Bridge employment and full retirement intentions: the role of person-environment fit
| Date | 02 September 2019 |
| Published date | 02 September 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-02-2018-0067 |
| Pages | 1469-1490 |
| Author | Khaled Lahlouh,Delphine Lacaze,Richard Huaman-Ramirez |
| Subject Matter | Hr & organizational behaviour,Global hrm |
Bridge employment and full
retirement intentions: the role of
person-environment fit
Khaled Lahlouh and Delphine Lacaze
Aix-Marseille Université,
CERGAM EA 4225 –Aix-Marseille Graduate School of Management –IAE,
Marseille, France, and
Richard Huaman-Ramirez
EM Strasbourg Business School, Strasbourg, France
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between different categories of
person–environment (P–E) fit and two types of retirement intentions (i.e. full retirement and bridge employment).
Design/methodology/approach –Data were collected from a convenience sample of 357 executives
aged 50 and over, employed in French private sector companies. Hypotheses were tested using structural
equation modeling.
Findings –Perceptionsof value congruenceat vocational level and needs and suppliesfit at organizational and
job levels were positively related to the intentionto hold bridge employment after retirement.The fit between
older worker’s abilities and job demands waspositively related to the two types of retirement intentions.
Originality/value –The complexity of retirement transition is taken into account with the introduction of
two types of retirement intentions. P–E fit is shown to be an antecedent of career intentions after retirement.
Keywords Quantitative, Bridge employment, Full retirement, Person–environment fit
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Retirement management is a major issue for Western societies that are struggling to ensure
the survival of their finance systems through unpopular reforms (Oakman and Wells, 2013;
Sabatier and Legendre, 2017). Several reforms and plans have been introduced in France,
since the early 1990s to foster in particular the employment of older workers (more precisely
in 1993, 2003, 2010 and 2014). Positive results[1] have been observed regarding the rate of
employment of older workers in recent years in the southern half of European countries.
Besides the economic and legal spheres, organizational policies are also affected by a
renewed vision of retirement and retirees (Vough et al., 2016; Van Soligne and Henkens,
2014). Formerly, retirement was synonymous with the absence of paid employment among
older employees (Shultz, 2003). Nowadays, confirming the conceptualization of retirement as
a process that evolves over time (Beehr, 1986), the transition to full retirement is comprised
of different pathways ( Jones and McIntosh, 2010), including the form of work exercised
during retirement known as “bridge employment.”Unlike full retirement that refers to a
complete and definite withdrawal from the labor market, bridge employment concerns older
workers taking up employment after they retire from their main career jobs. Bridge
employment can be exercised either part time or full time, in the same or in a different field
to the career job (Feldman, 1994; Feldman and Beehr, 2011); it is becoming very common
among older workers (Greenwald, 2004; Olleman, 2006).
Besides the benefit of allowing organizations to retain skilled and experienced employees
(Shacklock and Brunetto, 2011), bridge employment is also beneficial for individuals as it
enhances life satisfaction during the retirement years (Wang and Shultz, 2010), and it is
positively related to physical and psychological health (Zhan et al., 2009). Also, it fulfills the need
Personnel Review
Vol. 48 No. 6, 2019
pp. 1469-1490
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-02-2018-0067
Received 25 February 2018
Revised 27 August 2018
Accepted 15 October 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
1469
Full retirement
intentions
for both social contact (Lancee and Radl, 2012) andgenerativitybyallowingolderworkersto
mentor younger employees (Kerr and Armstrong-Stassen, 2011). Given the potential benefits of
bridge employment at individual and organizational levels, several scholars called for research
on the mechanisms leading highly skilled older employees to decide to pursue their careers –by
holding a career bridge job –rather than to decide to fully retire (Bennett et al.,2016;Wangand
Shultz, 2010; Wang et al., 2008; Zanibioni et al., 2010). In that perspective, conceptual models
integrating different retirement intentions need to be developed.
Both personal variables (e.g. health: Talaga and Beehr, 1998; Taylor and Shore, 1995;
financial situation: Adams, 1999; Mariappanadar, 2013; Wang et al., 2008; marital quality:
Davis, 2003; Henkens and Leenders, 2010;personality trait: Schwaba and Bleidorn, 2018) and
organizational variables (e.g. organizational commitment: Jones and McIntosh, 2010; job
satisfaction, work stress: Wang et al., 2008; self-directed career attitude: DeVos and Segers,
2013; organizational tenure:Davis, 2003) have been shownto influence the differentretirement
pathways. For example, Davis (2003) found that married retirees and retirees with long
organizationaltenures were more likely to full retire than to engage in a career bridge job. In
addition, on a sampleof 904 individuals whose agewas between 51 and 61, Wang et al. (2008)
found that retirees who were younger, had better health, were more educated, were less
stressed and more satisfied with pre-retirement jobs, and thoughtless about retirement, were
more likely to engage in bridge employment than in full retirement. However, variations in
retirement intentions may result precisely from the interaction between the personand his or
her work environment. There may not be “one best environ ment”for older employees, but
situations of fit or misfit between employees and their work environment (Wang and Shultz,
2010). Despite thelarge body of research on the individual’s relationship with his orher work
environment (Schneider, 1987; Schneideret al., 1998), and its considerable explanatory power
in predicting organizational behavior (VanVianen, 2018), little research was done on the role
of the individual-work environment interaction in determining retirement intentions (for an
exception, see Oakman and Wells, 2016).
Therefore, this study participates to the literature on retirement in two ways, which
include theoretical and managerial contributions. First, as suggested by Topa and Alcover
(2015) and Jones and McIntosh (2010), we mainly focus on career bridge employment as this
form of employment contributes to address labor shortages ( Jones and McIntosh, 2010) and
allows older workers to fully express their human capital potential (Gobeski and Beehr,
2009). This choice is also motivated by the current need for executives in France: according
to APEC (2018)[2] forecasts, French enterprises should hire by the end of 2018 13 percent
more executives than in 2017 with 270,000 recruitments. This number significantly exceeds
the first pre-crisis level and the hiring trend should continue in 2019. In this context, given
the knowledge and skills held by older executives, understanding the organizational factors
influencing career bridge employment is of particular interest for recruiting companies.
Second, responding to the call of Wang and Shultz (2010), this study adopts an interactionist
perspective based on the theory of person–environment (P–E) fit. As suggested by previous
research (Greguras and Diefendorff, 2009; Yu, 2016), it contributes to the P–E fit literature by
exploring how different types of P–E fit predict behavioral intentions. The present study
adopts this integrative approach by considering the three main conceptualizations of fit
proposed by Kristof (1996): needs–supplies, demands–abilities and Value congruence. This
approach should provide multilevel guidance for managerial actions to maintain older workers’
participation in organizational performance.
Theoretical framework
Retirement intentions
Retirement intentions are usually developed well before the effective retirement. Between 50
and 55 years, phase that Ekerdt (1998) called the anticipation phase of retirement, the older
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