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The dual forces of an increasing dependency ratio and lower labor market participation on the part of mature individuals does not bode well for the American and European Communities. To begin to better understand such macro influences, changing demographic trends in the U.S. and European community with regard to the aging population and workforce participation are reviewed. In addition, recent research which continues to dispel the myth of a negative relationship between age and job performance is reviewed. A more informative way of looking at possible relationships between age and job performance is presented. A variety of contingent work arrangements and flexible employment policies are reviewed as a potential solution to the decreased supply of skilled labor for employers and the need for continued income and community involvement on the part of mature individuals. In addition, a call for a redefinition of how we currently view retirement is sounded. We conclude with recommendations for both employers and mature individuals on dealing with the issues presented.

Population aging, and changes in labor force participation among older adults, will have tremendous impacts on the aging workforce. Thus it is imperative that the factors that influence whether older workers will continue in their career employment, engage in bridge employment, or fully retire, should be understood better. This paper aims to focus on these issues.

In the present study longitudinal data for 2,869 older workers from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) data set in the USA were used to examine the influence of demographic (e.g. income), nonwork related factors (e.g. marital satisfaction), and work related factors (e.g. job involvement) on late‐life employment decisions over a ten year period from 1992 to 2002.

The results indicate a wide variety of factors impact employment decisions later in life. Specifically, it was found that work related factors of job involvement and schedule flexibility, as well as the nonwork related factors of certainty of retirement plans, attitudes toward retirement, and job seeking self‐efficacy all distinguished the various employment statuses (e.g. completely retired, partly retirement, and not retired at all) of older workers over a ten year period.

This study shows that both individuals and organizations need to examine a wide variety of factors when examining bridge employment decisions at the end of workers' careers. While most studies of bridge employment use cross‐sectional data, this paper uses longitudinal data to examine actual bridge employment decisions, rather that prospective desires or potentially faulty after‐the‐fact retrospective accounts.

The purpose of this overview is to provide a brief introduction to the topic of retirement, noting five key issues and directions for future research which are addressed collectively in the compilation of papers that follow: the changing nature of retirement; the need for an interdisciplinary perspective on retirement; the need to look at both individual and organizational perspectives; international variations in contexts and processes; and the need for a broad methodological perspective. The authors then outline and summarize the seven studies included in this special issue, as well as acknowledge those who were instrumental in bringing this special issue to fruition.

The International Journal of Manpower's usual double blind review process was used to select the seven papers included in this special issue. The papers themselves represent a wide variety of designs, methodologies, and analytic strategies used to study retirement. In addition, a wide variety of disciplinary approaches and levels of analyses and perspectives are employed across the seven studies.

The findings of the studies included in this special issue touch on retirement planning and decision making, as well as employer perspectives on the global aging workforce.

Each article includes practical implications with regard to retirement for the country and/or constituents examined in the study.

Taken as a collective, the papers in this special issue help to propel forward in significant ways the study of retirement from an international and interdisciplinary perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to pursue several goals: first, what is the relationship between perceived respect for privacy and potential job pursuit of student applicants in a hypothetical application scenario which includes social media screening as part of the selection process? Second, if the job involves vulnerable others, what are the implications for privacy perceptions? And third, to what extent does the use of social media for non-work purposes relate to perceived respect for privacy?

Using a cross-sectional sampling approach, data were collected from 388 student participants in two different data collection rounds via an online survey.

Perceived respect for privacy was positively correlated, and information privacy concern was negatively correlated, with job pursuit intention. However, perceived respect for privacy differed across the different jobs. Specifically, respect for privacy was higher when the employer screened social media for jobs involving explicit work with children. Social media use and content effects also emerged. Those who either observed others online or interacted with others online to socialize reported lower respect for privacy. Participants with more sensitive content online and content they would be unwilling to share also reported lower scores for privacy.

The results were based on cross-sectional data, correlational analyses and hypothetical job scenarios due to ethical considerations and causal restrictions in what may be bi-directional effects.

The current study adds to the limited research on the negative effects of social media screening by employers on applicant reactions and the role of job-specifics on how applicant may react to screening.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship of personal motivational goals and the corresponding occupational characteristics of volunteer, work-related activities in retirement with life and work satisfaction.

