Are the Quality of Organizational Changes Associated with Expected Retirement-Age Among Senior Employees?
Karen Albertsen, Annette Meng, Emil Sundstrup and 3 others
PMID 39448417WHAT IT FOUND
Poorly managed workplace reorganizations are linked to senior employees expecting to retire about 0.7 years earlier than those with well-managed changes.
For therapists advising on return-to-work or career retention, this suggests that how a company handles change, not just the change itself, impacts older workers' decisions to stay in the workforce.
Key findings
01Employees who experienced poorly implemented organizational changes had a lower expected retirement age (67.37 years) compared to those with high-quality implementation (68.08 years) or no changes (67.96 years).
02On average, employees exposed to poorly implemented changes reported an expected retirement age approximately 0.7 years lower than those exposed to well-implemented changes.
03For 21–25% of employees who experienced organizational changes, those changes led to considerations of earlier retirement.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot prove that poor implementation caused earlier retirement expectations; it is possible that those already planning to retire judged the changes more negatively. The outcome measured was 'expected' retirement age, which may not align with actual retirement behavior. Data were collected during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have influenced perceptions of job security and retirement plans. The study relies on self-reported perceptions of the quality of organizational changes, which may vary between individuals.
Declared interests
The provided text does not explicitly state funding sources or conflicts of interest declarations.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume this study proves that poor management directly causes people to retire. It shows an association with 'expected' retirement age in a survey. Also, the difference in years (0.7) is statistically significant but clinically small for an individual; the main impact is at the societal level of workforce retention.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →