Browsing by Author "Kanukhan, Suzan"

In current economic situation people are very concerned about the sustainability gap deriving from changes in age dependency ratio. Extending working lives is considered to be one of the solutions to the problem. The purpose of this master's thesis is to study thoughts arising from extending working lives among employees working in retail trade with the aid of the following research questions. 1. Which factors are considered meaningful regarding employee motivation? 2. Which factors are considered meaningful regarding extended working life? 3. How does the third age come up when discussing retirement? The qualitative research material consisted of transcribed, semi-structured theme interviews conducted on ten employees between the ages of 30 to 49 years working in the retail trade. The research data was analysed using content analysis method. The concepts included in the research questions were utilised as main categories for the analysis, and within the categories data based content analysis was put into practise. Some of the interviewees had ended up working in retail due to monetary reasons, such as being unable to get work corresponding their education. Therefore their working was guided by external motivational factors. However, in some cases external motivation had converted to internal as they had discovered reasonable elements in their work. A significant matter regarding employee motivation was not being able to influence one's working and working hours. It was regarded as a relevant inconvenience especially in situations when working is continued after retirement age. Extended working was a realistic option for many because of earnings-related pension. Also in this case flexibility in working hours and being able to influence on the matter was considered very important. Extending a working career was seen as a positive factor especially in a situation where there are not many other social contacts. However, it was very clear that if financial and social aspects of life are in order working in the retail trade will not be continued after retirement, but for example working in charity or a different field is an option. In any event it was important to all interviewees to be able to spend well-earned retirement days while one is still able to achieve and realize things that one wants, for example traveling, spending time with family or doing voluntary work.