تعهد سازمانی و حرفه ای در ارتباط با پل اشتغال و نیات بازنشستگی

Understanding the antecedents to retirement and bridge employment is important to older-aged adults who seek ways to smoothly transition to full retirement, and to organizations that benefit from retaining their highly skilled and most experienced workers, especially in occupations for which labor shortages are projected. We tested the effects of affective, continuance, and normative commitment to organizations and to occupations on older-aged pharmacists' (N = 294) intentions to fully retire and to pursue three types of bridge employment. As hypothesized, criteria that were more organizationally focused (e.g., bridge employment in the same organization) were predicted more strongly by organizational, rather than occupational, commitment. For one type of bridge employment that was more occupationally focused—bridge employment in a different field—the hypothesized differential effects were supported, such that it was predicted more strongly by occupational, rather than organizational, commitment. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory, research, and practice.

Early research on bridge employment focused on the roles of demographic and socioeconomic variables, including some studies in which a few job characteristics were also examined. For instance, Weckerle and Shultz (1999) found that older workers who wanted to continue their bridge employment tended to be more satisfied with their current financial situation and were working in more flexible jobs. Kim and Feldman (2000) found that retirees pursued more bridge employment when they were relatively younger and in good health, and had longer job tenure, a working spouse, and dependent children. More recently, researchers have sought to understand the antecedents to different types of bridge employment (e.g., von Bonsdorff et al., 2009), including one recent study that examined older-aged individuals' perceptions of their work environment in their pre-retirement jobs. Studying a representative sample of individuals between the ages of 51 and 61, Wang et al. (2008) examined the potential antecedents of career bridge employment, bridge employment in a different field, and full retirement. Their results showed that older-aged adults were more likely to engage in career bridge employment than fully retire when they were younger, more educated, healthier, and, importantly for the present study's purpose, when they experienced less job-related stress and had higher job satisfaction in their pre-retirement jobs. Retirees who experienced less job stress and had higher job satisfaction in their pre-retirement jobs were also more likely to engage in career bridge employment than bridge employment in some other field, and to engage in bridge employment in a different field than to retire fully. This study is particularly notable because, while other retirement studies have examined perceptions of the work environment (e.g., Beehr et al., 2000), the Wang et al. (2008) study is the only one, to our knowledge, in which the effects of perceptions of the work environment on different types of bridge employment were examined. We extend this research by examining the effects of organizational and occupational commitment on intentions to pursue different types of bridge employment and to fully retire. Research on bridge employment and retirement often draws upon role theory (Ashforth, 2001) and continuity theory (Atchley, 1989) to understand older-aged workers' decisions and intentions, and we later develop our hypotheses by integrating these perspectives with theory on commitment (Meyer & Herscovitch, 2001). Atchley's (1989) continuity theory emphasizes individuals' desire for consistency throughout life, including consistency during their transition to full retirement. The pursuit of bridge employment in a position pertaining to one's existing career and occupation, for example, offers a means to maintain consistency while transitioning to full retirement, relative to bridge employment in a different field. However, individuals can at least maintain some consistency in their frequency of social interaction, for example, through working in a bridge position in another field, or even through their full retirement (e.g., through volunteering). While continuity theory is relevant to the present study, and is particularly relevant for research on post-retirement adjustment, a more nuanced perspective in the context of our study is offered by role theory (Ashforth, 2001). Ashforth's (2001) role theory highlights that the retirement process is also a process of role transition. When individuals fully retire, for example, they may have positive experiences in their new non-work roles (e.g., volunteer or family roles), or they may experience aversive psychological outcomes as they lose valued work- and occupation-specific identities. To avoid the latter, some individuals may seek bridge employment in the same career field, or even in their current positions, for example, in an effort to avoid an abrupt role loss as they transition into full retirement (Wang et al., 2008). Other individuals who are unhappy in their present careers or career-oriented jobs may willingly give up their occupation-specific roles while maintaining other more desirable aspects of their work roles (e.g., demonstrating competence, mentoring others) through bridge employment in some other field or through full retirement (Adams, Prescher, Beehr, & Lepisto, 2002). In developing the rationale for our hypotheses, we integrate these ideas with theory on commitment (Meyer & Herscovitch, 2001)

To the extent our results reflect causal relationships, they suggest that organizations might retain older-aged workers through fostering organizational AC, such as by engaging in transformational leadership and demonstrating perceived organizational support (Allen & Meyer, 1996). Beyond the effects of organizational commitment, occupational AC added to the prediction of turnover intentions, suggesting that turnover among older-aged workers might be reduced through promoting occupational commitment. Moreover, other findings suggest that occupational commitment could be leveraged to reduce the exodus of older workforce talent due to the ways in which individuals choose to transition to retirement. In professions for which labor shortages are expected, educational institutions and professional associations may be able to increase the occurrence career bridge employment, and reduce the occurrence of bridge employment in some other field, by fostering occupational commitment. Organizations that employ professionals may also be able to promote occupational commitment by providing resources to support professional activities (Lee et al., 2000). Researchers might also build upon studies in the recruitment literature that focus on how organizations might attract older-aged employees who are considering bridge employment opportunities (Adams and Rau, 2004 and Rau and Adams, 2005). For instance, in future studies, researchers could examine the effectiveness of recruitment messages pertaining to the antecedents of organizational and occupational AC and NC. Our results also suggest that higher levels of AC to organizations and to occupations are associated with stronger intentions to pursue bridge employment within older-aged employees' current organizations. Thus, organizations that work to foster organizational and occupational AC may be able to extend the tenure of their retirement-aged employees. Doing so may be particularly valuable for organizations that employ people in occupations that face impending labor shortages, such as the pharmacy profession (Knapp & Cultice, 2007).