Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

4. Prolongation of Working Life at Establishment Level
In the following chapters, I will present the results of qualitative analyses in German and
Polish companies. Beforehand, I will give a literature overview focusing on selected aspects
of HRM 43 . with regard to older workers. The overview will present several explanatory
variables in the field of personnel policy and show which factors are beneficial and which
are detrimental to the integration of older workers on the job. A second function of the
overview will be to shed light on the general shape of personnel policy and age management
in German and Polish firms in the light of representative surveys. That will serve as a basis
for detailed analyses in sections 4.2. and 4.3. based on my firm case studies.
In the literature review, I will first show general aspects of HRM and introduce the
concepts of ´internalisation´ and ´externalisation´ of older workers. Afterwards, I will focus
on the personnel policy field recruitment, further training, health management and employee
exit as those constitute in my view the basic levers which decide whether older workers
have a chance to enter employment and to be retained. A similar focus is followed by
practice-orientated literature on age management (Länge/Menke 2007; Bertelsmann
Stiftung/BDA 2003, Morschhäuser 2002, 2005, a.o.). The focus on training and health
policy stems from the fact that those two fields of action are core elements of workability
(Kerschbaumer/Räder 2008: 38).
4.1. Literature Review
4.1.1. The Role of the Overall human resource management Strategy
State policies and shop floor policies towards older workers can be clustered, following
Naschold et al. (1994a: 453, 455) and Rosenow/Naschold (1994: 46), in two ideal types:
1) the demand-side orientated externalisation strategy, where “the government offers
incentives to firms and workers to transfer the employment-linked risks of older workers
to the welfare state system”; the related strategy of firms is to outsource personnel
problems to the external labour market by sorting out older workers and/or the
recruitment of younger ones;
43 Throughout the study, I will deploy the term ´human resource management´ as synonym to ´personnel
policies´, denoting the broad array of tasks performed by the personnel department. As ´age management´, I
understand ´personnel policy in view of an ageing workforce´ or ´arenas and measures addressing
demographic change´ (Kistler et al. 2006). Those policies may also encompass early retirement.
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