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Going Off Script: How Managers Make Sense of the Ending of Their Careers

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  • Heather C. Vough
  • Christine D. Bataille
  • Sung Chul Noh
  • Mary Dean Lee

Abstract

The extant retirement literature primarily focuses on factors that influence the decision to retire and the generic retirement decision-making process. While these approaches have extended our understanding of retirement decision-making, we propose a sensemaking perspective that orients our attention towards the subjective meanings people attach to the factors that trigger the retirement decision, rather than simply the factors themselves. Accordingly, we see the retirement decision-making process as bounded by situational constraints and rooted in identity work. Based on interviews with 48 retired Canadian executives and managers, we use thematic narrative analysis to identify six types of end-of-career narratives. Drawing on these narratives, we present a model of identity work that distinguishes between retirement decision-making factors that are perceived as identity opportunities and those that are perceived as identity threats. Our findings contribute to scholarly understanding of subjective meanings and identity considerations in the process of ending one's career.

Suggested Citation

  • Heather C. Vough & Christine D. Bataille & Sung Chul Noh & Mary Dean Lee, 2015. "Going Off Script: How Managers Make Sense of the Ending of Their Careers," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(3), pages 414-440, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:52:y:2015:i:3:p:414-440
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/joms.12126
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    4. Jean S. Clarke & Joep P. Cornelissen & Mark Healey, 2019. "Actions Speak Louder than Words : How Figurative Language and Gesturing in Entrepreneurial Pitches Influences Investment Judgments," Post-Print hal-02276704, HAL.
    5. Fernando, Dulini & Patriotta, Gerardo, 2020. "“Us versus them”: Sensemaking and identity processes in skilled migrants’ experiences of occupational downgrading," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(4).
    6. Cleland, Jennifer & Porteous, Terry & Ejebu, Ourega-Zoé & Ryan, Mandy & Skåtun, Diane, 2022. "Won't you stay just a little bit longer? A discrete choice experiment of UK doctors’ preferences for delaying retirement," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(1), pages 60-68.
    7. Hansin Bilgili & Joanna Tochman Campbell & Alan E. Ellstrand & Jonathan L. Johnson, 2017. "Riding off into the Sunset: Organizational Sensegiving, Shareholder Sensemaking, and Reactions to CEO Retirement," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(7), pages 1019-1049, November.
    8. Amdam, Rolv Petter & Lunnan, Randi & Bjarnar, Ove & Halse, Lise Lillebrygfjeld, 2020. "Keeping up with the neighbors: The role of cluster identity in internationalization," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(5).

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