The Importance and Value of Older Employees

Front matter

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The Importance and Value of Older Employees

Anne Inga Hilsen Dorothy Sutherland Olsen paloreve LOPEN ACCESS | macmillan

Preface

During our years as researchers we have amassed quite some experience on working life, learning at work and issues relating especially to seniors at work. One of the issues which employers and policymakers often emphasise is the importance of active ageing as if emphasising its importance were enough to make it happen. Our experience suggests that one of the ways to make active ageing a reality is to recognise and value seniors and what they bring to working life. A step towards this goal is to promote awareness of the potential and resources embodied in older employees. If age and experience make older workers valuable in working life, we need to understand how this “senior competence” is valuable. Our attempt to define senior competence, the competence that comes from long careers and high age, has moved us beyond conventional theories and discussions of competence, and into the field of wisdom. Involving older workers in describing and discussing what age and experience has contributed to in their daily work, has allowed us to capture and define a wide range of types of competence and practices that are dependent on both age and experience.

Conducting studies in several workplaces has also underscored the importance of relating competence to the specific job and workplace settings. Settings are necessary to understand senior competence. Only by exploring how older workers use their age and experience when performing their jobs in a particular work setting, can we discover what

Vv vi PREFACE the advantages of senior competence are, both to the older workers themselves, their colleagues and their workplaces.

Oslo, Norway Anne Inga Hilsen Dorothy Sutherland Olsen

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book is based on research on older workers over a long time period and we are thankful to the following for funding this work:

The Research Council Norway Silver Lining project nr. 255210.

The Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority.

We are also grateful to Fafo Institute for Labour and Social Research and NIFU, the Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education for supporting the work of writing this book.

Whenever working in the field of active ageing in Norway, Centre for Senior Policy (SSP) is always a staunch supporter, and we would like to thank them for engagement, feedback and useful discussions on earlier presentations of some of this work.

The main body of the interviews was carried out in cooperation with NAV Arbeidslivssenter Trondelag (part of Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration), and we would like to send particular thanks to Jon Sandvik and Britt Elin Strand for help and support during all group and plenary discussions.

We would also like to thank Trine Deichman Sgrensen at Oslo Metropolitan University, who carried out some of the interviews and extend our thanks to all those who gave up their time to talk to us researchers and provide us with such rich and valuable material.

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Introduction

1.2 The Norwegian Context References

Competence and Knowledge at Work 2.1 Organisational Knowledge

2.2 Situated Knowledge

2.3 Expertise and Professional Knowledge 2.4 Competence, Knowledge and Seniors References

What Do We Know About the Knowledge of Older

Workers?

3.1 Education and the Skills of Older Workers 3.2 Can Older Employees Learn New Things at Work?

3.3 Senior Competence References

4.1 Research Methods

4.2 Data and Data Collection 4.3 The Cases

4.4 How the Data Was Analysed 4.5 Grounded Theory ix

CONTENTS

4.6 How This Method Was Used in the Current Project References

Over 50s at Work: Findings from Case Studies 5.1 Long Careers

5.2 Age

5.3. Willingness and Opportunity to Learn

5.4 Summary of Findings

Reference

Discussion/What Do These Findings Tell Us 6.1 Introduction to Discussion

6.2 Communication

6.3 Confidence

6.4 Understanding of Context

6.5 Variety

6.6 Seeing the Big Picture

6.7 Maturity

The Wise Worker References

Conclusions

CHAPTER 1 Introduction

Abstract The aim of this book is to provide a better understanding of the value of older workers at work, and the importance of their contributions. Ageing populations have been studied in terms of the economic burden or the pressure on healthcare services and the rising numbers of seniors are generally viewed, more as a challenge, than an opportunity. However, in this book we are interested in viewing age as a potential benefit both for individuals and their workplaces.

Keywords Active ageing - Late career competence - Norway context

“Why should we bother about older employees?” said a board member of a Norwegian hospital.

