HRM practices and low occupational status older workers
| Pages | 339-355 |
| Date | 20 April 2013 |
| Published date | 20 April 2013 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01425451311320512 |
| Author | Sophie Hennekam,Olivier Herrbach |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
HRM practices and low
occupational status older workers
Sophie Hennekam
Department of Management & Organizations, ESC La Rochelle, La Rochelle,
France, and
Olivier Herrbach
Bordeaux University, Bordeaux, France and ESC Rennes School of Business,
Rennes, France
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of perceived human resource management
(HRM) practices on affective organizational commitment, job performance and preference for early
retirement.
Design/methodology/approach – In total, 414 older employees with a low occupational status, in
the graphical, arts, information and media sectors in the Netherlands, filled out a survey measuring
their perception of five human resource practices related to flexible work options, job design, training,
evaluation of their performance and recognition and respect, their commitment, job performance
and preference for early retirement.
Findings – The results show that employees’ perception of HRM practices related to job design and
recognition and respect have a positive influence on their affective commitment to their organization.
Second, their perception of the HRM practices related to recognition and respect are also shown to have
a positive relationship with job performance. However, it was found that perceived HRM practices
do not influence preference for early retirement.
Originality/value – These findings show that the provision of HRM practices enhances job
performance and affective organizational commitment. However, in contrast with the common
assumption that HRM practices will influence the retirement decision in the sense that it will delay
their retirement, it might not be a useful tool to keep older employees longer in the wo rkforce.
Keywords The Netherlands, Older workers, Human resource management, Employees behaviour,
Perception, Job commitment, Retirement, HRM practices, Older employees,
Low occupational status workers
Paper type Research p aper
Many countries are facing demog raphic developments that imply that older workers
will become an increasingly substantial part of the workforce in the near future (OECD,
2005). The massive retirement of the baby boomer generation may lead to an upcoming
labour shortage, a sudden loss of skills and experience, a declining wo rking population
compared to thepopulation being in retirement, as well as a financial burdenon younger
employees to pay for the retirement of this generation (OECD, 2011). Furthermore, the
share of gross domestic product devoted to social insurance for older people is expected
to more than double in upcoming years in some countries, decreasing economic growth
(OECD, 2011). One solution to this upcoming challenge is to try to keep olderemployees
in the workforce until or even beyond the legal retirement age (Van Dalen et al., 2009).
Although employers are aware of the challenges related to the aging workforce, few
have developed an action plan (Armstrong-Stassen, 2008). Conventional wisdom
suggests that HRM practices can be used as a management tool to motivate and retain
older employees (Kooij et al., 2008) and therefore are a way to deal with the challenges
related to the aging workforce. However, it has been argued that the aging population
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Employee Relations
Vol.35 No. 3, 2013
pp. 339-355
rEmeraldGroup Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/01425451311320512
339
HRM practices
and older
workers
asks for new HRM management policies tha t fit older workers (Collins, 2003), calling
for more research on the influence of HRM practices on older employees’ preference
for early retirement.
In this study, we purport to examine how the perception of HRM practices
influences individual outcomes among older employees with a low-occupational status.
This is in contrast with most existing research that has focused on managers (Pillay
et al., 2006, 2010). Studying low-status workers is impo rtant, because it has been
argued that their perception of HR practices is likely to differ from that of employees
with higher occupational statuses (Boon et al., 2011; Herrbach et al., 2009). In addition,
this study contributes to the existing body of research by focusing on this category
of workers in the Netherlands, a country with specific characteristics.
The paper will proceed as follows. We first discuss the Dutch context and then
introduce social exchange theory as ou r theoretical framework and the HRM practices
under study (flexible work options, job design, training, p erformance evaluation and
recognition and respect). We then examine how this set of HRM practices is related to
older employees’ affective organizational commitment, self-reported in-job
performance and preference for early retirement using a sample of workers in the
Dutch creative industry (Figure 1).
Research context
The rate of the demographic aging process in the Netherlands will double in the years
to come and is thus representative of the challenges related to an aging workforce. In
the period 2011-2015, the over-65 population will have grown by half a million versus a
quarter of a million in the period 2006-2010 (Statistics Netherlands, 2011). The potential
employed labour force (people aged between 15 and 65) comprised 10.1 million people
in 2011 and is expected to decline by 0.8 million in the period up to 2040 (Statistics
Netherlands, 2011). Although the retirement age has been increased to 67 and early exit
measures have been made less accessible, the Netherlands still has an early-exist
culture. This makes research about older employees in the workplace especially
relevant in order to know how to keep them working till or p ast the legal retirement
Perceived HR
practices
Affective
organizational
commitment
Preference
for early
retirement
Job
performance
Figure 1.
Theoretical model
340
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