The current study explored the contribution of personal goals to retirement decisions. A SMARTER methodology (to assess multiattribute utility) and taxonomy of human goals were used to investigate the relationship between older workers' personal goals and their retirement intentions. Two hundred and fifty-one employees of a large university, varying in age from 55 to 77, were asked to indicate the relative importance of 29 goals and to indicate the utility they perceived in continued work and retirement as a means to achieve these goals. The results demonstrate that goal evaluations are important predictors of retirement intentions. Furthermore, goal evaluations provide an important and unique contribution to predicting retirement intentions beyond that predicted by personal and demographic variables. These results have implications for pre-retirement education and workplace application.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AdamsG. A. (1999). Career-related variables and planned retirement age: An extension of Beehr's model. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 55, 231–235.
2.
AndersonK. H.BrukhauserR. V.QuinnJ. S. (1986). Do retirement dreams come true? The effect of unanticipated events on retirement plans. Industrial Labor Relations Review, 39, 518–526.
3.
American Association of Retired Persons. (2002). 2002 beyond fifty: A report to the nation on economic security. Washington, DC: AARP.
4.
AustinJ.VancouverJ. B. (1996). Goal constructs in psychology: Structure, process and content. Psychological Bulletin, 120(3), 338–375.
5.
BanduraA. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
6.
BarronF. H.BarrettB. E. (1996). Decision quality using ranked attribute weights. Management Science, 42(11), 1515–1523.
7.
BeachL. R.MitchellT. R. (1987). Image theory: Principals, goals and plans in decision making. Acta Psychologica, 66, 201–220.
8.
BeehrT. A. (1986). The process of retirement: A review and recommendations for future investigations. Personnel Psychology, 39, 31–55.
9.
BrubakerE.BrubakerT. (1992). The context of retired women as caregivers. In SzinovaczM.EkerdtD.VinickB. (Eds.), Families and retirement (pp. 222–235), Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
10.
CampioneW. (1987). The married woman's retirement decision: A methodological comparison. Journal of Gerontology, 42(4), 381–386.
11.
ChulefA. S.ReadS. J.WalshD. A. (2001). A hierarchical taxonomy of human goals. Motivation and Emotion, 25(3), 191–232.
CohenJ.CohenP. (1983). Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
14.
CollinsL.DentC. (1988). Omega: A general formulation of the Rand index of cluster recovery suitable for non-disjoint solutions. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 23(2), 231–242.
15.
EdwardsW.BarronF. H. (1994). SMARTS and SMARTER: Improved simple methods for multiattribute utility measurement. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 60, 306–325.
16.
EkerdtD. J. (1998). Workplace norms for the timing of retirement. In SchaieW.SchoolerC. (Eds.), Impact of work on older adults (pp. 101–142). New York: Springer.
17.
EkerdtD. J.De VineyS. (1993). Evidence for a preretirement process among older male workers. Journal of Gerontology, 48(2), 35–43.
18.
EkerdtD. J.De VineyS.KosoloskiK. (1996). Profiling plans for retirement. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 48, S180–S191.
19.
EkerdtD. J.VinickB. H.BosseR. (1989). Orderly endings: Do men know when they will retire?Journal of Gerontology, 44(1), 528–535.
20.
EvansL.EkerdtD. J.BosseR. (1985). Proximity to retirement and anticipatory involvement: Findings from the normative aging study. Journal of Gerontology, 40(3), 368–374.
21.
FlippenC.TiendaM. (2000). Pathways to retirement: Patterns of labor force participation and labor market exit among the pre-retirement population by race, Hispanic origin and sex. Journal of Gerontology, 55B, 14–27.
22.
FordM. E.NicholsC. W. (1987). A taxonomy of human goals and some possible applications. In FordM. E.FordD. H. (Eds.), Humans as self-constructing systems: Putting the framework to work (pp. 199–233). Hillsdale NJ: Erlbaum.
23.
FronstinP. (1999). Retirement patterns and employee benefits: Do benefits matter?The Gerontologist, 39(1), 37–47.
24.
GowanM. (1998). A preliminary investigation of factors affecting the appraisal of the decision to take early retirement. Journal of Employment Counseling, 35, 124–137.
25.
