WHY DOES AN EMPLOYEES CAREER

PERCEPTION CHANGES WITH AGE AND STAGES

OF LIFE? HOW DOES IT IMPACT THEIR RISK
TAKING ABILITIES?

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CONSTRUCTION

MANAGEMENT AND RESEARCH
BALEWADI, PUNE

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

Submitted to
Dr. SOUMI RAI
Associate Professor, NICMAR

Submitted by
Shubham Bhansali AP16190
Rahul Yadav AP16191
Ravi Panchal AP16192
Sourab Mohta AP16193
Debaprata De AP16194
Prinkesh Barodiya AP16196
Himanshu Tripathi AP16197
Rajat Sonar AP16198
ACM-30, Section II
 1. Introduction
Perception is the process by which an employee interprets his impressions in order to give
meaning to his environment and thus, it influences significantly his workplace behaviour.
Past research has demonstrated a negative relationship between the desire to get ahead
and job satisfaction. The discussion focuses on the implications of the results for individual
career perception change with the growing age and stages of life.
The way in which an employee perceives his work is different in a young age as
compared to that in elder age. The way a young employee reacts to a situation is totally
different from the way an elder employee reacts
The agenda of this case study is to explore whether the why does the career perception
changes with age and life stages of an employee and how does it affects risk taking abilities.
In general corporate life of an employee can be divided into three stages according to age-
I. Establishment:- includes our first job, it is time which begins with uncertainty
anxieties and risk
II. Mid career:- at this point one is expected to have mood beyond apprenticeship to
worker status. Those who perform well get greater responsibilities and rewards and
for others it may be time for job changes etc.
III. Late career:- it is pleasant time when one is allowed the luxury to relax a bit.
 1. LITERATURE REVIEW

This study investigated the relationships among company average age, company work ability,
and company performance by examining (a) the effects of employee average use of selection,
optimization, and compensation (SOC) personal strategies and high involvement work
practices (HIWPs) on employee work ability (b) The buffering effects of both employee
average use of SOC and HIWPs on the negative relationship between company level average
age of employees and employee work ability And (c) the link between company average age
and company performance as mediated by company work ability
In the survey, state agency personnel from 27 states also acknowledged that mid-career
employees were considered most likely to be productive (98%), to take initiative (87%), to be
creative (81%), and to want to lead and supervisor others (63%) in comparison to the early
and late-career employees. At the same time, mid-career employees were perceived to exhibit
a number of negative attributes: mid-career employees were thought to take a lot of time from
work to deal with personal or family issues.
Research shows that the main factors which change the employees career perception are
ATTITUDE and CONTROL OVER EMOTIONS.
Attitude: Perception gives the attitude and attitude gives the perception to an individual.
Attitude is a characteristic of a person which cannot be taught by the other person. It changes
only through his own experience. Our attitude influences our decision making ability. As a
result of our decisions we will get success or failures.
Self-managing work groups are a form of work design in which employees take
responsibility for the group's tasks and have discretion over decisions which impact group
performance. To explore the impact of age and work teams on job attitudes, data from 477
employees suggested that self-managed work group members differed from traditional job
holders regarding perceived general job satisfaction, perceived control by supervisors, as well
as a number of specific dimensions of the work environment. Moreover, while there was
evidence of an age effect on attitudes toward supervisory control, there was no joint effect of
age by work design on job attitudes, i.e., one's perceived general job satisfaction. Older
employees who were members of self-managed work groups were however, more impacted
by this form of work design in reporting more positive perceptions of their access to
information essential to the performance of their work.
The current study uses the Learning and Development Survey (LDS) to investigate employee
selection and engagement of learning and development goals and opportunities and
constraints for learning at work in relation to demographics and career goals. It was found
that mature age was associated with perceptions of preferential treatment of younger workers
with respect to learning and development. Age was also correlated with several career goals.
Findings suggest that younger workers learning and development options are better catered
for in the workplace. Mature aged workers may compensate for unequal learning
opportunities at work by studying for an educational qualification or seeking alternate job
opportunities. The desire for a higher level job within the organization or educational
qualification was linked to engagement in learning and development goals at work. It is
suggested that an understanding of employee perceptions in the workplace in relation to goals
and activities may be important in designing strategies to retain workers
Factors affecting the Risk taking ability of employees are discussed below:

