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Managing the working body: active ageing and limits to the ‘flexible’ firm

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 October 2012

ELIZABETH BROOKE ,
PHILIP TAYLOR ,
CHRISTOPHER MCLOUGHLIN  and
TIA DI BIASE
ELIZABETH BROOKE*
Affiliation:
Businesss Work and Ageing, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia.
PHILIP TAYLOR
Affiliation:
Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash University, Gippsland Campus, Churchill, Australia.
CHRISTOPHER MCLOUGHLIN
Affiliation:
Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash University, Gippsland Campus, Churchill, Australia.
TIA DI BIASE
Affiliation:
Businesss Work and Ageing, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia.
*
Address for correspondence: Elizabeth Brooke, Businesss Work and Ageing, Swinburne University, 6th Floor, 60 William St Hawthorn, Melbourne, Victoria 3122, Australia. E-mail: lbrooke@swin.edu.au
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Abstract

Workforce ageing is considered in the context of four Australian employing organisations which are each in the process of change. In these organisations, perceptions regarding the relationship between the declining body and productivity led to a depreciation of the value of older workers and their consignment to less productive edges of organisations. While this was viewed as benefiting older workers, it was also acknowledged that workforce ageing will place severe constraints on the use of such practices, already regarded with suspicion by operational managers responsible for cost containment. Policies which aim to restrain biological and psychological decline, by supporting individual functional capacity and health, workplace design and ergonomics and developing the work community are advocated.

Keywords

older workersflexible organisationsbodyworkability
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 33 , Issue 8 , November 2013 , pp. 1295 - 1314
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012 

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