Will the Baby-Boom Retirement Era Bring on a Reritualization of Retirement?

Why should a senior of retirement age want to stay engaged with their existing organization?

Let us consider that question divorced from the financial necessity that may give the individual no choice but to stay engaged. Furthermore, let's consider the question simply from the employee's point of view and not the corporation's. The answer is quite simple. It is because adults continue to develop throughout their lifetime.

Erikson’s & Adult Development

It was Erikson who was one of the first theorists to examine adult development (Hoare, 2002). He is primarily noted for life stage development theory that envisioned eight stages of human development ranging from infancy in the first stage to maturity in the eighth stage.

Prior to Erikson’s focus on the various stages of adult life, theorists whose writing was directed at human development ended their treatment of development as the individual entered adulthood (Hoare, 2002). Erikson’s first work in which he noted the various partitions of adult life was published in 1950 entitled Childhood and Society. Just nine years after that publication, psychological reference lists began to distinguish the various stages of adult life. By the end of the twentieth-century there were so many distinctions of adult stages of development it was impossible to categorize them (Hoare, 2002).

While Erikson may have defined the life cycle in terms of a sequence of stages with reference to age especially in the early stages of development, he did not specify age as the defining point at which one era succeeds a previous one. The defining characteristic of each stage, for Erikson, was the fundamental crises that arise at a given point in one’s development. Each stage deals with its own fundamental crisis that must be resolved before the individual’s development proceeds to the next stage. The chart below depicts Erikson’s eight stages of human development (Erikson, 1980, Fig. III, p. 129).

Stage I Infancy: Trust vs. Mistrust
Stage II Early: Childhood Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt
Stage III Play: Age Initiative vs. Guilt
Stage IV School Age: Industry vs. Inferiority
Stage V Adolescence: Identity vs. Identity Diffusion
Stage VI Young Adult: Intimacy vs. Isolation
Stage VII Adulthood: Generativity vs. Self-Absorption
Stage VIII Mature Adulthood: Wisdom vs. Disgust/Despair

Stage VII & VIII

The basic conflict for the middle adult stage (Stage VII) age 45 to 65 is generativity/stagnation. Erikson (1959, 1980) identifies generativity as one’s establishment and guidance of the following generation. It follows that stagnation is the reverse of establishing and guiding the next generation. The conflict between generativity and stagnation must be resolved before the adult can move to the final stage, maturity (Stage VIII) age 65 to death, which has as its fundamental conflict integrity/despair, disgust.

Once an individual reaches maturity s/he accepts the responsibility of adulthood and therefore possesses integrity/wisdom in that the individual is able to stand up for their lifestyle against all questions and threats. The conflict is between integrity and a feeling that time is running out. In later writing Erikson (1982) identifies the conflict as between wisdom and despair. At that time he wrote about the changing meaning of old age. He held that individuals in Stage VII interpret old age differently as they approach Stage VIII. But he also included a social interpretation of old age that was changing as individuals are living longer lives, and able to anticipate the ripeness of old age. Consider Erikson’s (1982) thoughts that have some significance, “No doubt, the role of old age needs to be reobserved, rethought… Thus a historical change like the lengthening of the average life span calls for viable reritualizations …” (p. 62).

The Reritualization of Retirement

Retirement, one might say, is in the process of being reritualized. We are living longer and with much more vitality than our parents did at the same age. Moreover the workforce may very well be in need of the generativity that adults approaching stage VIII might bring to the table. So why should we want to retire? Is it time for reritualization of the manner in which organizations deal with retirement aged senior employees? The answer, I argue, should be yes. But like everything else in our society our eyes may be closed until there is no choice. The baby-boom retirement scenario may just be the vehicle to usher in that reritualization. When employers have trouble filling positions with younger people, perhaps they will have no choice but to hang on to their senior employees. Then employer and employee will both benefit.

References

Erikson, E. H. (1963/1950). Childhood and society (2nd. ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Erikson, E. H. (1959). Identity and the life cycle. New York: International Universities Press, Inc.
Erikson, E. H. (1980). Identity and the life cycle: A reissue. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Erikson, E. H. (1982). The life cycle completed (1st. ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Hoare, C. H. (2002). Erikson on development in adulthood: New insights from the unpublished papers. New York: Oxford University Press.