Age-Differentiated Work Systems

Book excerpt: The disproportionate aging of the population of working age in many nations around the world is a unique occurrence in the history of humankind. In the light of demographic change, it is becoming increasingly important to develop and use the potential of older employees. This edited volume Age-differentiated Work Systems provides a final report on a six-year priority program funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and presents selected research findings of 17 interdisciplinary project teams. The idea is that it will serve both as a reference book and overview of the current state of research in ergonomics, occupational psychology and related disciplines. It provides new models, methods, and procedures for analyzing and designing age-differentiated work systems with the aim of supporting subject matter experts from different areas in their decisions on labor and employment policies. Therefore over 40 laboratory experiments involving 2,000 participants and 50 field studies involving over 25,000 employees were conducted. Further objectives of the edited volume were to provide a pluridisciplinary compilation of the extensive information acquired over the six-year program period, to illustrate the range of the research field, and to convey an integrated understanding of age-differentiated work systems to readers.