Leader: Claudia Manzi (UNICATT); Other collaborator(s): Donatella BRAMANTI (UNICATT); Luisa Errichiello (CNR)
Analyse in depth gender differences in working arrangements and welfare provisions. Provide a decomposition of the work activities and non-market activities for older women (versus older men). Collect subjective measures of preference over activities and well-being for older women.
Estimate probabilities of falling in financial distress for women, taking into account the “job fragility index” and also negative shocks such as widowhood at older ages . Analyze organizational welfare needs of over50 workers and examine how age and gender stereotypes affect working women well-being and health outcomes.
Brief description of the activities and of the intermediate results:
Making use of the Great Place To Work (GPTW) database, to shed light on gender and generational differences impacting what motivates employees retention. Disparities between women and men across age groups (under and above 55) emerged when satisfaction for identity, financial and health/safety needs are considered as predictors of work retention. We are also analysing data acquired from Jointly on 19 organizations regarding the effect of organizational welfare on identitarian motivation of the employees to study how quantitative and qualitative use of the welfare benefits that firms offer to their employees may strengthen their identification with the organization.
Main policy, industrial and scientific implications
Women and over-55 participants health/safety need plays an even more positive role in predicting their work retention. Importantly, only this subgroup work retention was also predictive of higher Return on Assets (ROA) for larger organizations, suggesting the additive value of this group in the economic performance of the firms
Brief description of the activities and of the intermediate results:
1. Estimates of pathways to retirement related to the health status, health hazards and to the risk of injuries. The role of co-designing to guarantee a safe environment for older workers.
2. “Aging at work” measured with physical health - type of job, hazardous and risky tasks, chronic health conditions and/or disabilities; mental health - presence of cognitive impairment, mental distress (anxiety, depression). Indexes of “work capacity” with health demands of each job.
3. Strategies for older workers transiting into retirement emphasize maintaining work-life balance. These are keys to enhance workforce retention and inform policies aimed at supporting aging workers.
4. Estimates of the role of local spending for old age and managing resource scarcity by municipalities: preliminary findings suggest that local spending may not be enough to counteract unequal ageing.
5. Estimates of gender imbalances in older age groups, which also interact with the health of female workers and the gender pension gap (see also WP5).
Brief description of the activities and of the intermediate results:
Making use of the database created thanks to the collaboration with Jointly to analyse which areas of employee welfare sustain women over 50 (and other employees) well-being at the workplace. We are also analysing the data in order to understand how age and gender, in intersection with the marital status, parental status and the workplace role affect the overall well-being of employees.
We presented our key findings at several conferences to disseminate our research. This work was made possible through collaboration with Great Place To Work and Jointly, who provided the data. In return, we shared our main findings with them, enabling further dissemination to stakeholders.
Main policy, industrial and scientific implications
Higher quality services positively influence the satisfaction with the identity needs and with the job more than the mere quantity of the employee welfare offer. In particular, women over-50 take advantage of high quality services aimed at addressing their socio/cultural and health/safety exigencies.
Brief description of the activities and of the intermediate results:
Main policy, industrial and scientific implications
Brief description of the activities and of the intermediate results:
Examination of the effects of agism and age inclusivity in participant's job satisfaction and intention to stay at their job, with a particular focus on the moderation of distinctive treatment. For the analysis, we employed the database obtained thank to the collaboration with Great Place To Work (GPTW) 2024, that includes more than 300,000 employees from more than 300 companies, all based in Italy, especially in the North of Italy.
Main policy, industrial and scientific implications
For employees over 50, in organizations with low distinctive treatment, age inclusivity is a crucial predictor of their higher job satisfaction and intention to stay. This results indicate that in companies where there is a lack of policies and cultural norms that foster distinctive treatment of individuals, higher ageism may cause lower job satisfaction and higher intention to leave for employees' over 50. This result highlight the importance of an age inclusive environment to increase over 50 employees positive experience in the work place.
Brief description of the activities and of the intermediate results:
Examination of the effects of agism and sexism in participant's sense of authenticity and intention to stay at their job, with a particular focus on the moderation of individuals' gender and age. For the analysis, we employed the database obtained thank to the collaboration with Great Place To Work (GPTW) 2024, that includes 308939 employees from more than 832 companies, all based in Italy, especially in the North of Italy.
Main policy, industrial and scientific implications
The results of this study reveal an interesting pattern. First, women over 55 appear to be in a more disadvantaged position compared to other groups, reporting higher levels of both ageism and sexism. Interestingly, women report also lower levels of authenticity than men, while their retention levels are not significantly lower. This may reflect the greater difficulty women face in re-entering the labour market, which could lead them to remain in unwelcoming or even hostile work environments. By contrast, men under 55 may find it easier to re-enter the labour market and this could explain why they show lower levels of retention. Despite this, women over 55 seems to be more resilient than men. For men discrimination they experience appears to have a higher impact on both authenticity and retention. This may be because women, especially older women, had been more frequently exposed to sexism, and thus they have developed coping strategies to deal with such environmental threats—strategies that men may not have developed to the same extent.
Dissemination Events:
Scientific Output: