Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

those who cannot was reported by firm experts. I thus claim that structural conditions (inter
al. rationalisation processes) and the socio-economic position of workers determine whether
the individual labour/leisure choice can be made at all.
Hypothesis 6 (see section 2.1.) is supported with regard to Germany. The personnel
policy of German firms is unlikely to facilitate a prolongation of working life in the short or
medium term. Firms have a non-uniform policy with regard to older workers, and
contradictory measures are applied within one and the same firm depending on the realm of
personnel policy in question. Similarly, ´positive reactions´ are outweighed by ´negative´
and ´no reactions´ to legislative changes, showing the lacking commitment of most firms to
a prolongation of working life at firm level. The analysis of qualitative data has shown that
the type of reaction to legislative changes varies with regard to different reform elements,
as well as that there is no uniform type of reaction exhibited by a single firm, but rather a
mixture of various adaptation patterns. The type of reactions can alter as a result of changes
on the management board, the business cycle etc. It also turned out that the planning
horizon of firms is rather short. Ideas how to integrate older workers and how to still
provide for early exit options are at conceptualisation, at best at inception phase. The
interviews brought to light only few concrete measures. Possibly, the termination of the
early retirement scheme and the retirement age of 67 were still too far away at the turn of
the year 2006, when the second interview wave took place. Another factor which rendered
it difficult to assess the impact of the raised retirement ages for the old-age pension after
ATZ was the fact that in firms which had utilised the early retirement scheme or other early
exit schemes to a great extent during personnel reductions in 2004, most older workers
entitled to that scheme have already left.
Hypothesis 7 (see section 2.4.) is herewith also supported. Due to the institution of codetermination,
the management is able to pursue policies of externalisation via early
retirement in cooperation with the works councils, which are prone to cooperate due to their
unrivalled position as representatives of the workforce. A ´collusion´ of interests of
employee representatives and the management still takes place. It has however to be added
that this collusion largely relies on the continued interest of workers in early exit.
In general, it can be concluded that firms in Germany have a short-term orientation in
personnel policy. They do not reflect the development of the age structure of their
workforce over the next years. The recruitment of young workers is seen as prime solution
for solving problems with know-how transfer, absenteeism rates, or personnel shortage
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