It is often difficult for managers to define the importance and value of older employees. Are they just necessary pairs of hands in an understaffed health service or are they key players in shaping and developing the workplace of today? After this board meeting, a manager felt she needed a better way to articulate the value and potential of older employees and any particular knowledge or contributions they could make. Based on this, the hospital initiated a research project with Norwegian social science research institutes.

© The Author(s) 2021 1 A. I. Hilsen and D. S. Olsen, The Importance and Value of Older Employees, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2861-0_1

2 A.L HILSEN AND D. S. OLSEN

The theme of the research in the Norwegian hospital is part of a greater social challenge facing many nations, that is the challenge of an ageing population. Ageing populations have been studied in terms of the economic burden or the pressure on healthcare services and the rising numbers of seniors are generally viewed, more as a challenge, than an opportunity. However, in this book we are more interested in viewing age as a potential benefit both for individuals and their workplaces. In addition to the hospital case, we will include data from other cases to gain a deeper understanding of the issues. We will examine the way in which senior employees actually use their knowledge and experience in their work and any advantages their age might give them.

The challenge of an ageing population is a challenge shared by most industrialised countries. The increase in life expectancy in combination with lower birth rates gives rise to a compositional shift from younger to older age groups. Across Europe there have been various research programmes investigating the challenge of an ageing population and looking at new ways of meeting this challenge. According to the EU Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) “More Years, Better Lives — The Potential and Challenges of Demographic Change” the challenge, seen from a policy perspective, has been described thus: “To sustain economic growth, prosperity and social development, many countries have recognised the need to increase the employment participation of people at higher working age. The degree of urgency is also reflected at all levels of the European policy agenda. The OECD views sustaining economic growth under conditions of population ageing by far as the most pressing global policy challenge for the next fifty years” (Hasselhorn & Apt, 2015: 12).

According to OECD (2019) the labour market participation for the age group 55-64 has increased by 8 percentage points over the last decade to an average of 64% in the OECD in 2018. Still “OECD countries are ageing rapidly. If no action is taken to improve the labour market situation of older workers, this could put a brake on further improvements in living standards and lead to unsustainable increases in social expenditures” (OECD, 2019: 9).

The demographic challenge has given rise to both research and policy efforts across most of Europe, as exemplified in the research programme JPI More Years, Better Lives—The Potential and Challenges of Demographic Change (Hasselhorn & Apt, 2015) that sums up where we have sufficient knowledge to act and where there are gaps in existing knowledge. The OECD report “Ageing and Employment Policies — Working Better with Age” sets out a wide range of policy recommendations centred around three broad areas: (1) Rewarding work and later retirement, (2) Encouraging employers to retain and hire older workers and (3) Promoting the employability of workers throughout their working lives. Of particular interest to the theme of our book is the first policy recommendation under theme three: promoting employability of workers throughout their working life. This recommendation is to “improve access to lifelong learning, especially for low-skilled and older workers; and better recognise skills acquired throughout working lives” (OECD, 2019: 17).

With increased life expectancy, age does not have to be regarded simply as a medical problem (Ilmarinen, 2006; Ilmarinen & Rantanen, 1999) or a challenge to welfare regimes. Active ageing regards experience and maturity as vital, resulting in skill and tacit knowledge, exercised by individuals and collectively, which are greatly valued by organisations (Hilsen & Ennals, 2005). Handled creatively, this group is potentially a new and unique resource.

In spite of extensive research arguing for the value and advantage of keeping older employees working longer, there is surprisingly little focus on why they are valuable. Vasconcelos (2018) argues that “their knowledge and expertise constitute an authentic source of wisdom capital that deserves careful attention from organizations to maintain by means of suitable incentives and training” (Ibid.: 114). He then goes on to stress the importance of training and motivation, but less about recognising what actually constitutes their existing knowledge and expertise.

