Aging Workforce Management in the Automobile Industry: Defining the Concept and Its Constituting Elements**
Zeitschrift für Personalforschung › Band 23 Nr. 1, Januar 2009
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Zusammenfassung
This paper presents the results of a grounded theory study on the automobile industry aimed at developing a concept of aging workforce management by identifying and constructing its constituting elements. Through an in-depth research investigation, it answers the question of how the challenge of an aging workforce can be defined, and the related broader managerial issues that arise in the context of one specific industry.
Our findings suggest that the quest for 'competitiveness' is the major constituting element of the concept of aging workforce management. Interdependent with this are two secondary elements that encompass the actual challenge: measures that drive competitiveness and symptoms of the aging workforce. Three further 'residual elements' making up the six constituting elements of the construct are then outlined. Issues for future research are suggested, including extending such studies across other industries, and operationalizing the construct of aging workforce management by explicating the dynamics among its constituting elements. [PUB ABSTRACT]Siehe den Gesamtinhalt dieses Dokumentes
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Aging Workforce Management in the Automobile Industry: Defining the Concept and Its Constituting Elements**
1. Introduction
Together with the globalizing nature of the worldwide economy, the aging of the workforce is recognized as one of the most significant factors to affect organizational reality in many industrialized countries. This is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future (DeLong 2004; Dychtwald/Erickson/Morison 2006; Leibold/Voelpel 2006; World Bank 1994). Whereas within the traditional managerial mindset, globalization requires organizations to perpetually compete in terms of performance indicators such as productivity, efficiency, increased cost advantages, as well as superior products - i.e. they have to strive for increased competitiveness (Krugman 1995) - the aging workforce adds a challenging new aspect: management is becoming concerned with workers' physical and mental performance, specifically that of employees beyond the age of 45. Academic researchers, too, wonder whether an older workforce can perform exacting physical and mental tasks as productively and efficiently as a relatively younger one.Questions such as these have led to an increasing number of companies introducing what is called 'aging workforce management'. This basically refers to the development, implementation, and application of tools and measures to sustain or even improve organizational competitiveness, despite an increase in the workforce's average age and its resulting age-related challenges.While there have already been multiple research studies into the older workforce's mental and physical abilities (e.g. Delgoulet/Marquie 2002; Freudenthal 2001; Reed/Doty/May 2005), our literature research indicates that there is a substantial gap in both managerial practice and research regarding what aging workforce management actually constitutes (Streb/Voelpel/Leibold 2008). Aging still seems to be a conundrum for most organizations and they consequently apply conventional management tools to its anticipated challenges.In view of the automobile industry's specific concern about physical job performance, we applied a grounded theory approach to answer the questions of what elements actually constitute aging workforce management, i.e. how the challenge of the aging workforce can be defined, and what the specific related issues are with which management has to deal.Grounded theory is perceived as being especially useful in areas of study where little scientific work has b...Siehe den Gesamtinhalt dieses Dokumentes
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