Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

concrete, context-based knowledge (Flyvbjerg 2005; Patton 2002). Acc. to Patton (2002:
167-8), qualitative methods are particularly suited for tracking organisational development
as they do not depict solely the initial and final stage of a process (as quantitative panels do),
but “what happened along the way”. Moreover, quantitative data on age management in
Polish companies is lacking altogether. A survey conducted in 2007 focused on opinions of
employers about older job-seekers and on their recruitment practice (Ipsos 2007). Although
an establishment panel study has been conducted in Germany since 1993, age-related
questions have entered the questionnaire only in 2002, and many aspects of the employment
relationships of older workers are still under-researched.
As central instrument within the case studies, I conducted expert interviews with
personnel managers and works council members (in Germany) or shop stewards (in Poland)
at establishment level. I concentrated on one site of the firm, usually the headquarters or
another site which had an own department responsible for personnel policies. I interrogated
personnel managers (or other persons responsible for personnel policies; sometimes it were
financial directors or CEOs) and representatives of the employees (works councils and trade
unions) not about their personal life history and experiences, but about issues which lay in
their purview and of which they were co-designers. The interviewees are treated in expert
interviews as representatives of a given group and not as singular persons, the topic of the
interview does not concern their personal opinions, but opinions of the whole organisation
(Mayer 2002: 37; Jaworska-Posiła 2000: 233-4).
By interviewing both managers and employee representatives, I was able to control the
validity of the statements of either one party. The collection of additional material (e.g.
statistics on the age structure, fluctuation statistics, collective and works council
agreements) allowed me to assess whether verbal declarations are translated into actual
policy.
I conducted the analysis at two time spans: In Germany in spring 2004 and autumn
2006/spring 2007, in Poland in spring 2005 (personnel managers) and spring 2006 (shop
stewards). The 2.5- till 3-year time span between the two time slots in the case of the
German study gave my study the character of a qualitative panel and allowed me to track
continuance, resp. disruptions in the age management policy, as well as adaptation to
institutional changes. A comparable qualitative panel of age management strategies with a
34