Issue
26(1)
Thriving
on an aging workforce: Strategies for organizational and systemic
change.
(2005). Paulette T.
Beatty & Roemer M.S. Visser, (Eds.).Melbourne, FL: Krieger
Publishing Company, 216 pp. Price $38.50. ISBN 1-57524-200-1.
Review
by: Michael
H. Turpin
Coordinator/Counseling
& Advising
Kilgore
College
As
the oldest of the baby boomers nears age 60, Beatty and Visser
have compiled the contributions of academicians and practitioners
"to help organizations in the private and public sectors prepare
for the consequences of this graying of the workforce" (p. 3).
The target audience consists of human resource professionals and
institutional change agents, as well as the academic community
and others who can help to shape public policy (p. 3). This is
a "big picture" book, valuable to advisors who want to understand
the workforce in its current, evolving state.
Interesting,
well-written, and comprehensive, this volume begins with a picture
of the workforce and the workplace of the future. The chapters
that follow address seven interrelated issues that are critical
for "accommodating a progressively aging workforce" (p. 13). Related
to the needs of older workers and the institutions that employ
them, topics include recruiting, training, developing, and to
some degree, retaining older workers.
The
organizational format of the book helps readers focus on the substance
of core issues as well as on practical remedies for areas of concern.
For five of the seven issues, the editors have included two chapters,
one that is research oriented and one that is practitioner oriented.
For the issues of intergenerational relations and the health of
older workers, the editors present respectively two chapters which
address distinct concerns. Each chapter includes recommendations
and a summary, and the editors themselves present a synthesis
of perspectives for each critical issue at the conclusion of each
section. In a concluding chapter, the editors synthesize all seven
issues and make conclusions that effectively frame the pieces
of this jigsaw puzzle presented throughout the text. Case scenarios
enhance their presentation.
In
some edited volumes in which the perspectives, expertise, and
writing styles of multiple authors have been compiled, the text
lacks continuity. This is not the case with Thriving on an
Aging Workforce. The editors have done a superb job, combining
multiple sources of information on a variety of core issues related
to aging workers into one comprehensive story. The real strengths
of this book are its balance of research and practicality, its
organizational structure, and its comprehensiveness of content.
Because
college and university academic advisors primarily work with students
entering the workforce for the first time, they may find that
issues addressed in this book do not pertain to their role. However,
community college advisors, who routinely deal with workers needing
retraining, may find more applicability. Moreover, while the emphasis
of this book is clearly on issues faced by human resource professionals,
advising administrators could benefit from the book's many research-based
and practical strategies as they attempt to deal with their own
advisors who may be nearing retirement age.
This
having been said, one primary question comes to mind. How will
the aging of baby boomers really affect the workforce? We do not
know. We are certain only that challenges lie ahead. Educators
and educational support personnel alike can benefit from Beatty
and Visser's treatise. Academic advisors on every level work with
those preparing for the workforce, and we really do not know how
or to what degree certain variables will affect that workforce.
For a clear understanding of the issues at hand, this book is
worth investigation.