Fully retired individuals working for a non-profit organization in their former professional career field on a non-paid basis were surveyed using an online survey (n=661) to assess their motivational goals, the occupational characteristics of their projects, and satisfaction with life and work.

Results suggested that post-retirement volunteer workers differentiated between perceived life and work satisfaction. The motives of achievement, appreciation, autonomy, contact, and generativity significantly directly affected life satisfaction and indirectly affected work satisfaction. Occupational characteristics assessing achievement, appreciation, autonomy, contact, and generativity had direct effects on work satisfaction but not on life satisfaction except for occupational autonomy.

The study was cross-sectional and based on self-report data of highly educated German retirees working in volunteer professional positions, thus potentially limiting the generalizability of findings.

Organizations should enable post-retirement volunteer workers to meet their motivation goals by designing work opportunities to fulfill the motivational goals of achievement, appreciation, autonomy, contact, and generativity.

Post-retirement activities possess the potential to help solve societal problems by countering the shortage of specialists and managers at the same time that the burden on social security systems is reduced.

The paper presents evidence that different personal motivational goals and occupational characteristics are important in post-retirement activities. The findings imply that work designs created for post-retirement activities should provide a variety of occupational characteristics, such as occupational achievement and appreciation.

To demonstrate how applied projects integrated within master’s level graduate programs in the organizational sciences provide students with experiences that facilitate the translation of classroom concepts into practices that positively impact individual, organizational, and societal level outcomes.

We discuss how the scientist-practitioner model guides our thinking regarding the development of cocurriculum options for master’s level students. To give context, we provide thumbnail sketches of two applied programs — a master’s of science degree program in industrial-organizational psychology and a master’s of business administration (MBA) program — that serve as exemplars for linking practice with science.

We demonstrated, with specific examples, how practicum courses can bridge curricular and cocurricular offerings in stand-alone master’s programs, thus offering a glimpse into the range of activities completed by master’s students with little to over 20 years of work experience: job analysis, interview protocol development, program evaluation, talent acquisition, performance management, coaching, as well as training strategy ideation and delivery. We conclude the chapter with final reflections on the use of practicum classes in master’s level training.

The practicum courses detailed serve as unique exemplars of how to apply theory and research to organizational problems, thus bridging science and practice in the organizational sciences.

Technology and globalization of services have facilitated the digitalization of many processes at work. However, their impact on social capital is unknown. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between virtuality in the workplace and social capital.

Using an online survey, the authors recruited 152 female student workers using an opportunity sampling approach.

Participants who used social media at work (n=112) reported higher social capital overall than participants who did not use any social media to communicate with colleagues at work (n=40). This difference also presented itself in terms of the social capital subscales (network ties, shared vision and trust). Mediation analysis conducted with users of social media at work revealed that social media use was a significant mediator in the relationship between virtuality at work and social capital overall (partial mediation). Subsequent analyses with the subscales for virtuality and social capital suggested full mediation of the relationship in most instances (with the exception of work practices).

This is the first study to examine the relationship between virtuality, social media and social capital at work. The result of this study suggests that social media use at work between colleagues can play a significant role in promoting social capital in workplaces that are heavily reliant on technological application to support interactions at work and feature geographical and temporal dispersion.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the role of interviewee anxiety as a predictor of perceived hireability (Study 1, n=82) and job suitability (Study 2, n=74).

Using an experimental design, participants were randomly allocated to one of two conditions (an audio recording of either a confident or anxious job candidate with identical scripts) and asked to take the role of an interviewer.

The anxious interviewee (played by an actor) was consistently rated as less hireable (in a combined sample based on Studies and 2), less suitable to the job and received less favorable hiring recommendations (as assessed in Study 2) than the confident interviewee (played by the same actor).

The study was conducted with students who may have less interview experience than experienced interviewers.

The results suggest that anxiety has a negative biasing effect on perceived hireability and job suitability ratings. In other words, the behavioral manipulation of anxiety affects hireability ratings, independent of any subjective assessment of anxiety.

The findings provide evidence of an anxiety bias in telephone interview settings. The results highlight the importance of considering anxiety cues when training employment interviewers.