Page 32 - increasing-the-value-of-age-guidance-in-employers-age-management-strategies

Increasing the value of age: guidance in employers’ age management strategies

Box 1. Definition of older people

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) counts those
as older employees, who are aged 50 and over: ‘the age of 50 is not meant to be a
watershed in and of itself in terms of defining who is old and who is not, but it does
correspond to the age after which labour force participation rates begin to decline in
many countries’ (OECD, 2006, p. 16).
Another possibility is to regard the situational dimension of life and not only the
chronological age of a person. Laslett (1991) divided the lifespan of a person into four
parts and coined the term ‘third age’. It describes a period in a life ‘[...] of personal
achievement and fulfilment [...]’. The ‘[...] life career [...] has its culmination in the third
age’. Laslett further differentiated the four ages: ‘first comes an era of dependence,
socialisation, immaturity and education; second an era of independence, maturity and
responsibility, of earning and of saving, third an era of personal fulfilment; and fourth
an era of final dependence, decrepitude and death’ (Laslett, 1991).
For an individual, a situational definition is advantageous, as a person’s health,
mental abilities, work motivation, and activity vary greatly even among people of the
same chronological age. Thus, ‘older people’ are not a homogeneous group, but
include a wide range of behaviour types.
Our understanding of what we mean by being old is also culturally driven since
perceptions on the definitions of young and old differ significantly across countries.
The 2012 Eurobarometer survey on active ageing shows that in Malta, Portugal and
Sweden, people under 37 years are considered young, while in Cyprus and Greece
people are considered young up to the age of 50. On average, Europeans believe
that we start being regarded as old just before 64 and are no longer considered
young from the age of 41.8 years. Perceptions also vary with age and sex: women
feel that old age begins slightly later than men (65.0 years versus 62.7 years
respectively) (European Commission, 2012a).

Ford (2007) identifies the following subgroups of older people as the ones
that most need career guidance:
(a) people who have been made redundant having spent a long time working in
a single organisation;
(b) people who lack skills or self-confidence;
(c) those who are trying the change career or return after a break, especially
women;
(d) those who are seeking more flexible working patterns, such as working on a
part-time or flexible basis;
(e) those who need to cope with other kinds of discrimination such as migrants
and ethnic minorities;
(f) those with health problems.

Older people can be defined in different ways and are a very heterogeneous
group to deal with, even when the same definition is used. This study uses a

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