Retirement Age Limitations Removal and Outcomes Research Paper

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Updated: Feb 17th, 2024

Introduction/ background information

Organizations strive to improve the level of productivity of the employees to achieve better productivity and attain a competitive edge in the economies in which they operate. Employee productivity is affected by many factors, and the most notable of these factors is the age of employees. The age of employees can be of advantage and at the same time, a disadvantage to organizational employees and their performance.

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This is because the old employees have experience and know all the processes of an organization. On the other hand, young employees are energetic and can work effectively. Most countries or states have set the age limits at which employees are supposed to retire or leave work. The retirement age is considered the age beyond which employees’ productivity level reduces to the extent that they can hardly lead to increased production in organizations.

Nonetheless, most organizations disapprove the hypothesis about setting a retirement age for employees because of many reasons. While most of the retirement age is set at 65 years, organizations argue that employees in professions become effective and deliver beyond 65 years old. Therefore, an argument has been raging over the possibility of either raising employees’ retirement age or making the employees who have attained the retirement age to be viable to work. There has been a divided opinion on this subject with some employees and organizations supporting it while others do not support it.

Research problem

Many organizations have established internal legislation to help retain old employees who are critical to organizational functioning and performance. While this is so, there are many pressures from the external economic environment, which still bar these organizations from fully implementing the legislation. These pressures emanate from the argument that firms are supposed to create jobs for youths who graduate from higher learning institutions.

This is why governments stick to strict labour laws that support adherence to the set age of retirement. While state labour departments have their reasons for setting retirement age, organizations have their reasons for abolishing working-age limitation for employees. Supportive reasons on both sides have been found to have some rationality. Therefore, one can say that this remains to be a critical issue in the labour industry. There is a need to look deeper into the argument to develop rational findings of an amicable settlement to this issue. This forms the foundation of this research. The research seeks to get the supporting arguments from all the stakeholders and develop the findings that will lead to further research leading to a settlement on the subject.

The main goal of the research

This research seeks to establish the implications of doing away with the limitation of retirement age for employees, which would mean retaining ageing and aged employees in organizations.

Research questions

This research is conducted based on several questions. Three main questions guide this research:

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  • Is the legislation on compulsory retirement age of employees effective?
  • What are the benefits and demerits of the compulsory retirement age for employees?
  • Is there a possibility of removing the compulsory retirement age for employees? If so, what would be the implications for this on organizational input and output?

Research objectives

The research will pursue three main objectives, which are:

  • The first objective for this research is to ascertain the legislation’s effectiveness on compulsory retirement age.
  • The second objective is to assess the pros and cons of compulsory retirement age from all the stakeholders in the economy.
  • The last objective is to weigh on the possibility of removing the compulsory age of retirement and its impacts on the performance of organizations.

Review of Literature

The debate about setting a compulsory retirement age for employee’s ranges on different platforms. This debate is approached from the legal platform to the social as well as the economic platform. The argument for or against this debate is given basing on the platform from which the debate takes place. Many researchers have been investigating this subject and have come up with different findings concerning the subject. With governments putting forward reasons for maintaining a retirement age, many organizations stand in opposition to this legislation by pointing at the benefits of working with aged employees (Sargeant, 2004).

According to Emmott (2009), most employers in the United Kingdom have been following the prescribed age of retirement for most employees, set at 65. Age creates a considerable challenge to employees and remains a factor to consider in the management of employees. However, many issues surround age, most of which link the legislation on compulsory retirement age to the legislation on discrimination in employment (Hogler & Hunt, 2010).

Older employees continue to demand the removal of the retirement age with the support of many organizations like the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development. With several stated reasons, many institutions have pressured the UK government to eliminate the legislation that limits the age of employees in the country to 65. Many organizations argue that they do not find problems in dealing with or working with old employees. This is supported by the fact that such companies construct policies to maintain employees who have already reached retirement age. These employees are often employed on a contract basis. To such companies, the compulsory retirement age for their employees sounds like awkward legislation that should be eliminated (Emmott, 2009).

Ossofsky (1977) observes that the number of employees aged above 65 years in the United States and other developed nations has been increasing over time, posing a threat to most industries. The labour participation of the aged employees in industries has also been rising because there is a lack of skills in the young population to replace the ageing employees, who are supposed to retire. Most organizations have been reported to recall to duty, the employees who have already attained retirement age.

The argument by the managers of these organizations is that they cannot find perfect labourers to fit into the tasks that are performed by the aged employees. This is just but one example of the supportive theses for abolishing compulsory retirement for employees (Wells, de Vaus, Kendig & Quine, 2009).

In the European Union, the argument about setting the retirement age for employees has dragged for a long time. Several reasons have supported the setting of a mandatory age of retirement. It is argued that most employees have developed a dependency on employment; hence, the only way of breaking from this dependency is by setting and maintaining of retirement age at 65years. The re is also a notion that retirement is one way of rewarding organizational employees for their committed efforts in working for organizations.

