Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

workers (´problem group´) and treat them as a flexibility resource and pursue
practices of de-qualification and externalisation. Hypothesis 2A will be tested against
competing hypothesis 2B (see below).
The firm-structural approach (Kohli et al. 1983) integrates the labelling approach and
the approach of industrial sociology. When applied to the study of firms´ personnel policies,
this entails that “the economic pressures dominating the firm can only be effective in the
context of the interpretations and norms of the members” (ibid: 29). The authors state that
the firm must ensure the ´reciprocity norm´ (rewarding workers for their lifelong loyalty) if
it wants to realise its economic objectives. In contrast to neo-classical assumptions, the
authors state that “the enterprise is not simply a place of direct implementation of the
economic imperative of maximising profits” (ibid: 29-30). Rather, it has to gain some
autonomy from the market, especially from the external labour market (ibid). On those
premises, three objectives for personnel management arise: maximising performance,
maximising the length of usefulness of labour, and maintaining continuity (ibid: 30). This
entails that the human capital of older workers has to be preserved and not exhausted until
work incapacity ensues, as this is in line with the economic interest of the firm. Firms apply
age-specific allocation of personnel, which conforms to the biographical expectations of the
employees (ibid: 31-32).
At work, older workers appear both as a ´problem group´ and as ´resource´. In hiring,
older applicants are discriminated against. Thus, the achievement of the firm-structural
approach is the recognition of different, even contradictory, personnel policies within one
firm. Neither can their firm-specific know-how be utilised by the new employer, nor have
they a long period of usefulness (ibid: 1983: 31-33). With regard to long-standing workers,
seniority systems are established. Older workers are honoured as socialising instances for
the younger workers and carriers of firm-specific know-how. In distinction to the
assumption of the segmentation approach, the firm-structural approach acknowledges the
fact that even in case of work incapacity, long-standing workers are not laid off but
integrated (Naegele 1992: 397). Yet, despite the potential of older workers, firms still pursue
a rejuvenation of the workforce in order to achieve the optimum ´age-mix´, and complement
legislated retirement age with firm-specific retirement ages (Kohli et al. 1983: 33; Naegele
1992: 398).
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