WP1 deals with older peoples’ participation in the labour market and the extension of working lives. 5 ESRs investigate the barriers and challenges that older workers face at the macro, meso and micro levels using quantitative, qualitative and mixed-method approaches.
In order to share the experience and receive feedback on the on-going data-collection and data-analysis issues, regular skype meetings were set. The topics covered included: actual difficulties of measuring ageism in the labour market, possible biases of measuring meso-level ageism via quantitative and qualitative methods, ethical issues, applying FAIR principles to the data used in the analysis.
ESR1 investigates the magnitude of ageism and the mechanisms related to its development and decline on the meso-level in the labour market under the welfare regime of one of the CEE countries (Poland). The research involves the analysis of previously existed secondary data, as well as the collection of the new wave of the survey, which provides an opportunity to trace changes in stereotypes and age management practices from 2009 to 2020. ESR1 plans to use latent class analyses (LCA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) to reveal the dynamics of stereotypes, applied measures and inclusion outcomes within companies and factors influencing them. The analysis is planned to be developed in line with the explanatory mixed-method design – qualitative interviews with the companies will deepen the results gained from the quantitative analyses.
ESR2 studies age discrimination in late working life in Sweden with a meso perspective in four different sub-studies using Swedish National Registry Data. The first study describes late working life patterns of individuals in Sweden by analysing average months in employment within a calendar year of different cohorts and social groups. The second study examines the role of age discrimination in these employment trajectories and how age discrimination in late working life is structured across time, cohorts, social groups, organisational structures and regions using event history analysis. Unexplained age differences in late working life are used as a proxy for age discrimination. Investigating differences in unexplained part within different social groups time and regions contributes to revealing mechanisms of age discrimination and its interaction with other socioeconomic, institutional and organisational factors. The third study examines the role of firm behaviour in the age discrimination, the differences across the companies and workplaces with different organisational structures and different conditions. The fourth study investigates the role of local and regional governments and economic conditions in the age discrimination in late working life and how and why age discrimination differs across regions and municipalities.
ESR3’s project comprises of three sub-studies with each sub-study using a different qualitative method. The first study is an explorative study to the data that unravels the unfolding careers after redundancy. This is done through narrative, thematic analysis and researcher-constructed typology. The second study investigates the dynamics of institutional ageism and older workers’ agency in decisions to continue working, using deductive content analysis and discourse analysis to pinpoint the power relations and dynamics within the decisions. The third article will focus on stories of participation, aiming to yield knowledge on early exit to non-employment. Through narrative analysis, this article aims to inform policies as to why workers take early exit even when they cannot get access to their pension funds.
ERS4 studies how ageism unfolds in the social interactions happening inside the workplace between employer and employee. The focus is both on how organisational processes are structured to ensure the implementation of diversity policies and on how workers interact within these processes, according to their personal diversity, including age. This goal is achieved through the analysis of social interaction happening in structured human resources processes. The study is a case study of organisational practices within a specific organisation, for each organisation, background material is collected as well as interviews with employers and official policies on diversity and ageing. The processes selected are performance appraisal
interviews and recruitment interviews. The first study focuses on the performance appraisal interview; the data are video-recording of these encounters in an Italian company. The aim is to analyse how age is used in the feedback process, by whom and towards which aim and to uncover possible ageist practices, comparing how supervisor develop the process according to the age of the employee. The second study focuses on job interviews; the data are video-recordings of job interviews in an Italian recruitment agency. The analysis will show how age is used in the process, by whom and towards which aim and how possible ageist practices are revealed, comparing how recruiters develop the process according to the age of the candidate. The method used in both study is based on ethnomethodology tradition, drawing from discourse analysis and categorisation analysis. A third overreaching study is planned to analyse which categories of words are used within human resources processes to talk about age without citing it directly. These results might enhance our understanding of how ageism lie besides categories and it is talked into being in the interactions between employees and employers. This is the first study of this kind developed looking at human resources processes; it introduces rarely used data and method in the research on ageism and working life.
ESR5’s project focuses on examining the potential impact of the prolongation of working lives on society and the economy. To be more specific, this research rigorously measures the effects of a change in the retirement age on the retirement behaviours of older workers, and how this consequently leads to the employment of younger people. The analytical part of this project is divided into two main sections. First, ESR5 examines the general trends of Israeli employment over time using time series analysis. This will be formalised by conducting time-series regressions of the labour supply of the young (and the prime-aged) on that of older adults. Second, ESR5 develops econometric models using the instrumental variable approach to capture the relevance of simultaneity and the direction of the causal effects. A variable of the retirement-age reform will be used as an instrumental variable. Through the analyses, project #5 will provide rigorous empirical evidence on the controversial debate on whether raising the retirement age is beneficial for the society and economy in the context of Israel. This research will not only suggest cost-effective solutions by measuring relative gains and losses on the retirement-age reform but also address solutions to ageism in the workplace that older adults are currently facing.
For consistency of deliverables produced by EuroAgeism – template from WP2 was used by all Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) for Deliverable 3. Section 2 presents the work of ESRs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (sections 2.1-2.5) to explain how research data was collected, stored and assessed. Section 3 of this Deliverable summarises approaches to data collection and data analyses in the WP1.