HardyM. A. (1993). Regression with dummy variables. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
26.
HardyM. A.ShueyK. (2000). Pension decisions in a changing economy: Gender, structure and choice. Journal of Gerontology, 55B(5), S271–S277.
27.
HatchL. R.ThompsonA. (1992). Family responsibilities and women's retirement. In SzinovaczM.EkerdtD.VinickB. (Eds.), Families and retirement (pp. 99–113). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
28.
HaywardM. D.FriedmanS.ChenH. (1996). Race inequities in men's retirement. Journal of Gerontology, 51B, S1–S10.
29.
HeckhausenH.KuhlJ. (1985). From wishes to action: The dead ends and short cuts on the long way to action. In FreseM.SabiniJ. (Eds.), Goal-directed behavior: Psychological theory and research on action (pp. 134–157). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
30.
HenkensK. (1999). Retirement intentions and spousal support: A multifactor approach. Journal of Gerontology, 54B, S63–S73.
31.
HenkensK.TazelaarF. (1997). Explaining retirement decisions of civil servants in the Netherlands. Research on Aging, 19, 139–173.
32.
KimS.FeldmanD. C. (1998). Healthy, wealthy or wise: Predicting actual acceptances of early retirement incentives at three points in time. Personnel Psychology, 51, 623–642.
33.
MutchlerJ. E.BurrJ. A.MassagliM. P.PientaA. (1999). Work transitions and health in later life. Journal of Gerontology, 54B(5), S252–S261.
34.
MutranE. J.ReitzesD.C.FernandezM. E. (1997). Factors that influence attitudes toward retirement. Research on Aging, 19(3), 251–273.
35.
MyersR. H. (1990). Classical and modern regression with applications (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Duxbury Press.
36.
PalmoreE.BurchettB.FillenbaumG.GeorgeL.WallaceL. (1985). Retirement: Causes and consequences. New York: Springer Publishing Co.
37.
PervinL. A. (1989). Goal concepts in personality and social psychology. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
38.
ProtheroJ.BeachL. R. (1984). Retirement decisions: Expectation, intention, and action. Journal of Applied Psychology, 14, 162–174.
39.
QuinnR.BurkhauserR. (1990). Work and retirement. In BinstockR.SchoolerL. (Eds.), Handbook of aging and the social sciences (3rd ed., pp. 308–327). New York: Academic Press.
40.
RapkinB.FischerK. (1992). Personal goals of older adults: Issues in assessment and prediction. Psychology and Aging, 7(1), 127–137.
41.
RichardsonV. (1993). Retirement counseling. New York: Springer.
42.
RobbinsS.LeeR.WanT. (1994). Goal continuity as a mediator of early retirement adjustment: Testing a multidimensional model. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 41(1), 18–26.
43.
RobbinsS.PayneC.ChartrandJ. (1990). Goal instability and later life adjustment. Psychology and Aging, 5, 477–480.
44.
RotherJ. (1997). Retirement 2020: Boomer trends (Special Committee on Aging United States Senate Serial No. 105-7). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
45.
ScheierM.CarverC. (1988). A model of behavioral self-regulation: Translating intention into action. In BerkowitzL. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 21, pp. 303–346). New York: Academic Press.
46.
SingletonJ. F.KeddyB. A. (1991). Planning for retirement. Activities, Adaptation & Aging, 16(2), 49–55.
47.
StevensJ. (1992). Applied multivariate statistics for the social sciences. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
48.
SzinovaczM. (1987) Preferred retirement timing and retirement satisfaction in women. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 24(4), 301–317.
49.
SzinovaczM.DeVineyS. (1999). The retiree identity: Gender and race differences. Journal of Gerontology, 54B(4), S207–S218.
50.
TalagaJ.BeehrT. A. (1989). Retirement: A psychological perspective. In CooperK.RobinsonI. V. (Eds.), International review of industrial and organizational psychology (pp. 185–211). New York: Wiley.
51.
TaylorM. A.ShoreL. M. (1995). Predictors of planned retirement age: An application of Beehr's model. Psychology and Aging, 10(1) 76–83.
52.
VinickB.EkerdtD. J. (1989). Retirement and the family. Generations, 53–56.