The aim of this book is to provide a better understanding of the value of older workers, at work, and the importance of their contributions. The theme arises from the current challenges of ageing populations in western nations and the desire to keep employees actively involved in their work and contributing to society. Earlier research on cognitive ageing suggests that some abilities do decline with age; however, we subscribe to the idea that late career, i.e. from age 50 to 70 is not necessarily a period of stagnation or decline, but can also be a time for mastering new skills and finding new ways of using prior knowledge (Lahn, 2003). Our work builds on the idea that if employees continue to learn throughout their working career, then they will be in a better position to make an active contribution and hopefully choose to continue working rather than taking early retirement (Tikkanen et al., 2002).

The body of the work in this book is based on interviews with employees aged 50-70 and workplace studies carried out in large public sector institutions. We will provide in-depth descriptions of these studies and analyse them in terms of what they tell us about the competence of older employees. The analysis will compare findings with existing concepts of competence and discuss what characterises late career competence.

Our understanding of competence is based on the idea that, as well as formal education, learning occurs outside the classroom and in the workplace. Many of our subjects have worked for many years after the completion of formal education and we assume that they have continued to learn in their working situation. The basis of our understanding of learning is best described by the concept of situated learning. The concept of situated learning developed originally as a way of understanding learning occurring outside the classroom and was used by Lave and Wenger (1991) in their studies of apprentices to describe the way they learned at work. Since the first use of this concept, it has been widely used and developed in studies, largely of practice-based learning, where learning is embedded in activities carried out in the local environment. This concept has largely been used to study younger employees and how they develop knowledge and skills in the workplace during or after the completion of formal education. However, in this book we use this concept to study those who may have completed their formal education many years ago. Many of the earlier studies of adults learning at work are focused on knowledge developed in an occupational context and have been used largely to study adults from the phase when they move from education into employment and learning in the workplace, but few have placed particular emphasis on those over 50 (Lahn, 2003).

1.2 THe NORWEGIAN CONTEXT

The experiences of older employees described in this book are all based in Norway. As we assume the local and national context play an important role, we therefore include a short description of the situation in Norway with regard to adult learning and employment.

Norway has a limited workforce and traditionally low unemployment. This situation has doubtlessly influenced politicians, leading them to encourage elderly employees to continue working beyond the minimum retirement age. The employment rates of older workers have increased in Norway during the last 20 years, as in all the Nordic Countries. The employment rates, in percentages in the age group 55-64 in the years 2019/2000 respectively were: Norway 73/65, Denmark 72/56, Finland 67/42, Sweden 78/65, Iceland 81/84 and OECD total 62/48 (Source: OECD Employment database).

In 2011, Norway introduced a pension reform, aimed at achieving a more economically sustainable system while still promoting higher employment rates for older workers. To achieve this the insurance scheme introduced flexible retirement age and pension withdrawals between the ages of 62 and 75 years, based on cost neutrality. This means that early pension withdrawal results in a lower annual pension, and vice versa. At the same time, pension payments are not automatically dependent on income from work. Individuals are free to draw pension and continue working. Supplementary contractual pensions and occupational pensions are gradually being adapted to the reformed Norwegian National Insurance Scheme.

The pension reform is supposed to encourage employees to continue working after the minimum retirement age, at the same time the intention of the reform is that the decision to retire should not be purely an economic one. Employees must want to continue work and be healthy enough to do so. In addition, the employer must still have a need for their labour. As described by Midtsundstad and Nielsen (2019: 14): “The age limit for employment protection is important in this respect, as the employer can terminate the employment after this age without a justifiable basis. In other words, the decision of whether to continue working or not does not lie solely with the employee since the employer needs to grant approval. In 2015, the decision was made to raise the age limit for employment protection in Norway from 70 to 72 years, while the lowest permitted age limit was raised from 67 to 70 years. The goal of the change in legislation was to improve the freedom of choice for the oldest employees and, not least, to increase labour force participation among the over 67s”.

