EARLY RETIREMENT DECISIONS AND HOW THEY AFFECT LATER QUALITY-OF-LIFE

Older workers are often placed in an unenviable position in the face o f stereotypes which define them as increasingly marginal in the work f orce, and view retirement in terms of status loss and disengagement, Y et voluntary early retirement schemes have been a recent feature of wo rk organisations of all types in Britain, Western Europe and North Ame rica, The nature of the decision-making processes of those involved in such schemes has not been widely researched and such studies as have been conducted have not drawn on the existing framework of decision an alysis, This paper reports the findings of two linked studies into the early retirement decisions of men working in Britain for a large mult inational company in the manufacturing sector. The first investigated the factors deemed to be important for a group of men at the point of decision whilst the second investigated both the factors deemed to be important and the quality of life of a group of men who had taken the decision to retire early between 18 months and 3 years previously, Bot h studies indicated that the decisionmaking process is complex and can not be reduced to single-factors like health or financial status, The most important factor in the quality of life of early retirees was the matching of expectations of further work at the point of decision, Th e studies illustrated the utility of a decision analysis approach to t he study of early retirement.