Management of older workers and evolution of the psychological contract in Japan
Developing a conceptual and practical understanding of employee employer relationships is a central concern to the practice and research of human resource management (HRM) HRM is fundamentally a people focused activity 'manifested in a series of investments in observed human behavior and perceived potential, as assessed or inferred by employers and their agents such as HR managers, line managers, supervisors, project team leaders, and so on, with the objective to add value to organizations as they pursue strategic business objectives' (Rowley and Jackson, 2011) In Japan, traditional notions of employees pursuing their career within one organization and exchanging loyalty for a sense of employment security can be seen as a form of deal between individual employees, individual organizations, and the government and other public institutions. This paper develops an HRM perspective on the management of a specific segment in the labor market; namely, older workers in the context of a developed economy with a rapidly ageing society (Jackson and Debroux, 2016) The basis of the psychological contract in Japan: practice and concept An individual's career can be assumed to develop over time through made and received experience and through self perception and through processes of self expectation. The assumption at this initial stage is that human (social) relationships are formed through interaction between individuals as members of social groups. As Giddens states it, (1991) it can be assumed that these interactions and the relationships they form and nurture are bounded by space and time: they also express purpose, fundamental among which is physiological, psychological and sociological survival and, based on it, a fundamental sense of security, well being, and optimism in response to current and in anticipation of future events. Once individual workers have been selected, they continue being selected until they are either de selected, or they de select themselves. HRM practitioners make worker selection decisions Management of older workers and evolution of the psychological contract in Japan