Like most western nations, Norway has developed policies and plans for knowledge production. These plans and policies are designed to ensure that a modern western nation should have the necessary knowledge to staff public and private institutions and to be proactive in developing new businesses and contributing to research and innovation. Most of the activities linked to knowledge production have traditionally been aimed at educational establishments and to a lesser degree at other arenas in society where learning might take place. In 2018, Norway published a strategic policy document on competence. Unlike earlier documents, this one was not based on the idea that most education happens in educational institutions, but described a much broader group of learners in a wide social arena for learning. This strategy highlighted the importance of continued learning, lifelong learning, learning at work and informal learning, as well as formal learning in the education system. In a presentation of this strategy, the Norwegian prime minister referred to the continued participation of older citizens by saying that “nobody was past their sell-by date” and encouraging employees to continue to work beyond the minimum retirement age. Many activities followed in the wake of this document and committees were set up to look into the future competence needs and at further education. The reports from these committees confirm the need for lifelong learning and suggest a range of more flexible training initiatives more suitable for people in full-time employment. New funding has been allocated to collaborative projects between business and higher educational institutions and in particular to raise digital competence among employees (Kompetanse Norge, 2018). There is little doubt that recent policy shows an understanding of the importance of employees with work experience, however reference to seniors and their need for competence is mainly expressed as a desire to keep them in full-time employment as long as possible and ease the burden of pension costs.

Working life in Norway is characterised by close cooperation between employers, employee organisations and the welfare state. Regular dialogue and involvement of the different groups has become an integral part of working life is locally referred to as The Norwegian Model. This tradition of cooperation may improve the opportunities for seniors to be heard. (Dolvik et al., 2014). Norway also has a publicly funded organisation promoting the rights of older citizens, The Centre for Senior Policy (SSP). SSP act as a bridge builder between policymakers, academics, employers and employees and they carry out an annual survey of conditions for seniors. In the 2019 survey around half of employees over 50 reported that they had participated in some form of work-related training IPSOS (2019).

In spite of recent policy initiatives and cooperative traditions of the Norwegian workplace, studies of educational qualifications, literacy and numeracy in different age groups indicate that those over 50 have lower scores than those under 50. Data from the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) shows a clear decline in kills level in relation to age. According to PIAAC this decline in skills starts at around 35 and continues up to and beyond retirement.

Those over 50 also participate less in formal education or organised training, informal learning remains high throughout working life (Statistics Norway, 2018). The same study also revealed an age-related decline in employment i.e. 67% of people aged 55-66 are in employment while 18% of those over 66 are in employment.

In spite of policy declarations, these statistics present a picture which largely supports the stereotype of the older worker who is perhaps gradually withdrawing and not keeping up with the pace of change in society, however many of these over 50s who are apparently not participating in formal learning, are still active in the workplace. Are they just passively waiting for retirement? Do they have no value in the workplace?

Dolvik, J. E., Flatten, T., Hippe, J. M., & Jordfall, B. (2014). Den nordiske modellen mot 2030. Et nytt kapittel? (Fafo-rapport 2014: 46). Fafo.

Hasselhorn, H. M, & Apt, W. (2015). Understanding employment participation of older workers: Creating a knowledge base for future labour market challenges (Research Report). Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS) and Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA).

Hilsen, A. I., & Ennals, R. (2005). Age, mobility and knowledge: An action research approach. AI e& Society, 19(4), 552-557.

Ilmarinen, J., & Rantanen, J. (1999). Promotion of work ability during ageing. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 1, 21-23.

Ilmarinen, J. (2006). The ageing workforce: Challenges for occupational health. Occupational Medicine, 56(6). 362-364.

IPSOS. (2019). Norsk seniorpolitisk barometer 2019. www.ipsos.com/nb-no/ norsk-seniorpolitisk-barometer-2019.

Lahn, L.Ch. (2003). Competence and learning in late career. European Educational Research Journal, 2(1), 126-140.

Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitmate peripheral participation. Cambridge.

OECD. (2013). Skilled for life? OECD.

OECD. (2016). Adult skills in focus: What does age have to do with skills proficiency? OECD

OECD. (2019). Working better with age, ageing and employment policies. OECD Publishing. https: //doi.org/10.1787 /c4d4f66a-en.

Statistics Norway. (2018). https://www.ssb.no/utdanning /statistikker/lvm.

