یک رویکرد روش مختلط به برنامه ریزی شغلی پس از بازنشستگی

In times of rising longevity and shortage of skilled workers, post-retirement work has become increasingly prevalent in many countries. However, not much is known about the expectations and facilitating factors associated with work-related activities after retirement. In two studies we draw on the social cognitive career theory and investigated the role of outcome expectations and facilitating factors in post-retirement career planning. First, we interviewed 22 older employees and subject matter experts in a German aerospace company to learn more about expectations of post-retirement work and its facilitating factors to build a theoretical model. Second, to test our theoretical model, 212 employees of the same company aged 50 to 65 completed a web-based survey. Results showed that outcome expectations and the facilitating factors identified in the interview study were significantly related to post-retirement career intention. Further, the facilitating factor social approval moderated the relationship between outcome expectations and post-retirement career intention. We discuss implications of our findings in terms of how they inform retirement counselors, organizations, and society to help increase engagement in work-related activities after retirement.

Demographic change poses challenges on society, organizations, and individuals in many countries. For example in Germany, due to increasing life expectancy and low birth rate, a third (33.1%) of the population will be aged 65 or older in 2050 while this was true for every fifth person (20.6%) in 2010 (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2013). Consequences are overstrained pension systems, shortage of skilled workers, and insecurity with regard to individuals' financial situation after retirement from the career job (e.g., Dubois and Anderson, 2012 and Gramke et al., 2010). One option to face these challenges is post-retirement work. In Germany, the percentage of working individuals aged 65 to 69 years has risen from 6.5% in 2005 to 10% in 2010 (Dubois & Anderson, 2012). Post-retirement work has the potential to support society and organizations, especially if retirees continue to be active in their professional field. This can also help structure the daily activities for retirees and allow them to pursue their interests. Moreover, post-retirement work in the professional field is related to better physical and mental health (e.g., Wang, 2007 and Zhan et al., 2009), which in turn is related to retirement satisfaction (e.g., van Solinge & Henkens, 2008). Against the background of demographic change, it will be increasingly important for organizations to convince more individuals to still contribute their manpower and know-how before entering full retirement. Thus, knowledge about the antecedents and facilitating factors of post-retirement work planning could help to provide more retirees with post-retirement career opportunities. The aim of the present studies was therefore to examine antecedents of post-retirement career intention.

In times of demographic change and increasing life expectancy, a rising number of individuals decide to engage in paid or unpaid work-related activities in retirement. Continued engagement in occupation-related activities will become increasingly important for organizations experiencing shortage of qualified staff. The aim of the two studies was to shed light on antecedents of post-retirement work with a qualitative and quantitative approach. Based on the framework of SCCT we first explored benefits and facilitating factors of post-retirement work in an interview study. We then investigated the role of the identified outcome expectations and facilitating factors in post-retirement career planning with a quantitative study. Results showed that mechanisms and constructs of SCCT are applicable to post-retirement career planning. Outcome expectations and the identified facilitating factors were related to post-retirement career planning. In line with SCCT, outcome expectations reflecting the expected benefits of post-retirement work seem to play a very important role in post-retirement career planning. With regard to facilitating factors, the individual capability to continue working, especially in terms of expected health, seems to be a basic requirement for the engagement in post-retirement work. Furthermore, the individual's awareness of post-retirement career possibilities is crucial. Also, the individual's social environment plays a major role in the expected realization of post-retirement work as social approval is not only directly related to post-retirement career intention, but also serves as a contextual variable by moderating the relationship between outcome expectations and this intention. 6.1. Implications The results of the two studies have important theoretical and practical implications. The main contribution of the studies is to show the applicability of SCCT to the work-retirement transition and especially to the field of post-retirement work. The findings extend the literature on retirement research. They give new insights into the antecedents of post-retirement work and the process of post-retirement career planning. Specifically, the combination of a qualitative and a quantitative study gave the opportunity to first explore and then quantitatively investigate facilitating factors of post-retirement work. Moreover, the results support the conceptualization of retirement as a career development stage (Wang & Shultz, 2010). The two studies offer many insights for potential interventions. First, outcome expectations of post-retirement work in the same occupational field are important for post-retirement career intention. Retirement counselors and organizations who wish to employ retirees, as well as the society in general, could help raise awareness of the benefits of post-retirement work compared to full retirement. Second, the knowledge of facilitating factors regarding career behavior provides recommendations for actions regarding counseling and preventive interventions (Lent et al., 2000). For example, career and retirement counselors should take the individual capability to continue working into account when supporting retirement planning, such as providing individuals, who are still capable of working, with options for continued engagement in work-related activities after retirement. Further, providing information on job opportunities or even jobs for retirees is something organizations should do. Approval from family and friends was significantly related to post-retirement career intention in the quantitative study. Information delivered by organizations, society, and career or retirement counselors should therefore also take into account and address the personal environment of possible future working retirees. 6.2. Limitations and future directions The application of a mixed-method design with a qualitative–quantitative approach helped us reduce weaknesses of each approach. For example, combining qualitative and quantitative measures produces more complete knowledge to inform theory and practice as the findings of qualitative investigation can be backed up and further generalized in a following quantitative approach (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie, 2004). Nevertheless, some limitations of the studies should be addressed in future research. First, in the interview study we explicitly asked for benefits and facilitators of post-retirement work. Therefore, only factors that were conscious and that could be articulated were mentioned. Second, the samples in both studies consisted of individuals from only one company, thus limiting generalizability. However, as most participants were engineers, the sample represented a relevant target group for research on post-retirement work as in Germany severe skills shortage of engineers is expected (Gramke et al., 2010). To further generalize the findings, future research should use population representative samples. Relatedly, as the identified benefits and facilitators may be biased by the company's regulations as well as legislation in Germany, the studies should be repeated in different companies, cultures, and countries. Moreover, we only included positive but not negative outcome expectations as well as facilitating factors but not contextual barriers in the current study. As considering these variables may contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of post-retirement career planning, they should be investigated in future research. Further, we used cross-sectional data and did not assess actual engagement in post-retirement work activities, but focused on post-retirement career intention. In the future, longitudinal studies could help investigate causal relations as well as actual behavior. Future research should also investigate the relationship of intention and actual behavior because difficulties in imagining future scenarios may have affected responses in this study (Rendell et al., 2012). Finally, measures used in the quantitative study had not been validated before. Therefore, more psychometric data on the scales should be provided through studies testing the construct validity of the scales.