Ageism at Work


Book Description

Ageism at Work looks at how ageism plays out in the labour market and how it intersects with sexism from the perspective of both older workers and employers.




Age at Work


Book Description




Age and Work


Book Description

"The edited volume, Age and Work presents a systematic collection of key advances in theory, methods, and practice regarding age(ing) and work. This leading-edge collection breaks new ground by developing novel and useful theory, explaining underutilized but important methodological approaches, and suggesting original practical applications of emerging research topics. The book begins with a prologue by the World Health Organization's unit head for aging and health, an introduction on the topic by the editors, and an overview of past, current, and future workforce age trends. Subsequently, the first main section outlines theoretical advances regarding alternative age constructs (e.g., subjective age), intersectionality of age with gender and social class, paradoxical age-related actions, generational identity, and integration of lifespan theories. The second section presents methodological advances regarding behavioral assessment, age at the team and organizational levels, longitudinal and diary methods, experiments and interventions, qualitative methods, and the use of archival data. The third section covers practical advances regarding age and job crafting, knowledge exchange, the work/non-work interface, healthy aging, and absenteeism and presenteeism, and organizational meta-strategies for younger and older workers. The book concludes with an epilogue by an eminent scholar in age and work. Written in a scientific yet accessible manner, the book offers a valuable resource for undergraduate and graduate students, academics in the fields of psychology and business, as well as practitioners working in the areas of human resource management and organizational development"--




This Chair Rocks


Book Description

Author, activist, and TED speaker Ashton Applewhite has written a rousing manifesto calling for an end to discrimination and prejudice on the basis of age. In our youth obsessed culture, we’re bombarded by media images and messages about the despairs and declines of our later years. Beauty and pharmaceutical companies work overtime to convince people to purchase products that will retain their youthful appearance and vitality. Wrinkles are embarrassing. Gray hair should be colored and bald heads covered with implants. Older minds and bodies are too frail to keep up with the pace of the modern working world and olders should just step aside for the new generation. Ashton Applewhite once held these beliefs too until she realized where this prejudice comes from and the damage it does. Lively, funny, and deeply researched, This Chair Rocks traces her journey from apprehensive boomer to pro-aging radical, and in the process debunks myth after myth about late life. Explaining the roots of ageism in history and how it divides and debases, Applewhite examines how ageist stereotypes cripple the way our brains and bodies function, looks at ageism in the workplace and the bedroom, exposes the cost of the all-American myth of independence, critiques the portrayal of elders as burdens to society, describes what an all-age-friendly world would look like, and offers a rousing call to action. It’s time to create a world of age equality by making discrimination on the basis of age as unacceptable as any other kind of bias. Whether you’re older or hoping to get there, this book will shake you by the shoulders, cheer you up, make you mad, and change the way you see the rest of your life. Age pride! “Wow. This book totally rocks. It arrived on a day when I was in deep confusion and sadness about my age. Everything about it, from my invisibility to my neck. Within four or five wise, passionate pages, I had found insight, illumination, and inspiration. I never use the word empower, but this book has empowered me.” —Anne Lamott, New York Times bestselling author




Age-Differentiated Work Systems


Book Description

The disproportionate aging of the population of working age in many nations around the world is a unique occurrence in the history of humankind. In the light of demographic change, it is becoming increasingly important to develop and use the potential of older employees. This edited volume Age-differentiated Work Systems provides a final report on a six-year priority program funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and presents selected research findings of 17 interdisciplinary project teams. The idea is that it will serve both as a reference book and overview of the current state of research in ergonomics, occupational psychology and related disciplines. It provides new models, methods, and procedures for analyzing and designing age-differentiated work systems with the aim of supporting subject matter experts from different areas in their decisions on labor and employment policies. Therefore over 40 laboratory experiments involving 2,000 participants and 50 field studies involving over 25,000 employees were conducted. Further objectives of the edited volume were to provide a pluridisciplinary compilation of the extensive information acquired over the six-year program period, to illustrate the range of the research field, and to convey an integrated understanding of age-differentiated work systems to readers.




Aging and Work in the 21st Century


Book Description

The aging of baby boomers, along with the predicted decrease of the available labor pool, will place increased scrutiny and emphasis on issues relating to an aging workforce. Furthermore, future economic downturns will place strong pressure on older workers to remain in the workforce, and on retirees to seek employment again. Aging and Work in the 21st Century reviews, summarizes, and integrates existing literature from various disciplines with regard to aging and work. Chapter authors, all leading experts within their respective areas, provide recommendations for future research, practice, and/or public policy. This definitive source comprehensively reviews: trends and implications regarding the demography, income, and diversity of the aging workforce; the issue of age bias in the workplace; job performance, work-related attitudes, training and development, and career issues of older workers; and topics of age and occupational health, technology, work and family issues, and retirement. The intended audience is advanced undergraduate and graduate students, as well as researchers in the disciplines of industrial and organizational psychology; developmental psychology; gerontology; sociology; economics; and social work. Older worker advocate organizations, like AARP, will also take interest in this edited book.




Human Work in the Age of Smart Machines


Book Description

A public policy leader addresses how artificial intelligence is transforming the future of labor—and what we can do to protect the role of workers. As computer technology advances with dizzying speed, human workers face an ever-increasing threat of obsolescence. In Human Work In the Age of Smart Machines, Jamie Merisotis argues that we can—and must—rise to this challenge by preparing to work alongside smart machines doing that which only humans can: thinking critically, reasoning ethically, interacting interpersonally, and serving others with empathy. The president and CEO of Lumina Foundation, Merisotis offers a roadmap for the large-scale, radical changes we must make in order to find abundant and meaningful work for ourselves in the 21st century. His vision centers on developing our unique capabilities as humans through learning opportunities that deliver fair results and offer a broad range of credentials. By challenging long-held assumptions and expanding our concept of work, Merisotis argues that we can harness the population’s potential, encourage a deeper sense of community, and erase a centuries-long system of inequality.




The Work of the Future


Book Description

Why the United States lags behind other industrialized countries in sharing the benefits of innovation with workers and how we can remedy the problem. The United States has too many low-quality, low-wage jobs. Every country has its share, but those in the United States are especially poorly paid and often without benefits. Meanwhile, overall productivity increases steadily and new technology has transformed large parts of the economy, enhancing the skills and paychecks of higher paid knowledge workers. What’s wrong with this picture? Why have so many workers benefited so little from decades of growth? The Work of the Future shows that technology is neither the problem nor the solution. We can build better jobs if we create institutions that leverage technological innovation and also support workers though long cycles of technological transformation. Building on findings from the multiyear MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future, the book argues that we must foster institutional innovations that complement technological change. Skills programs that emphasize work-based and hybrid learning (in person and online), for example, empower workers to become and remain productive in a continuously evolving workplace. Industries fueled by new technology that augments workers can supply good jobs, and federal investment in R&D can help make these industries worker-friendly. We must act to ensure that the labor market of the future offers benefits, opportunity, and a measure of economic security to all.




Age at Work


Book Description

Age at Work explores the myriad ways in which ‘age’ is at ‘work’ across society, organizations and workplaces, with special focus on organizations, their boundaries, and marginalizing processes around age and ageism in and across these spaces. The book examines: how society operates in and through age, and how this informs the very existence of organizations; age-organization regimes, age-organization boundaries, and the relationship between organizations and death, and post-death the importance of memory, forgetting and rememorizing in re-thinking the authors’ and others’ earlier work tensions between seeing age in terms of later life and seeing age as pervasive social relations. Enriched with insights from the authors’ lived experiences, Age at Work is a major and timely intervention in studies of age, work, care and organizations. Ideal for students of Sociology, Organizations and Management, Social Policy, Gerontology, Health and Social Care, and Social Work.




The Importance of Work in an Age of Uncertainty


Book Description

Work plays an essential role in how we engage with the world, reflecting our desire to be productive, creative, and connected to others. By exploring the inner experiences of people at work, people seeking work, and people transitioning in and out of work, this book provides a rich and complex picture of the contemporary work experience. Drawing from extensive interviews with working people across the US, as well as insights from psychological research on work and careers, the book provides compelling evidence that the nature of work in the US is eroding-- and with powerful psychological and social consequences. From this conclusion, the book also illustrates the rationale and roadmap for a renewed agenda toward full employment and toward fair and dignified jobs for all who want to work. The emotional insights complement the conclusions of the best science and policy analyses on working, culminating in a powerful call for policies that attend to the real lives of individuals in 21st century America. By weaving these various sources together, Blustein delineates a conception of working that conveys its complexity, richness, and capacity for both joy and despair.