Pathways to retirement: A career stage analysis of retirement age expectations
Abstract
In western economies with aging populations, organizations are increasingly challenged to understand and manage employees’ retirement expectations. At the same time, employees’ relationships to retirement decisions and the age at which they expect to retire are likely to change as their careers unfold. This article seeks to inform the careers and management literatures on factors contributing to retirement intentions at different career stages. Using a sample of mid- and late career professionals with MBAs, we find that mid-career professionals expect to retire three years earlier than those in late career (age 62 versus age 65.) Work centrality is associated with intentions to retire later, while positive retirement attitudes and higher income are associated with intentions to retire earlier. Furthermore, the expected retirement age is more sensitive to income at mid-career (than at late career) and is more sensitive to work centrality at late career (than at mid-career). We discuss implications for careers research and for human resource management practice.
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Biographies
Corinne Post is Assistant Professor of Management in the College of Business and Economics, at Lehigh University, USA where she teaches organizational behavior and human resource management. Her research interests include the persistence of inequality in career progressions based on socio-demographic characteristics (e.g. gender, race/ethnicity, age) and the complex and contradictory effects of group diversity on group performance. Her work is published in journals including Journal of Applied Psychology, Administrative Science Quarterly, Group and Organization Management, Journal of Business Ethics, Business and Society, and Journal of Business and Psychology. [Email: [email protected]]
Joy A Schneer is Professor of Management and Organizational Behavior in the Department of Management and Human Resources at Rider University, USA. She is a past chair of the Gender and Diversity in Organizations Division of the Academy of Management. Dr Schneer conducts research on the career paths of managers focusing on factors that influence career success. Her research has been published in top academic outlets (i.e. Academy of Management Journal, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Vocational Behavior). [Email: [email protected]]
Frieda Reitman is Professor of Management, emerita, at Pace University, USA. Her research interests for over 25 years have been the effect of gender-related issues (interruptions, family structure, work-family, compensation) on career success of MBAs, and the changes in traditional careers over time. Her work is published in Equal Opportunities International, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Business Ethics, Group & Organization Management, and Organization Management Journal. [Email: [email protected]]
dt ogilvie is Dean and Professor of Business Strategy at the Rochester Institute of Technology, E. Philip Saunders College of Business, USA. She is on the Editorial Board of Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship and has served on the editorial boards of Emergence: Complexity and Organization Journal and Group & Organization Management. She has served as President of the Eastern Academy of Management, President of the Case Association (CASE), President of the Academy of Management Council, on the Executive Council of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE), and on the Academy of Management’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Leadership in Management Education for the 21st Century. For the second time, she is on the Executive Board of the Gender and Diversity in Organizations Division of the Academy of Management. Her research focus is on executive leadership strategies of multicultural women executives, women in the executive suite, race and gender issues in management, strategic decision making and the use of creativity to enhance business and battlefield decision making, and applying complexity theory to strategy and creativity. Her work has appeared in journals including Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management Studies, Leadership Quarterly, and Journal of Business Research. [Email: [email protected]]
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