Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2015
Abstract
In 2011, individuals in America's baby boomer cohort began reaching their full retirement age of 65. It is estimated that approximately 10,000 baby boomers will turn age 65 each day until 2031. Retirement is being discussed more frequently as a greater number of people try to figure out if and how they would like to transition from their primary careers. Our research focused on successful professionals between the ages of 50 and 75 to understand what factors contribute to the decision to make a transition toward retirement. From the study, we learned that retirement is a difficult decision and may be viewed negatively as people question how to replace the fulfillment, achievement and social benefits that come from work. The decision to retire also presents risk as re-entry into the workforce is viewed as difficult for older workers. Refining identity is an important part of the transition process but may be difficult for people who have had traditional long-term careers and support in the same company, community or industry. Further study is needed to understand how to structure the retirement planning and career coaching process to make it more appropriate for the 21st century professional.
Keywords
retirement-planning, career development, Weatherhead School of Management, retirement, identity, protean careers, career transitions, well-being, fulfillment, refinement, perception, confidence, guidance
Rights
© The Author(s). This is an open access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Department/Center
Design & Innovation
Recommended Citation
Lunceford, Gregg, "Retirement Values: What Explains Career Transition and Well-Being" (2015). Student Scholarship. 359.
https://commons.case.edu/studentworks/359