This dissertation project examines a socially sustainable working life with a focus on age and generational diversity. Working life is facing demographic challenges with the baby boom generation in retirement age and a low birth rate. This contributes to labour shortages in some industries. It is important for the organizations to enable long working life careers for their existing staff and at the same time be an attractive employer for new staff and younger workers. The dissertation analyzes past, present and future for how age and generational diversity within HRM and leadership by using bibliometric analysis. A more focused literature review has been done on what factors facilitate extended working lives for older employees. The empirical study examines what it means to be an age-friendly organization and the factors that contribute to extended working life in an age-friendly organisation. In addition, the dissertation deals with why people in a specific profession with, often, strong professional identities, nurses, choose to leave the industry. The results of the research provide practical tools for employers and the work community in how to create age-friendly workplaces where generational diversity is taken into account and employees of all ages prosper and thrive. The study can identify shattered expectations in the nursing profession, from which concrete recommendations are derived employers in social and health care. Finally, the research can provide suggestions for future research in the field of socially sustainable working lives.

2022

2023