WARN - Work and Ageing Research Network
The Work and Ageing Research Network (WARN) brings together an active group of researchers examining the organisational and human resource implications of workforce ageing. The network, centered around this website, serves as a space for the researchers, policy makers and industry stakeholders to engage and collaborate on projects focused on exploring the opportunities and challenges posed by an ageing workforce.
WARN was established to address the research needs associated with the demographic changes taking place as Australia's workforce ages.
What is the Work and Ageing Research Network?
WARN is a network of Australian academic researchers actively contributing to new research into work and ageing relevant to both public and private sectors.
This national network builds research capacity by involving more practitioners in research activities and enhancing recruitment for industry-based research projects.
WARN aims to:
- Engage practitioners to:
- develop new research questions;
- take part in research projects;
- learn new skills (both applied and research);
- foster collaborations with colleagues around the country and
- disseminate research findings on work and ageing.
- Advance research knowledge about issues faced by organisations and individuals identified by practitioners in the field of work and ageing.
We are a network of researchers and professionals interested in work and ageing. Our research training and backgrounds are from organisational behaviour, human resource management and psychology.
Professor Prashant Bordia
Prashant Bordia is a Professor of Management at ANU and the founder and coordinator of WARN.
His research interests include retirement transition and adjustment, work stress over the lifespan and psychological contracts of older workers.
Dr Rajiv Amarnani
Rajiv K. Amarnani is a Lecturer in the University of Western Australia Business School.
His research examines how older workers’ careers—and their sense of self—evolve and change in later life. He is especially interested how older workers make forecasts about their future work, life, and careers.
Dr Valerie Caines
Valerie Caines is a Senior Lecturer in the Adelaide Business School at the University of Adelaide.
Her research focusses on late-career, career longevity, and retirement transition. Her research on grey entrepreneurship examines age-related factors which influence interest in entrepreneurship in late career. Additionally, her research on retirement transition examines the phenomenon of resistance to retirement from an individual and organisational perspective.
A/Professor Jo Earl
Joanne (Jo) Earl is an Associate Professor and MBA Director at Flinders University.
Jo’s research focuses on retirement planning across the lifespan and retirement adjustment. She consults to industry on a regular basis.
A/Professor Patrick Garcia
Patrick Garcia is a Professor of Management and Organizational Behavior at the Peter Faber Business School at the Australian Catholic University.
His research interests include workplace aggression and deviance, career self-efficacy across the lifespan, and psychological contracts of older workers.
Dr Courtney von Hippel
Courtney von Hippel is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of the Queensland.
Her research focuses on stereotyping, prejudice, and implicit attitudes. Her research on work and aging examines the consequences of feeling stereotyped at work on the basis of your age.
Professor Carol Kulik
Carol T. Kulik is a Research Professor of Human Resource Management at the University of South Australia Business School and a senior researcher within the Centre for Workplace Excellence.
Her research focuses on understanding how human resource management interventions influence the fair treatment of people in organisations – especially mature-age workers
Dr Sanjee Perera
Dr Sanjee (Sanjeewa) Perera is a Lecturer in the School of Management, University of South Australia and a researcher within the Centre for Workplace Excellence (CWeX).
Her research interests include emotion in the workplace and workforce diversity.
Professor Elissa L. Perry
Elissa L. Perry is a Professor of Psychology and Education and the Academic Program Director for Social-Organizational Psychology Program at Teachers College, Columbia University
Her research focuses on the role of demographic characteristics (e.g., age, generational membership, gender, race, disability) in human resource judgments and on organizational outcomes.
Professor Hannes Zacher
Hannes Zacher is a Professor of Work and Organizational Psychology at the University of Leipzig.
In his research program, he investigates aging at work, career development, and occupational well-being; proactivity, innovation, and entrepreneurship; as well as employee pro-environmental behavior.
The work of WARN researchers spans the full continuum of experiences affecting workers over their lifespan, with particular emphasis on those aged 45 years and older.
From understanding how organisations can create a workplace environment that will enhance and encourage engagement and contribute to successful ageing at work, through to establishing practices that support and guide the older worker into a satisfying retirement experience, the Work and Ageing Research Network (WARN) can provide expert, evidence-based input to both policy and practice.
Current projects
We offer the following research summaries to showcase some of the highlights from our work:
Excel50+
In this project, our attention is on the older workers’ employment relationship as it is captured in the psychological contract.
Retirement Resources Inventory
Leung and Earl (2012) report on the development of an inventory that assesses resources relevant to retirement well-being. The researchers also examined the relationship between retirement resources (as measured by the newly constructed RRI) and management practices relating to retirement well-being.
Effects of Perceived Age Discrimination
Griffin, Bayl-Smith and Hesketh (2016) explore the long-term effects of perceived age discrimination on the job satisfaction and work withdrawal (e.g. resigning or retiring) of older employees. The research was designed to reveal the effects of age discrimination, as perceived by the older worker (aged 45 years and older), on their later levels of job satisfaction and intentions to withdraw from employment.
Mature-Age Workers and Stereotype Threat
Kulik, Perera and Cregan (2017) examine the effects of ‘stereotype threat’ on the performance, motivation and engagement of older workers.This research was designed to find out whether stereotype threat was more of an issue for older workers with younger managers, young work teams and who work in occupations requiring manual labour.
Age and Occupational Wellbeing
Zacher, Jimmieson and Bordia (2014) look at a number of factors which are thought to explain previously reported phenomena that people in their late 20s through to early 40s tend to be less satisfied with their jobs and more emotionally exhausted than workers who are younger than 25 or older than 45.
Broken Promises at Work
Garcia, Bordia, Restubog and Caines (2017) examine the effects of perceptions of psychological contract breach on two wellbeing indicators of older workers: psychological distress and insomnia. They also wondered if generativity concern mitigated the harmful effects of breach and predicted that those with high generativity concern will be less affected by psychological contract.
Stereotype Threat and Relationship with Job Attitudes
von Hippel, Kalokerinos, and Henry (2013) examine whether older employees are susceptible to disengagement from work when they feel stereotyped on the basis of their age by analysisng data from over 1000 Australian employees.
WARN is committed to driving positive change. We do this through collaboration with forward thinking private, public and not-for-profit organisations. We invite you to contact us to discuss how we can work with you.
Mailing address
WARN C/O Research School of Management
The Australian National University
LF Crisp Building 26
Acton, ACT, 2601
Australia
T: +61 2 612 59839 or +61 2 612 56737
F: +61 2 612 50744