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Canada is currently experiencing a general ageing of its population, leading to growing concern for older workers, and for the population over the age of 65. This paper proposes that in order to address the complex policy issues concerning population ageing, the ‘life course perspective’ be used. The life course perspective is a set of principles which offer a new way of looking at the ageing of individuals, and of social life over the long term, focusing not so much on states but on processes of change over time. This perspective not only helps in the understanding of the social structure of the life course, but also provides the tools needed to understand individual’s trajectories as they proceed through the life course. This paper examines five policy domains in terms of the life course: (1) education, the transition to employment, and life-long learning; (2) family and the relationship between work and family; (3) work-to-retirement transitions; (4) income security in the later years; and (5) intergenerational relations and social cohesion. The paper concludes with several suggestions for policy makers, including: the need to increase flexibility in employment, particularly during the retirement transition; avoid age-based discrimination and recognise older workers as resources; provide equal access to learning across the life course; work to prevent age-conflict in the workplace; and educate people of all ages to anticipate and prepare for the increasing instability in the life course. Show less

[The authors begin] by describing [their] methods to gather data about use of the 'generations in the workplace' concept. In the second section of the chapter [the authors] describe the terminological confusion in this area and, using the social science literature as a resource, [the authors] employ the distinction between generations, cohorts and age groups as a conceptual to clarify the generations concept. [In the third section, the authors] trace the development of the 'generations in the workplace' concept. In the fourth section [the authors] argue for greater conceptual and terminological precision. In the fifth section [the authors] suggest that, even if precisely defined and measured, generations have not been shown to account for much in terms of understanding workplace dynamics. [The authors conclude] with some suggestions to salvage something useful from a concept that has so far created a great deal of nonsense and confusion in the human resources world.

Edited excerpts from publication. Show less