Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

family model is one of “dual breadwinner/extended family care” (Pfau-Effinger et al. 2009:
195, 199).
The intermingling of different factors demonstrates at individual level – as has been
already the case at institutional and company level – that “it is not enough to manipulate
single parameters”, and that successful public policies have to address both supply and
demand policies and “to address the challenge of an ageing workforce early on in the life
course and aiming at achieving equality between the sexes” (Hartlapp/Schmid 2008: 25).
5.4. Conclusions
The findings presented in the previous three sections (5.1. – 5.3.), which condense
information from the chapters 3 and 4 of this study, allow us to make an informed guess of
what will be the future status of labour market integration of older workers in Poland and
Germany. Can the current employment rates of older workers and the average age of
retirement be raised in Poland and Germany? Will the firms´ personnel policy in both
countries correspond with the aim of the legislator to prolong working life?
With regard to the institutional factors of early exit, the development of national policy
in the realm of labour market and pensions already points in the right direction. However,
the institutional framework is more favourable in Germany than in Poland. With regard to
personnel policy, much is still to be done before the firm level becomes a place where older
persons may extend their working lives. So far, only (some) German firms have adopted
integrative age management strategies, while Polish firms are at the stage of developing
HRM strategies spanning several personnel policy fields which have so far been
underdeveloped. At individual level, it can be observed that Poles are still orientated
towards a low retirement age, while Germans have adapted their preferences across the
years to changed institutional circumstances. However, the insight gained into adaptation
patterns of older workers has shown that the orientation of Poles on early exit is shaped –
even more than is the case in Germany – by a mixture of push and pull factors. Given the
continuing labour shedding processes in Polish firms, a halt to that trend is hardly to be
achieved.
In short, the chances for a prolongation of working life are better in Germany, and I
assume that the trend cannot be halted anymore, while in Poland, the direction and pace of
the development is still unclear. Albeit the chances for a more age-friendly, or at least long-
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