An investigation of mandatory retirement : a qualitative and quantitative examination

Abstract

In May of 2007, Newfoundland and Labrador abolished mandatory retirement policies. By the summer of 2009, all Canadian provinces will have passed similar legislation. In order to examine what influences people's retirement decisions in the context of the abolishment of mandatory retirement I conducted two studies. For study one, I employed a qualitative methodology whereby I interviewed 19 people in order to explore the context of retirement decisions. Many themes emerged from the interviews that shed light on retirement decisions. From the analysis, I identified factors related to one's job (both the work and the people), finances, people's expectations/norms, intentions to partake in activities post-retirement (i.e. work) and health, as important considerations for many people when making their retirement decisions. It is important to note that generally the interviewees intended to be (or were) on time or early retirees, with the exception of 4 people who decided to stay on past the age of 65. For the second study, I implemented a quantitative methodology to test a model that was informed by the results from the qualitative study. More specifically, 281 working individuals (most were near retirement) were surveyed. The model, based on Ajzen's (1991) Theory of Planned Behavior, was a good fit to the data. Attitudes toward people at work predicted people's attitudes toward work (β=.69, p<0.01). Attitudes toward work predicted age and life perceptions (β=.33, p<0.01). Age and life perceptions also predicted control (β=.72, p<0.01), and control predicted people's intentions to work post-retirement (in a similar job) (β=-.24, p<0.01). Attitudes toward work predicted people's intention to work post-retirement (β=.29, p<0.01). Control predicted social/policy influences (β=-.42, p<0.01), and finally social/policy influences predicted retirement intentions (planned retirement age) (β=.78, p<0.01). The model accounted for 61 percent of the variance in retirement intentions (planned retirement age), 52 percent of the variance in control, 19 percent of the variance in attitudes toward retirement, 22 percent of the variance in self perceptions, 48 percent of the variance in attitudes toward work, and 10 percent of the variance in intentions to work post-retirement.