Intentions of early retirement and continuing to work among middle-aged and older employees

The purpose of this study is to investigate personal, health, work, and work-related psychological factors in association with employee intentions of early retirement and continuing to work after retirement in the form of bridge employment. In addition, the study aims to further our understanding of what motivates older employees by investigating age-related differences in employee reward preferences. The study draws upon several theoretical perspectives, including continuity theory, the life course perspective, theories on motivation, and the meaning of work for older employees. Survey data from three individual research projects are used in this study - age management studies consisting of three separate hospital surveys collected from the Central Finland Central Hospital and Kuopio University Hospital, a longitudinal study on aging municipal employees (KVTEL 1981-1997) conducted by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health between 1981 and 1997 and the Merit Principal Survey data collected by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) in 2000.Good perceived health, good work ability and positive work-related psychological factors, such as the absence of negative perceptions about work, reward satisfaction, and high job control and job satisfaction are significantly associated with employee intentions to continue working instead of retiring early. This dissertation looks at gender-differences in the stability of predictors of early retirement intentions. Men seem to be more strongly affected by poor health in older age, whereas women seem to be more affected by the positive and negative psychological aspects of work from mid-life onwards. In addition, there are age-related differences in reward preferences. Older employees prefer financial rewards more than younger employees. Reward preferences and work motivation can partly be interpreted through motivation theories and the meaning of work for older employees.This study highlights the importance of organizational management practices in enabling older individuals to continue working longer. Understanding decisions in late-career in terms of timing, individual choices and psycho-physical entities can help us come to grips with the challenges of the aging workforce in future decades.