From Grey to Silver (eBook)

Foreword by the former President of the Federal Republic of Germany 6
Geleitwort von Bundespräsident a.D. 8
Preface by the Editors 10
Table of Contents 12
List of Symbols 15
List of Abbreviations 16
Part A An introduction – Understanding demographic change 18
An integrated framework for investigating the challenges and opportunities of demographic change 19
1 Understanding demographic change 21
1.1 Triggers 21
1.2 Direct effects 24
1.3 Medium-term and long-term implications for societies 26
1.4 Challenges and opportunities for organisations 27
2 An integrated framework for investigating business implications 28
3 An integrated analysis of business implications 30
3.1 An economic and social perspective 30
3.2 A human resource and leadership perspective 31
3.3 A marketing and innovation perspective 32
4 Conclusion 33
References* 33
Demographic change calls for change in the demographic research landscape – a German perspective 38
New challenges for demographic research 38
Seven mega-trends for demographic research 39
Part B An economic and social perspective – Taking the external environment into consideration 41
Demographic change and the economically active populations of OECD countries – Could older workers compensate for the decline? 42
1 Introduction 44
2 Demographic change and economic growth 45
2.1 Demographic dividend 45
2.2 Demographic trends 47
2.3 Trends in employment and unused productive capacity 48
3 Labour market institutions 51
3.1 Overview 51
3.2 Employment protection 52
3.3 Generosity of pension systems 54
4 Summary and conclusion 57
References 58
Demographic change as a challenge for societies at large 60
Ageing, health and disability – An economic perspective 63
1 Introduction 65
2 Health, ageing and labour market outcomes 67
2.1 Morbidity and labour market participation 67
2.2 Ageing and productivity 68
3 Health and population ageing 69
3.1 Three hypotheses 69
3.2 Perspectives from health economics 69
4 Ageing, morbidity and social care in Sweden 71
4.1 Dataset 72
4.2 Econometric method 73
4.3 Results 73
5 Conclusion 77
References 78
Demographic change – The role of the social context 80
Demographic change and the changing nature of the concept of work 82
1 Introduction 84
2 Conceptual background: Major demographic trends and the work concept 85
2.1 Changing workforce demographics 85
2.2 The work concept 85
3 Aspects of a shifting work concept: Expanding traditional work notions 86
3.1 From physical to emotional work components 86
3.2 From a Protestant work ethic to a new understanding of the role of work 88
3.3 Shifting expectations in the employer-employee relationship 88
3.4 A female concept of work and the consequences of the integration of women into the workplace 89
3.5 Generational conflicts at work due to different work values 90
4 Consequences of a shifting work concept 91
4.1 Consequences for individuals in organisations 91
4.2 Consequences for organisations 92
5 Conclusion 93
References 94
Part C A human resource and leadership perspective – Managing the ageing workforce 96
Generational leadership – How to manage five different generations in the workforce 97
1 Leadership in light of demographic change 99
2 Five different generations in the workforce 99
1.1 Post-War Generation 101
1.2 Economic-Boom Generation 101
1.3 Baby-Boom Generation 102
1.4 Golf Generation 103
1.5 Internet Generation 103
3 Leadership of five different generations in the workforce 104
3.1 Experience-based leadership for the Post-War Generation 106
3.2 Meaningful participative leadership for the Economic-Boom Generation 106
3.3 Development-oriented cooperative leadership for the Baby-Boom Generation 107
3.4 Pragmatic goal-oriented leadership for the Golf Generation 107
3.5 Vision-oriented leadership for the Internet Generation 108
4 Summary and conclusion 109
References 109
Rationale for and implementation of age-neutral HRM in divergent institutional contexts – examples from Britain and Germany 111
1 Introduction: From youth-centric to age-neutral HRM 113
2 Institutional context and its effect in shaping organisational age management in Germany and Britain 114
2.1 State intervention and the design of pension systems 114
2.2 Labour market structures and education systems 115
2.3 Influence of employment relations 115
2.4 Summary 116
3 Implementation of age management strategies in organisations in Germany 116
3.1 German Chemical 116
3.2 German Steel 117
3.3 German Retail 118
3.4 German School 118
4 Implementation of age management strategies in organisations in Britain 120
4.1 UK Chemical 120
4.2 UK Steel 120
4.3 UK Retail 121
4.4 UK School 121