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This argument supports early retirement for employees. Also, early retirement enhances job opportunities for young employees in the job market (Van Sonsbeek, 2010). According to this argument, retirement is one way through which jobs are created in an economy. Also, early retirement enables employees to follow up on their benefits in the organization. These benefits are likely to be tampered with or reduced if they choose to work longer in organizations (Duncan, Loretto & White, 2000).

Research methodology

Research design

This comprehensive research seeks information to be analyzed and bring out findings that will inform decisions or act as a building block for more research. Thus, the research takes an explanatory approach. For ease of collection of data, the research centres on key resource organizations. Thus to some aspect, a case study approach will inform the research. A cases study approach is favourable because most information is acquired from the targeted resource places helping to minimize resource deployment in research. This is the reason why it has been chosen for this research.

Sampling methods and techniques

The first step will be the identification of the sources from which the researcher will acquire data. This is also referred to as the research population from the people where data concerning the research subject will be obtained. Many organizations form the larger sample from which the main sample for research will be derived. In the selection of the main sample for this research, probability-sampling method is used.

The research targets respondents from three main segments: the labour department of the government, respondents from private organizations, and those working in public firms. This forms the general population from which the main sample has to be selected. The main sample will be derived from this population through stratified random sampling after which basic random sampling will be applied.

To arrive at the main sample, the researcher will follow a number of steps. The first step will entail identifying the resource institutions because of the case study approach, which is to be utilized. As mentioned earlier, the population consists of three principal resource institutions, which give the research a broad sense of coverage for a quality outcome. This also increases the scope of the research and the applicability of its outcomes.

Through stratified random sampling, the researcher will acquire stratified samples. This includes labour institutions, government organization, and private organizations. Simple random sampling will then be conducted on the stratified sample to remain with three institutions under each category. The main sample will be comprised of nine institutions. This will be the main sample for this research. The researcher will collect data from the identified resource persons from the nine organizations arrived at after simple random sampling.

Data collection tools and methods

Data will be collected using different tools. These include questionnaires and interview guides. The researcher will use interview guides in collecting information through focused group discussions. This will give more detailed information that is desirable for research. Questionnaires will be used in obtaining data from individual resource persons as in the final sample of the research. Both personal interviewing and self-administration will be used in obtaining information via the questionnaires. Self-administration will be most preferred because it will save on interviewing time and eliminate or reduce biases.

Data analysis and findings

The information that is obtained from data collection will be analyses using different statistical software tools. The key statistical tool used in and analyzing data will be the statistical package for social scientists commonly abbreviated as SPSS. Other statistical tools, like Microsoft Excel, will back this. These analytical tools have been chosen because they are scientific and favourable for scientific and viable research. These tools also enhance the accuracy of the findings of the research.

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Conclusion and recommendations

The findings will be derived from the analysis of the collected data after which one will draw a conclusion from the findings. The conclusion will give a summary of the findings and pinpoint the implication of the research findings. It will also illustrate the approach to be taken in future research concerning the subject.

Ethical considerations

The time set for this research may not be sufficient to cover all the details of this research. Therefore, some details are bound to be left out during the implementation of the research plan. This research is also subjected to weaknesses of the data collection tools and methods used. However, strict adherence to the plan will help in eliminating biases from the researchers.

References

Duncan, C., Loretto, W. and White, P. (2000) “Ageism, early exit and British trades unions.” Industrial Relations Journal, Vol. 31(3), pp. 2-20.

Emmott, M. (2009). Soft option of compulsory retirement has had its day. Personnel Today, 14-14. Web.

Hogler, R., & Hunt, H. (2010) “A right to retirement security in the united states? How public policy fails American workers.” Labor Law Journal, 61(4): 171-183.

Ossofsky, J. (1977). Should Congress Prohibit the Mandatory Retirement of Workers overage? 65? PRO. Congressional Digest, 56(11): 274.

Sargeant, M (2004) “Mandatory retirement age and age discrimination.” Employee Relations Vol. 26(2): pp. 151-166.

Todd, J. D. (1994) “The Delayed Retirement Decision.” Benefits Quarterly, 10(1): 22-29.

Van Sonsbeek, J. (2010) “Micro stimulations on the effects of ageing-related policy measures.” Economic Modeling, Vol. 27(5): pp. 968-979.

Wells, Y., de Vaus, D., Kendig, H., & Quine, S. (2009) “Health and Wellbeing through Work and Retirement Transitions in Mature Age: Understanding Pre-Post and Retrospective Measuresof Change.” International Journal of Aging & Human Development, 69(4), 287-310.

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IvyPanda. 2024. "Retirement Age Limitations Removal and Outcomes." February 17, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/retirement-age-limitations-removal-and-outcomes/.

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IvyPanda. "Retirement Age Limitations Removal and Outcomes." February 17, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/retirement-age-limitations-removal-and-outcomes/.

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