Individualized work arrangements for a prolonged working life: Needs, prevalence, and contradictions in public welfare organiza-tions

With an increasing proportion of older people in the labor market, policymakers and researchers have emphasized the employer’s role in providing suitable working conditions for older workers under the human resource term “age management.” The age-management imperative stresses employers´ active role in adapting work to older workers´ abilities and preferences by developing, modifying, sustaining, and providing flexible work arrangements to strengthen these workers´ capabilities and encourage them to remain in work longer.Past research has repeatedly shown that age management practices on the European labor market are limited, and employers often are reluctant to implement such policies as it challenges existing practices and faces resistance when certain groups of workers are prioritized.

The Swedish research concerning age management strategies is currently limited, despite such strategies being in conflict with collective solutions and universal ideals about equal treatment that characterize the Swedish labor market model.This project breaks new ground in research on an extended working life by examining the prevalence and needs of individualized work arrangements among older workers in public health care organizations and understanding how such work adaptations are enabled or hindered by formalized regulations, normative practices, or mindset.

The research questions will be answered by utilizing recently (a) collected survey data among public welfare employees, (b) planned policy analysis and interviews with health care employees and line managers at public organizations, and (a) planned survey carried out among private and private employers at national level.

In summary, the project contributes to practical knowledge about how a longer working life should be made possible in public welfare organizations in times of increasing welfare demands and recruitment difficulties.