The Australian workforce is rapidly ageing and there is a great deal of interest in how individuals, employers and society at large can adapt to these changes in workforce demographics.
In this project, we are examining the experiences of career, employment and life of older workers (50+ year of age; or EXCEL50+). The project is funded by the Australian Research Council.
Our specific focus is on the older workers’ employment relationship as it is captured in the psychological contract (an understanding of the give and take in the employment relationship; more on psychological contracts here). We are conducting two parallel longitudinal studies.
The first study is a qualitative study involving in-depth interviews with 70 older workers on their psychological contract and their work and life experiences. We will track these workers over five years and hope to learn the intricacies of their work- and career-related decision-making as shaped by the health of their psychological contract.
The second project is a longitudinal panel survey (to begin in 2021) that will conduct quantitative research on how the psychological contract shapes career decision-making of older workers. We aim to analyse reciprocal effects and trends over time.
The two projects are inter-related and will provide complementary insights.
The Team
We are a team of researchers specializing in organisational psychology and organisational behaviour.
Rajiv Amarnani, PhD, Lecturer at the University of Western Australia;
Kate Booth, PhD, Senior Research Associate, Macquarie University;
Prashant Bordia, PhD, Professor at the Australian National University;
Patrick Garcia, PhD, Associate Professor at Macquarie University;
Emika Howard, doctoral candidate, the University of Western Australia;
Imogen Sykes-Bridge, doctoral candidate, the Australian National University.
News & Updates
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