation showed that perceived organizational support and all five dimensions of successful aging in the workplace, (i.e. adaptability and health, positive relationship, occupational growth, personal security, and continued focus on goals), were significantly related to the intentions to stay in the organization. Structural equation modeling showed that perceived organizational support was positively related to successful aging in the workplace, and the latter is related to the intentions to stay, both directly and via the mediation of job satisfaction.

All data were self‐reported and collected at one time point. Thus, common method variance may be an issue and causal inferences are not warranted.

Successful aging in the workplace was significantly related to older workers' intentions to stay. Managers may provide a wide range of organizational support and enhance successful aging in the workplace for older workers.

This is the first study to empirically test the relations between successful aging in the workplace and intentions to stay among older workers. Implications of these findings, the limitations of the study, and directions for future research are discussed.

As the workforce is aging and becoming increasingly age diverse, successful aging at work has been proclaimed to be a desirable process and outcome, as well as a responsibility of both workers and their organizations. In this chapter, we first review, compare, and critique theoretical frameworks of successful aging developed in the gerontology and lifespan developmental literatures, including activity, disengagement, and continuity theories; Rowe and Kahn’s model; the resource approach; the model of selective optimization with compensation; the model of assimilative and accommodative coping; the motivational theory of lifespan development; socioemotional selectivity theory; and the strength and vulnerability integration model. Subsequently, we review and critically compare three conceptualizations of successful aging at work developed in the organizational literature. We conclude the chapter by outlining implications for future research on successful aging at work.

Aging workers are a diverse group yet research on aging infrequently examines the joint effects of age and gender upon various life domains and decisions. In order to fully understand the experience of a person, you must examine her/his roles and identities as they intersect. Intersectionality extends to the work setting, and the notion of intersectionality is presented as a paradigm that can yield significant insights into the joint consideration of age and gender in the workplace. These relationships have the potential to shape identities, which may in turn influence work perceptions and outcomes. As a result there are important considerations, consequences, solutions, and future research topics, as well as Human Resource practices that are discussed in this chapter.

As demographic changes impact the workplace, governments, organizations, and workers are looking for ways to sustain optimal working lives at higher ages. Workplace flexibility has been introduced as a potential way workers can have more satisfying working lives until their retirement ages. This chapter presents a critical review of the literature on workplace flexibility across the lifespan. It discusses how flexibility has been conceptualized across different disciplines, and postulates a definition that captures the joint roles of employer and employee in negotiating workplace flexibility that contributes to both employee and organization benefits. Moreover, it reviews how flexibility has been theorized and investigated in relation to older workers. The chapter ends with a future research agenda for advancing understanding of how workplace flexibility may enhance working experiences of older workers, and in particular focuses on the critical investigation of uses of flexibility in relation to older workers.

The purpose of this paper is to examines the positive and negative impact of service provider experiences on the process of identity adjustment and how they can lead to subjective well-being (SWB). Due to increased life expectancies, people are experiencing major life events during aging (e.g. death of a spouse, serious disease and major health problems), events that lead to identity redefinition.

To gain more insight into this issue, a qualitative study was carried out that involved 37 in-depth interviews conducted with aging individuals who had experienced a major life event such as retirement and/or death of spouse. To apprehend the diversity of consumption situations, the authors investigated daily consumption, hedonic consumption and imposed services (e.g. health and funeral services) due to life events.

The findings suggest that service providers influence consumer’s SWB as regards relationships, growth and purpose in life, mastery and independence and self-acceptance.

The contribution indicates that services play a role in maintaining and/or creating SWB. By segmentation through social roles and facilitating access to services, providers must take into account the processes of normalcy and abandonment (déprise) among aging consumers in life transitions. They must also ensure that they support consumers with the lowest human capital (skills, level of education, income and social class).

Citizens are substantial stakeholders in every e-government system, thus their willingness to use and ability to access the system are critical. Unequal access and information and communication technology usage, which is known as digital divide, however has been identified as one of the major obstacles to the implementation of e-government system. As digital divide inhibits citizen’s acceptance to e-government, it should be overcome despite the lack of deep theoretical understanding on this issue. This research aimed to investigate the digital divide and its direct impact on e-government system success of local governments in Indonesia as well as indirect impact through the mediation role of trust. In order to get a comprehensive understanding of digital divide, this study introduced a new type of digital divide, the innovativeness divide.

The research problems were approached by applying two-stage sequential mixed method research approach comprising of both qualitative and quantitative studies. In the first phase, an initial research model was proposed based on a literature review. Semi-structured interview with 12 users of e-government systems was then conducted to explore and enhance this initial research model. Data collected in this phase were analyzed with a two-stage content analysis approach and the initial model was then amended based on the findings. As a result, a comprehensive research model with 16 hypotheses was proposed for examination in the second phase.

In the second phase, quantitative method was applied. A questionnaire was developed based on findings in the first phase. A pilot study was conducted to refine the questionnaire, which was then distributed in a national survey resulting in 237 useable responses. Data collected in this phase were analyzed using Partial Least Square based Structural Equation Modeling.

The results of quantitative analysis confirmed 13 hypotheses. All direct influences of the variables of digital divide on e-government system success were supported. The mediating effects of trust in e-government in the relationship between capability divide and e-government system success as well as in the relationship between innovativeness divide and e-government system success were supported, but was rejected in the relationship between access divide and e-government system success. Furthermore, the results supported the moderating effects of demographic variables of age, residential place, and education.

This research has both theoretical and practical contributions. The study contributes to the developments of literature on digital divide and e-government by providing a more comprehensive framework, and also to the implementation of e-government by local governments and the improvement of e-government Readiness Index of Indonesia.

This study aims to show how the increasingly popular life course paradigm (LCP) can be employed as an alternative to the successful aging perspective (SAP) as an overarching conceptual research framework to study elderly consumers' financial well-being.

A questionnaire was administered to a convenience sample of 804 Thai consumers over the age of 45 selected via the snowball method.

Significant results were found for hypotheses derived from the LCP for older consumers' financial well-being, suggesting critical roles of early life experiences, developmental factors, adaptation mechanisms and contextual factors.

This paper shows how efforts to study consumers over the course of their lives can be improved by utilizing the principles and theoretical perspectives of the LCP and offers research directions for studying not only older consumer well-being but also numerous consumer behavior issues at any stage of life in an innovative way.

Traditional definitions of aging in place often define aging in place specifically as the ability to remain in one’s own home or community setting in later life. The purpose of this paper is to reframe aging in place and show how narrowly defined aging in place models can be potentially negative constructs that limit options for older adults. The authors propose a paradigm shift, or a re-framing of, the popularized idea of aging in place. The authors challenge mainstream and literature-based beliefs that are deeply rooted to the idea that aging in place ideally happens in the home in which a person has lived for many years.

The paper reviews common concepts and constructs associated with aging in place as well as gaps or exclusions, and US-based aging in place policy initiatives favoring the aging in place model.

An expanded definition of aging in place embraces heterogeneity in residence types and living options. A realistic assessment of person-environment fit, matching an older person’s capabilities to his or her environmental demands, allows for the development of additional aging in place options for those living across the continuum of care.

Aging in place should be moved from the personal “success” or “failure” of an older individual to include the role of society and societal views and policies in facilitating or hindering aging in place options. The authors demonstrate that these options, in facilities within the continuum of care, can be thought of as appealing for older persons of all levels of physical and cognitive functioning.

Research about aging in place tends to stress the value of one place (one’s home) over other living settings. This limits the ability of people to age in place and curtails discussion of all the items necessary to maintain place.