5 Conclusion 122
References 124
From grey to silver – More than a question of age 126
Delusions and reality 126
Age does not indicate communalities 126
Age is not what employees want to be recognized for 127
Age is not the ultimate driver of (un)productiveness 127
A question of learning attitude 127
The need for a holistic organisational learning approach 127
Age diversity and its performance implications – Analysing a major future workforce trend 129
1 Introduction 131
2 Increasing age diversity: A major workforce trend 131
2.1 Reasons for growing age diversity in the workplace 131
2.2 Implications for organisations 132
3 Theoretical basis of diversity effects 133
3.1 Reasons for potentially negative diversity effects 133
3.2 Reasons for potentially positive diversity effects 134
4 Summary of knowledge on age diversity 134
4.1 Outcomes of age diversity 134
Team performance 136
Cognitive diversity 136
Turnover 137
Innovation 137
Conflict 137
Communication 138
4.2 Explanations for inconsistencies in findings 138
4.3 Diversity context factors 139
Team processes: Cooperation and teamwork 139
Task complexity 140
Leadership 140
Interaction of age with other demographic characteristics 141
5 Practical implications and recommendations 142
5.1 Organisational level Deliberate team composition 142
Diversity trainings 143
5.2 Supervisor level Transformational leadership 143
Enhanced interaction 144
6 Conclusion 144
References 145
Stepping down but not out – Characteristics of post-executive careers in Switzerland 150
1 Introduction 152
2 Entering a post-executive career 153
2.1 The retirement decision 153
2.2 Determinants of post-executive careers 154
3 Post-executive careers in Switzerland 156
3.1 Overview of post-executive activities 156
3.2 Post-executive career paths 157
4 Conclusion and future research 160
Appendix: Data 161
References 162
Consenec – A well-proven model 164
A new career at 60 164
More freedom – less stress 164
From manager to consultant 164
The Consenec model 165
Rejuvenation – Retention of know-how – Preparation for retirement 165
Obligatory transfer as a precondition for success 165
Stepwise reduction of workload 166
Considerable organisational effort 166
Prerequisites created for future success 166
Part D An innovation and marketing perspective – Extending the customer base 168
Using innovation contests to master challenges of demographic change – Insights from research and practice 169
1 Introduction: Challenges and opportunities of an ageing society 171
2 Background: Innovation contests 172
2.1 Innovation contests in history and today 172
2.1 Design elements of innovation contests 173
3 Examples: Successfully innovating in an ageing society 175
3.1 Innovating for the ageing society: Einfach telefonieren 176
3.2 Innovating with the ageing society: YourEncore 177
4 Conclusion: Using innovation contests to master innovation in times of demographic change 177
References 178
We could have known better – Consumer-oriented marketing in Germany’s ageing market 181
1 Introduction 183
2 Different product or service design strategies for elder markets 184
2.1 Categories of mature people 184
2.2 Three product and communication strategies 185
2.2.1 One for all 185
2.2.2 Diverse communication 185
2.2.3 Differentiation 186
2.3 Differentiation of needs of mature people 186
3 Successful differentiation: Need-based product development 186
3.1 Integrating seniors into the development process 186
3.2 Example: Idea contest for user-friendly mobile phones1 187
4 Conclusion 189
References 189
How Swisscom copes with the challenges of demographic change 191
Why age management? – Customer focus! 191
What should the focus be? – Self-motivated people’s motivation, creativity and experience! 191
How to implement successfully? – Learning through visible initiatives! 192
Japan’s growing silver market – An attractive business opportunity for foreign companies? 194
1 Introduction 196
2 Demographic challenges and opportunities 197
2.1 Rapid demographic change in Japan 197
2.2 Silver market potential 198
2.2.1 Demand side 198
2.2.2 Supply side 200
3 German companies in Japan 201
3.1 Empirical study 201
3.2 Product development and marketing in times of demographic change 201
3.3 Strategies for entering Japan’s silver market 204
3.3.1 Case 1: Introducing successful products from overseas markets to Japan 204
3.3.2 Case 2: Developing new products and business concepts in Japan as a test market 205
4 Lessons learned from the survey and case studies 206
5 Conclusion 207
Appendix: Survey details 208
References 208
List of Authors 211
Company and Organization Index 218
Country and Region Index 219
Index 220