Assignment 2: Individual Article Review

QUESTION:

(1) Select an interesting article on issues pertaining to ‘skills and productivity of older workers” in an organization from refereed journals or conferences.(‘Refereed’ means that the article has been formerly reviewed and recommended by a group of peer researchers.)

(2) Write the Review

Write the review of the article in accordance to the following format.

ARTIVLE REVIEW FORMAT

1. Introduction2. Brief Summary3. Results/Findings4. Analysis5. General Critique6. Contributions

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.0.1Objectives and Domain of Article

This article has been written to address the issue of retention incentives that are favored by older

employees against those benefits that can actually be offered by their employers. The industry

the article is based upon is facing serious shortage of skilled and trained employees whilst the

older employees are reaching their retirement ages. The articles topic area lies in identifying the

workplace changes employers think are feasible in order to encourage retention of older staff

members. The article also looks at the concordance between retention incentives identified by the

employees and what is feasible from the employer perspective. It also looks at the traits

employers believe characterize older employees.

1.0.2 Audience& Appropriateness of Journal

This research article is written by PHD holders who are also Medical laboratory Technicians and

are members of the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS). The article’s

intended audience is the Medical Laboratory Personnel and their administrators whose job

function is listed as supervisor, manager, administrator or director. It would be preferable for the

reader to have a medical background with knowledge of the work responsibilities of CLP’s.

Individuals working in HR Departments would also be interested on the issues raised by the

article. In general this article can be read by the general public who are interested towards

furthering their knowledge on issues raised.

The journal is appropriate for this assignment because it addresses the questions relating to skills

and productivity of older workers at the workplace. The first part of the journal addresses the

retention incentives for older employees from the employees and employer perspective. The

second part of the journal assesses employer’s attitudes about the value of older employees.

Twenty five characteristic relating to skills and productivity of older workers was identified and

studied in the article.

1.0.3“Empirical” Article

This is an empirical article as it offers empirical evidence to support each argument. The data for

this study was collected as part of an online Clinical Laboratory Professionals Retirement Survey

sent to members of the ASCLS via email in May 2012. 1,049 respondents from every state in the

United States submitted their answers. Each retention incentive and each characteristic from the

administrator’s perception of older employees was tabulated clearly. The responses from both

employers and employees was collected based on a 5-point scale which the respondents circled.

The data was analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 20. Descriptive statistics were used to tabulate

responses and calculate percentages and means.

2.0 BRIEF SUMMARY

The article addresses the medical laboratory profession which is facing problems getting skilled

and qualified staff to replace its older employees who are fast reaching their retirement age or

have retired. The article identified the incentives and physical workplace changes which can

keep these older CLP’s to continue working. These were compared against the workplace

changes and or additional retention incentives that can be actually implemented by their

administrators. The only workplace changes that both the CLP’s and their administrators agreed

to was installing ergonomics equipment.

Next the article assessed the attitudes of administrators about the value of older employees.

“Studies in a variety of disciplines focusing on the perceptions of older employees have

uncovered both positive and negative stereotypes about older workers.” The article discovered,

generally the administrators held a positive view of the working habits and skills of their older

employees except for wanting to lead and supervise others.

3.0 RESULTS/FINDINGS

The analysis revealed, ergonomic equipment, chairs and work stations as the workplace retention

incentives favored by CLP. The administrators too rated this incentive as highly feasible to be

implemented. However five retention incentive identified under the benefits and compensation

received high ratings from the practioners, but were rated as low feasibility by the administrators.

Similar discrepancies were observed for two factors in the alternative work schedule groups and

one incentive in the physical environment group. These factors were rated as highly important by

practioners but were not considered highly feasible by administrators.

A comparison of the administrators attitude towards older workers was split between

administrators aged 50 and above and those lesser than 50. Both categories of administrators had

differences in agreement on only one characteristic area of the older workers i.e., older workers

want to lead and supervise others. Generally administrators agreed the older workers are easier to

train and they are creative and enthusiastic about work. The older workers were also perceived to

work well with workers of other generations. It was found the older administrators score was

higher and they generally held a more favorable perception of the older CLP’s then the younger

administrator groups.

4.0 ANALYSIS

The data for this article was collected in May 2012 the article was published in summer of 2014.

