Cargando…

Challenges arising for older workers from participating in a workplace intervention addressing work ability: a qualitative study from Germany

OBJECTIVE: Studies examining what renders workplace interventions to sustain and promote work ability of older workers successful have largely neglected older workers´ perspective. This paper outlines the results of a study with regard to older workers´ experiences and expectations of a workplace in...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Sippli, Khira, Schmalzried, Pia, Rieger, Monika A., Voelter-Mahlknecht, Susanne
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8238737/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33491100
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00420-020-01639-x
_version_ 1783714961797677056
author Sippli, Khira
Schmalzried, Pia
Rieger, Monika A.
Voelter-Mahlknecht, Susanne
author_facet Sippli, Khira
Schmalzried, Pia
Rieger, Monika A.
Voelter-Mahlknecht, Susanne
author_sort Sippli, Khira
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVE: Studies examining what renders workplace interventions to sustain and promote work ability of older workers successful have largely neglected older workers´ perspective. This paper outlines the results of a study with regard to older workers´ experiences and expectations of a workplace intervention. Based on these findings, some reflections on how to improve the design and the implementation of workplace interventions for older workers are provided. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with older workers (N = 8) participating in a workplace intervention undertaken at one production site of a large manufacturing company in Baden-Wurttemberg/Germany. The interview guide included questions on participants´ experiences with and expectations of the intervention. The interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed using qualitative content analysis according to Mayring (2014). RESULTS: Older workers´ reported some challenges they face due to their participation in the workplace intervention. These resulted from the work environment (physical challenges), the work process design (new long work cycle), the work organization (tight time allowances, little job rotation, change of teams, age stereotypes) and the management of the workplace intervention (bad information, feeling of occupational insecurity and lack of being valued). CONCLUSIONS: The study shows that challenges arising for older workers from their participation in the workplace intervention may have counteracted the promotion of work ability. As findings suggest, some of these challenges might have been avoided either by considering workers´ perspective during design and implementation of an intervention or by referring to evidence on aging and work ability. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00420-020-01639-x.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8238737
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher Springer Berlin Heidelberg
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-82387372021-07-13 Challenges arising for older workers from participating in a workplace intervention addressing work ability: a qualitative study from Germany Sippli, Khira Schmalzried, Pia Rieger, Monika A. Voelter-Mahlknecht, Susanne Int Arch Occup Environ Health Original Article OBJECTIVE: Studies examining what renders workplace interventions to sustain and promote work ability of older workers successful have largely neglected older workers´ perspective. This paper outlines the results of a study with regard to older workers´ experiences and expectations of a workplace intervention. Based on these findings, some reflections on how to improve the design and the implementation of workplace interventions for older workers are provided. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with older workers (N = 8) participating in a workplace intervention undertaken at one production site of a large manufacturing company in Baden-Wurttemberg/Germany. The interview guide included questions on participants´ experiences with and expectations of the intervention. The interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed using qualitative content analysis according to Mayring (2014). RESULTS: Older workers´ reported some challenges they face due to their participation in the workplace intervention. These resulted from the work environment (physical challenges), the work process design (new long work cycle), the work organization (tight time allowances, little job rotation, change of teams, age stereotypes) and the management of the workplace intervention (bad information, feeling of occupational insecurity and lack of being valued). CONCLUSIONS: The study shows that challenges arising for older workers from their participation in the workplace intervention may have counteracted the promotion of work ability. As findings suggest, some of these challenges might have been avoided either by considering workers´ perspective during design and implementation of an intervention or by referring to evidence on aging and work ability. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00420-020-01639-x. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2021-01-24 2021 /pmc/articles/PMC8238737/ /pubmed/33491100 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00420-020-01639-x Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Original Article
Sippli, Khira
Schmalzried, Pia
Rieger, Monika A.
Voelter-Mahlknecht, Susanne
Challenges arising for older workers from participating in a workplace intervention addressing work ability: a qualitative study from Germany
title Challenges arising for older workers from participating in a workplace intervention addressing work ability: a qualitative study from Germany
title_full Challenges arising for older workers from participating in a workplace intervention addressing work ability: a qualitative study from Germany
title_fullStr Challenges arising for older workers from participating in a workplace intervention addressing work ability: a qualitative study from Germany
title_full_unstemmed Challenges arising for older workers from participating in a workplace intervention addressing work ability: a qualitative study from Germany
title_short Challenges arising for older workers from participating in a workplace intervention addressing work ability: a qualitative study from Germany
title_sort challenges arising for older workers from participating in a workplace intervention addressing work ability: a qualitative study from germany
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8238737/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33491100
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00420-020-01639-x
work_keys_str_mv AT sipplikhira challengesarisingforolderworkersfromparticipatinginaworkplaceinterventionaddressingworkabilityaqualitativestudyfromgermany
AT schmalzriedpia challengesarisingforolderworkersfromparticipatinginaworkplaceinterventionaddressingworkabilityaqualitativestudyfromgermany
AT riegermonikaa challengesarisingforolderworkersfromparticipatinginaworkplaceinterventionaddressingworkabilityaqualitativestudyfromgermany
AT voeltermahlknechtsusanne challengesarisingforolderworkersfromparticipatinginaworkplaceinterventionaddressingworkabilityaqualitativestudyfromgermany