Rosemary A. Venne

The long goodbye: Age, demographics, and flexibility in retirement

The current literature on retirement decisions has given inadequate attention to the impacts of increasing life expectancy. This paper examines workforce aging and retirement within a framework that not only includes age, but also integrates increasing life expectancy into the discussion. Employee preference surveys regarding choice in retirement are supported by the demographic and by work-time compression arguments for retirement flexibility. We outlinearguments why partial-retirement policies would be a practical and timely transition strategy for organizations and societies in a world of increasing life expectancies and aging workforces , especially when facing the imminent retirement of the large post-war baby-boom generation.

Planning for serious illness by the general public: a population-based survey.

Background. While rates of advance care documentation amongst the general public remain low, there is increasing recognition of the value of informal planning to address patient preferences in serious illness. Objectives. To determine the associations between personal attributes and formal and informal planning for serious illness across age groups. Methods. This population-based, online survey was conducted in Saskatchewan, Canada, in April, 2012, using a nonclinical sample of 827 adults ranging from 18 to 88 years of age and representative of age, sex, and regional distribution of the province. Associations between key predictor variables and planning for serious illness were assessed using binary logistic regression. Results. While 16.6% of respondents had completed a written living will or advance care plan, half reported having conversations about their treatment wishes or states of health in which they would find it unacceptable to live. Lawyers were the most frequently cited source of assistance for those who had prepared advance care plans. Personal experiences with funeral planning significantly increased the likelihood of activities designed to plan for serious illness. Conclusions. Strategies designed to increase the rate of planning for future serious illness amongst the general public must account for personal readiness.

Management control in a spiritually-charged organisation

Recent research suggests that there is considerable interest among scholars to integrate spirituality into the workplace. One gap in the literature pertains to management control in organisations with a collection of spiritually-oriented employees (a spiritually-charged organisation); our paper fills this gap. This conceptual paper employs a hermeneutic methodology by reviewing and interpreting spiritual literature, applying selected concepts to the modern workplace and designing a management control system to align with the values of such organisations. It conceptualises spirituality from the perspectives of the important concepts of Dharma and Nishkama Karma. This paper offers the position that the management control process would be different in a spiritually-charged organisation where employees are likely to be intrinsically motivated and the firms values and goals would appeal to the moral values of its employees. We argue that workplace spirituality should be considered an important contingency factor for organisational management, in particular related to managing with the concept of Dharma in mind. Finally, we discuss transformational leadership practices, such as inspiring a shared vision, which are consistent with the nature of such organisations.

Demographics, the Third Age and partial retirement: Policy proposals to accommodate the changing picture of female retirement in Canada

ABSTRACT Much concern has been raised around the potential impact of the retirement of the large baby boom generation. This article specifically addresses the unique issues surrounding the retirement of female baby boomers. Demographic changes, including increased labor force participation, coupled with declining fertility rates, have resulted in a social transformation of the roles women play in society. Despite these changes, women still bear much of the caregiving responsibilities in the household, which can complicate retirement choices. This article examines female retirement in the Canadian context and presents three policy proposals to expand women’s retirement choices, encourage longer-term labor force participation, and thereby extend their working lives into the Third Age.

Longer to Launch: Demographic Changes in Life-Course Transitions

Since the late twentieth century, a new pattern has been witnessed in the life-course transitions of youth; it is one that is more prolonged and complex than it was a generation ago. Labelled as ‘longer to launch.’ the term refers to young people finishing their education, beginning their careers, and leaving their parents’ homes later in life. Their transitions are not necessarily a one-step linear process. Rather, due to the increasing ages of home-leaving and the increasing percentage of youth who return to the parental home (after an initial departure), the phenomenon is one that is more complex as the literature on the cluttered nest (versus the empty nest) informs us (see Boyd and Norris, 2000 and Mitchell, 2006a)