The management of an ageing workforce: organisational policies in Germany and Britain

Demographic change as well as pressure from the European Union and national government are forcing organisations to change age-discriminatory Human Resource Management (HRM) approaches. Based on a qualitative analysis of eight British and German organisations, we found that commitment, scope, coverage and implementation of age management differ due to country-specific institutions, particularly government, in nudging employers and unions to preferred age practices. This confirms the path-dependency concept suggested by institutional theory. Nevertheless, we also found that industry-specific factors mediate the implementation of age management, leading to some convergence across countries. This indicates that organisations deviate from the institutional path to implement practices that they deem important.

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Schröder, H. , Muller‐Camen, M. and Flynn, M. (2014), Age management in Germany and Britain. Human Resource Management Journal, 24: 394-409. doi:10.1111/1748-8583.12043, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12043. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.

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