Tikkanen, T., Lahn, L.,Withnall, A., Ward, P., & Lyng, K. (2002). Working life changes and training of older workers (Research Report). Norwegian Institute of Adult Education.

Vasconcelos, A. F. (2018). Older workers as a source of wisdom capital: Broadening perspectives. Revista de Gestão, 25(1), 102-118. https://doi.org/10. 1108/REGE-11-2017-002.

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Chapter 2

Abstract The theme of this book is long career competence in the workplace and competence of course includes a range of skills, ability and knowledge, which makes it possible for the individual to function and contribute in the workplace. What is considered appropriate competence will vary in different organisations and be dependent on the work, profession or tasks an employee is expected to carry out. The close link between competence and work means that it is not enough to simply know something; one must know how to carry out a task. There are many theories of knowledge and how competence is developed and used; here we focus on how competence and work-related knowledge have been conceptualised and how they have been used in relation to older employees. We include organisational knowledge, situated knowledge, professional knowledge and expertise and discuss how these concepts might be useful in understanding late career competence and older employees.

Keywords Organisational knowledge - Situated knowledge - Expertise - Professional knowledge - Competence - Older workers

© The Author(s) 2021 9 A. I. Hilsen and D. S. Olsen, The Importance and Value of Older Employees, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2861-0_2

2.1 ORGANISATIONAL KNOWLEDGE

A great deal of research on knowledge in work situations has been carried out by management scientists or economists with a desire to understand the value of organisations and how their human capital can be optimised. Different terms have evolved to describe knowledge such as tacit, explicit, procedural, dispersed or embedded, to name but a few. Knowledge is usually viewed as something owned by the organisation and something which has a value for the organisation. While researching this chapter we carried out searches of online databases for publications on organisational knowledge and learning. We found a large number of publications in the period up until 2005, however after that date there was a reduction in the number of publications on these themes and few notable attempts to develop theories which might be relevant for the age group in our studies. Some of the themes we found were related to knowledge sharing, knowledge networks and intra-professional knowledge as well themes related to culture and gender. We found that the more general findings on organisational knowledge and learning in the pre-2005 publications have frequently been incorporated into services provided by business consultants supporting HR and training managers. This suggests that many of the earlier findings have been accepted and we would expect to find them incorporated in working practice. We therefore chose to focus on the more classical works on organisational knowledge and use these studies to guide our work.

Metcalfe and Gibbons (1989) use the term knowledge base and they suggest that the knowledge base of an organisation is what defines the organisation. The way an organisation develops or acquires new knowledge, the way they articulate and enhance their knowledge is what gives the organisation its uniqueness and usually its competitive advantage. The idea of an organisation having a knowledge base is further developed by economists studying innovation such as Tidd et al. (2005) who describe the importance of “firm specific competences”. The research done by Tidd et al. is based mainly on firms developing new technologies and they provide examples of firms developing theoretical knowledge based on their research and development work and developing practical knowledge from building and developing these technologies. Leonard (1998) discusses the development of firm-specific capabilities and the mechanisms which promote or hinder knowledge sharing and co-creation. Her theories have a lot in common with the concept of “core competencies”

which was introduced by Prahalad and Hamel (1990), who describe these competencies as being the “collective learning of the organisation” and again highlight the importance of this knowledge in defining the position of the organisation in relation to competitors.

Other studies have developed the theme of organisational knowledge focusing on specific aspects. An example of this is the work focused more on knowing, rather than knowledge (Antonacopoulou, 2006). She attempts to avoid the limitations of viewing knowledge as an object separate from the context and processes which produced it. She proposes seven forms of knowing which are based on learning as problem-solving or “learning as a mystery”. She distinguishes between hard technical knowledge and soft management knowledge and concludes with the following categories:

Knowing by storing—when the emphasis is collecting relevant knowledge for a specific task.

Knowing by repeating—when the emphasis is applying specific knowledge to similar situations.

Knowing by improvising—when the emphasis is on exploring ways in which knowledge may be utilised in unfamiliar situations. Knowing by reflecting—when the emphasis is on the search for new meaning in relation to what is currently known.

