Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

The firm case studies support the definition of ´good practice´ as “the best available
given particular national circumstances” (European Foundation 1998: 2). I evaluated good
practice in relation to what other companies in the given national – and not international –
context have achieved, as the institutional setting and the socio-economic history of a given
country determine the opportunities for establishing such a policy at all. That is in accord
with Maurice´s (1991: 84ff) recommendation to analyse the interrelations between micro
and macro level in its (national) institutional and cultural context, before making
international comparisons.
5.3. Determinants at Individual Level
The last level which I observed in the study of barriers and opportunities to the
prolongation of working life is the level of the individual worker. The individual is, on the
one hand, influenced in its labour/leisure choice by incentives set by national social security
and assistance systems, by the agency of firm actors, and by his/her own intrinsic
motivations to spend time e.g. with the family or by pursuing favourite pastimes (see Fig. 2
in chapter 2.).
My analysis revealed that retirement preferences, or ideas about the optimum retirement
age are, firstly, linked to informal institutions (in the Polish case – the alternative role of
´grandmothers´, and the opinion of early retirement for women being a compensation for
the uneven distribution of household chores; in the German case – the belief that older
workers have to step aside in order to make place for the young), secondly, to existing
institutional opportunities, and, thirdly, to company agency. If workers are deployed in
monotonous tasks, not promoted, excluded from training, and confronted with negative
attitudes about their performance, they orient themselves towards an early exit. In such
cases, it is difficult to distinguish between voluntary and involuntary exit. My qualitative
analysis attempted to reveal that ´black box´ of company agency and its role in those
processes. Voluntary and involuntary causes for early exit intermingle also in the collusion
of the interests of workers, employee representatives and the management at the forefront of
personnel reductions.
However, another barrier to longer working lives are the inherent values and ideas of
individuals on the optimum age of exit, the available institutional levers for early exit and
social norms. As for the first ones, individuals may be moved to stay in employment if
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