Work money concept: This concept talks about the risking taking capacity of younger and
older people. In Money concept, basically it talks about the younger people who were
dependent on their parents for money and all. So now they want to live independently.
Opportunities: Younger workers are less concerned with how their employment with the
employer ends, since they may have opportunities to work in other organizations. Whereas,
older workers tend to have fewer options for job transfer at that age.
Recognition: younger employees care more about the recognition they received from their
work. To elder employees recognition hardly matters, they are more likely to stay away from
all the unnecessary recognition
Work Life balance: Kauffman (1987) also argued that one of the key areas for older workers
is to find new and meaningful challenges in order to not get bored with their jobs. The
reasons why people work may change as they reach middle age.
Expectations: Young people often enter the working climate with high expectations, but
after time they adapt their expectations according to reality
Opportunities: Younger workers are less concerned with how their employment with the
employer ends, since they may have opportunities to work in other organizations. Whereas,
older workers tend to have fewer options for job transfer at that age
Taking Initiative: young people are more energetic and willing to take initiative in
any kind of work they are allotted. They can put their physical and mental efforts to
learn and proceed for the work. They are easy to teach as compared to elder people.
Productivity: Elder employees are more productive in work because they are capable of
making right decisions. While, young employees been not much aware of the work and the
right decisions are more into learning things, thus the productivity is less.
Risk Taking Capacity: The risk taking capacity of people changed with their age.
The younger person who is comfortable with the technology also doesnt have any
experience try to adopt new technologies in their working culture. They are
concerned only with the results but not the path of work. So they will take more risk
in their work to complete the work.
The older people who are not comfortable with the technology also having lot of
experience, will try to adopt the same the things which adopted in the past for the
same kind of problems and also they were averse to the changes in their working
environment. So they will try to take less risk when compared to younger people.
 2. SUMMARY

The detailed report depicts the different behaviour and attitudes of young employees and
elder employees in different work situations. The way in which an employee perceives his
work is different in a young age as compared to that in elder age. The way a young employee
reacts to a situation is totally different from the way an elder employee reacts. The risk taking
capacity of young employees and elder employees is different. Both have different
knowledge and experience to take particular risk. Risk taking capacity of young employee is
more than that of elder employee but elder employees have better understanding of risk they
are taking.
 3. GROUP OPINION

After having the healthy discussion and research among the group members over the topics
there are slightly mixed views but overall we have common opinion. We came to a
conclusion that the career perception levels of employees changes with the age as their
desires and focus changes with the time, money and social life they had. Even the perception
of the employees changes with the background he/she came from and also the life they lived
in the past.

Also the study made by the researchers reveals that older people are more risk-averse than
their midlife counterparts when choosing between possible gains, but more risk-seeking when
choosing between losses. Thus obsolescence increases with the age and it definitely hampers
the risk taking abilities. But as employees get older their commitment level increases and also
the stability to fix for certain job. And they can make their decisions with experience they
have achieved
4. REFERENCES

1. Timothy A. Judge, Amir Erez, Diane E. Johnson, David J. Kennedy, Sandra K.

Washington(Cornell University) : Employee Age as a Moderator of the Relationship Between
Ambition and Work Role Affect Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS)
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/CAHRS/
2. Age and work motivation: The view of older employees by Robert Kielerstajn
3. Effects of age, gender, and occupation on perceived workplace learning support-Christian
Harteis , Stephen Billett, Michael Goller, Andreas Rausch, Jrgen Seifried- International
Journal of Training Research
4. Link Between Age, Career Goals and Adaptive Development for Work Related Learning
Among Local Government Employees- Megan Tones, Hitendra Pillay,