Arthur: Anne-Marie Guillemard
Title: Concluding Remarks Company Practices and Public Policies Regarding Age:
Lesson Drawn from Comparisons.
Source: The Geneva Papers on Rick and Insurance Vol. 28 No. 4
Year: 2003
Thesis
An observation on the trend in the reduction in economic activity after age 55 in various countries, and how the varying degrees of public policies in these countries impact that trend.
Methods
Using other published articles as reference, a comparison of the public policies in Japan, Switzerland, France, Germany, United Kingdom, and Canada were compared to 1) explain diversity among countries and the policies for managing ageing work forces, 2) to show applicable remedies to convince firms to keep older workers.
Evidence of Thesis Support
The author offered a comprehensive approach to the trends and illustrated the connection between the company practices and these trends, even if not always equally thorough. Despite the strength in making those comparisons, the author did not reach his full potential, while the diversity was presented in the studies, the results were loss because the articles were cited in one main paragraph so there was no connection between and country and where the information was derived. The supporting evidence was confusing and ambiguous, in an overview of employment/unemployment policies towards older workers the similarities and differences between countries needed to be clearly identified.
The remedies were equally limited, an adjustment to the procedures for assigning employees to jobs and motivating workers was one of the remedies, however those procedures were not illustrate in the article. Further, the public policy that the author advocates as having little success has not been identified. To get insight and gain a better understanding one would have to read all the individual articles on which this one was formed
Contribution to the Literature
Contributions which
Cited: Blank, R. M. (1994). Social Protection versus Economic Flexibility: Is There a Trade-off. Chicago: Universty of Chicago Press. Gill Kirton, A.-M. G. (2001). The Dynamics of Managing Diversity. Woburn: Butterworth-Heinemann.