I believe the article is applicable to my work life. I am employed in an audit firm and we

experience high turnover especially at audit assistant level. The staff employed as audit assistants

are often fresh graduates and they wish to get as much and as wide work experience as possible.

Exposure to different audit firms would give them varying work experience as clientele would be

different and the required audit procedures may differ, though not substantially. The staff too are

able to draw upon the work habits and experience of their supervisor which they find invaluable.

The professional accounting bodies too expect their students to acquire working knowledge

before the student receives a full-time membership as a professional.

The staff turnover is approximately 9 to 12 months a year. Thus after the firm has spent

manpower and financial resources training the staff, they leave. It would perhaps be a good idea

for the firm to draw upon the expertise of retired accountant who may be willing to work for a

fee. There would at least be a ‘permanent’ expert staff who can continue with the work while the

new staff is receiving training or during the gap when the staff leaves and a new staff is taken in.

The results of the survey indicated, older workers were perceived as easy to train and worked

well with all staff levels. The administrators agreed that older workers are creative and are

enthusiastic about work. Studies from other disciplines indicate older workers have better soft

skills which include social skills, commitment, customer-oriented skills and reliability. These

qualities are relevant in a professional accounting firm where staff handle highly confidential

information of clients as well having to interact with all levels and characteristics of clients.

Human interaction skills is crucial in an audit firm and an older employee would be able to ease

and smoothen the communication with clients.

The firm can consider some of the retention strategies identified to be put in place in order to

attract the older employees. The retention incentive which was in agreement between the

employee and employer in the research report was ergonomic equipment, chairs and

workstations. The audit firm can consider work scheduling alternatives identified in the article

such as part-time work schedules and job-sharing with a full-time staff. I would not consider the

feasibility of the other retention incentives identified in the report as the accountant being

employed need not necessarily have been employed before by the firm as an auditor. Besides

cost of execution of the retention incentives could be high.

5.0 GENERAL CRITIQUE

The authors of this article have done a thorough research before presenting their articles for

publication. The study related specifically the retention of older employees among laboratory

specialists. Thus the aspect of retention incentive from the employees and employer perspective

was studied as well as the perception of the employers towards older employees. The study was

approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Office of Human Research Ethics at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The findings of the responses was clearly presented in a table form, which was clearly labelled

and the results listed according to mean scores. The authors then went on to give detailed

explanation of their findings. Comparisons of the findings were made against similar studies of

different professions. Lastly recommendations were given to the administrators and head of

departments as to importance and significance of findings to the profession. There is a serious

shortage of qualified younger personnel in the profession and the heads of departments should

put in place strategic human resource plans to keep the older CLP in the workplace longer.

However the article fails to address the reasons for the shortage of young trained CLP

professionals. Are there less students signing up for the courses in colleges or universities? What

is their reason? Is the job opportunities available not known to these students or they cannot get

information on vacancies? Is the opportunities for advancement in this field not properly

explained? Can’t the medical profession absorb the students who have completed their course of

study into their organization and provide them with on-the-job training? This is a solution which

should be considered together with retaining the older CLP’s to solve the problem of shortage of

staff.

6.0 CONTRIBUTIONS

This article adds to the body of knowledge in the research field of retaining of older employees

in the workforce. Various retention incentives were considered by this article. The incentive was

considered from perspective of the older workers as important to them and their employers as to

the feasibility of implementing them. The article says, ‘To date, studies of laboratory

administrators’ perceptions of folder CLP have not been reported.’ The current research in other

disciplines on this issue says the comparative advantage of older workers lies chiefly in their soft

qualities. However the study found that the laboratory administrators perceived older CLP as

having both the hard and soft qualities described in other research.

The issues raised the article are relevant and current to the managerial problem of demographic

changes in the workforce. Problems of replacing older workers who are retiring or have retired

has become a problem other industries are facing. Certainty the issues raised and possible

consideration of solutions which have been highlighted in the article are relevant to other

professions. On the problem that not all incentives considered as important by the CLP were not

enforceable by their administrators due to various reasons , the article says, ‘ It may be more

effective for laboratory assistants to work together with administrators from other hospital

departments to force institutional level changes’.