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One consequence of demographic change is a longer average remaining lifetime after retirement. Many people, however, remain able and willing to continue work after reaching the statutory retirement age. Given the predicted shortage of skilled workers in the future, post-retirement activities have the potential to contribute to both organisations and society. This article elaborates the prerequisites for productivity in retirement age and the changed nature of retirement at present.It also quantifies the extent to which activities are continued at retirement age. Paid employment still occurs beyond the applicable retirement age, whereby with increasing age, self-employed persons and assistant family members make up the lion's share of the statistics. An empirical study shows the concrete situation of active retirees and the prerequisites for post-retirement activities. At the explorative level, individual experiences of the transition into retirement, the reasons for and the framework of post-retirement activities, motivational factors in job design, and physical and intellectual demands before and after retirement are characterised. The qualitative data indicate that retirement entails changes towards more flexible structures in everyday life. Decisive reasons for taking up post-retirement activities are the desire to help, pass on knowledge or remain active; personal development and contact with others; and gaining appreciation and recognition. Flexible job design and freedom to make decisions constitute major elements in shaping post-retirement working activities. Offering autonomy, skill variety, and task significance is important for the design of post-retirement activities. The paper closes with identifying relevant research fields and the concrete need to take action at individual, organisational, and societal levels. All in all, the transition from working life to retirement should be made flexible enough to do greater justice to the realities of life.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate whether perceptions of distributive, procedural and interactional justice can explain the frequently reported low organizational commitment of managers in corporate mergers. Specifically, it aims to examine whether each of the justice dimensions is significantly and uniquely related to affective commitment, which of the justice dimensions has the strongest relationship with the criterion, and whether instrumental evaluations or trust might function as a mediator.Design/methodology/approachA total of 128 managers from 37 companies completed a questionnaire. They had been involved in domestic or European mergers or acquisitions, which varied in the application of fairness rules.FindingsAlthough each fairness dimension correlated positively with affective commitment, only interactional justice showed a unique relationship with it. Results indicate that both instrumental evaluations and trust can function as a mediator.Research limitations/implicationsBecause of the cross‐sectional design, conclusions about the causal order of the variables cannot be drawn.Practical implicationsThe authors recommend that top managers should pay extra attention to timely, candid and specific internal communication with thorough and reasonable explanation of decisions, as well as the respectful treatment of managers. Moreover, the results indicate that managers reacted positively to fairness because it conveys positive relational signals, and because one can gain personal advantages through fair outcomes and processes.Originality/valueThe organizational justice approach has not yet been applied, to the authors' knowledge, in quantitative field studies of mergers. Furthermore, this paper offers a contribution to the literature on fairness heuristic theory.

This study empirically examines the construct of emotional Intelligence (EI) cross-culturally. Participants ( N = 200) from Germany ( N = 100) and India ( N = 100) completed the Emotional Intelligence Scale, NEO-Five Factor Personality Inventory (Form-S) and Hofstede's Value Survey (Module 94). The major objectives of the study were to examine cross-culturally (a) the factor structure of EI, and (b) the construct of EI as distinct from personality. Results revealed different factor structures for these two cultures, and the construct of EI failed to correlate with the dimensions of personality. Implications of the findings for leadership in a specific culture as well as across different cultures are discussed.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship of personal motivational goals and the corresponding occupational characteristics of volunteer, work-related activities in retirement with life and work satisfaction.Design/methodology/approach– Fully retired individuals working for a non-profit organization in their former professional career field on a non-paid basis were surveyed using an online survey (n=661) to assess their motivational goals, the occupational characteristics of their projects, and satisfaction with life and work.Findings– Results suggested that post-retirement volunteer workers differentiated between perceived life and work satisfaction. The motives of achievement, appreciation, autonomy, contact, and generativity significantly directly affected life satisfaction and indirectly affected work satisfaction. Occupational characteristics assessing achievement, appreciation, autonomy, contact, and generativity had direct effects on work satisfaction but not on life satisfaction except for occupational autonomy.Research limitations/implications– The study was cross-sectional and based on self-report data of highly educated German retirees working in volunteer professional positions, thus potentially limiting the generalizability of findings.Practical implications– Organizations should enable post-retirement volunteer workers to meet their motivation goals by designing work opportunities to fulfill the motivational goals of achievement, appreciation, autonomy, contact, and generativity.Social implications– Post-retirement activities possess the potential to help solve societal problems by countering the shortage of specialists and managers at the same time that the burden on social security systems is reduced.Originality/value– The paper presents evidence that different personal motivational goals and occupational characteristics are important in post-retirement activities. The findings imply that work designs created for post-retirement activities should provide a variety of occupational characteristics, such as occupational achievement and appreciation.

The objective of this double special issue on Facilitating Age Diversity in Organizations is to present new research that might help to facilitate age diversity in organizations, and to benefit rather than to suffer from the inevitable demographic changes. Part I of the special issue (""Facilitating Age Diversity in Organizations - Part I: Challenging popular misbeliefs about older workers""), focuses on the potential strengths of older workers that are often overlooked due to age-related biases and misbeliefs. It contributes to facilitating age diversity in organizations by critically reflect