Knowing by questioning—when the emphasis is on assessing the relevance and applicability of knowledge in new situations and accepting ignorance.

Knowing by synthesising—when the emphasis is on integrating what is known with what is discovered.

Knowing by transforming—when the emphasis is on searching for a new platform of understanding.

This way of focusing on knowing, rather than knowledge is interesting in terms of the current study of older employees particularly because it provides us with new ways of identifying learning based on the activities or ways of working described by workers themselves. This makes it possible to identify examples of learning which the learner may not be aware of.

Another thread of research which built on some of the ideas on organisational knowledge was the work of Lundvall and others who were

12 A. IL HILSEN AND D. S. OLSEN interested in innovation and development of the knowledge economy. Lundvall was interested in how organisations use their knowledge to create economic growth. Lundvall was particularly interested in tacit knowledge and how firms and nation states could stimulate its development and then use it to create new products and services. Building on the studies of Ryles (1949), Lundvall developed a model of four knowledge types and a way of viewing the activities which are a prerequisite to developing these knowledge types.

Know what Know why Know how Know who

Know-what is based on learning facts, while know-why knowledge is an understanding of, for example, the laws of nature. Both these kinds of knowledge typically arise while undergoing formal education and the know-why kind of knowledge is predictably greater among those with a longer formal education. The know-how knowledge is usually based on practical experience, this kind of knowledge may be unique to the individual, but we would also expect to find it among groups of employees engaged in similar same activities, or those who have worked together in a project. The know-who kind of knowledge was the Lundvall’s addition to earlier models and was the one that he viewed as being most important for innovation. Knowing who might know something which you don’t know, knowing who has already done the task you are trying to do, knowing who has spoken or thought about the challenges you face. In all these examples the knowledge necessary to proceed can be gained in other ways than knowing who, however as Lundvall points out, knowing who and going directly to them is much faster. Lundvall sees this kind of knowledge as an integral part of working and existing in a modern technology-driven world.

Know-who and know-how are viewed as challenging for management as the skills necessary to know-who, to interact socially and absorb, share and embed new knowledge are not things which can be learned by going on a course. We understand a lot about practice-based knowledge, or know-how, however much of this knowledge is tacit and much of it arises when the learner is doing something else, i.e. not consciously learning. Therefore, neither employees nor employers may be aware of this kind of knowledge until the employee leaves and a gap suddenly appears. Not only are know-who and know-how challenging for management, but Lundvall also suggests that this kind of knowledge is dependent upon trust and requires, not only a network of useful contacts, but also the social skills to create and develop social networks. The concepts of know-who and know-how are particularly interesting with regard to the current study of older workers because both concepts implicitly assume a certain kind of pre-knowledge or experience that has been developed over time.

2.2 SITUATED KNOWLEDGE

While economists and management scientists were developing their own interpretations of organisational knowledge, studies of science and technology (STS) and feminist studies were developing some related concepts, one of these is situated knowledge. The concept of situated knowledge challenges the belief that there is any can kind of knowledge other than knowledge developed in situ and this of course challenges the value, or indeed the existence of knowledge derived from academic studies. Social studies of science and technology have questioned the objectivity of scientific knowledge and how we can understand objective knowledge without also accepting subjective interpretations.

Donna Harroway, a feminist researcher, was one of the first to draw attention to situated knowledge and it was in an attempt to provide a theory of objectivity (Thompson, 2015). Haroway (1998) wanted to step away from the traditional idea of knowledge as something separate from learning, to step away from the traditional idea of teacher and learner in a one-way dialogue and wanted instead to include learners, teachers or colleagues in an ongoing situation of knowledge production. As Thomson points out, it is common to view knowledge, at least scientific knowledge, as something universal no matter who possesses it, rather than something which has its real value in the situation where it was produced. Both Thomson and Harroway agree that scientific knowledge or impartial knowledge is dependent on the partiality of the local situation with its unique combination of persons and objects. This is also a theme developed by Knorr-Cetina (2003 [1999]).