Emotional Capital and Older Workers Learning and Transfer of Knowledge Management: “Toward a Better Ageing, Working and Learning Together”

Europe is getting older – a simple observation with far-reaching implications. The challenges posed by an aging society are tremendous. As the baby boom generation grows older, it is doubtful that ever-longer retirement will continue to be beneficial and affordable for individuals or the nation. Strongly believes that additional years of work will be increasingly desirable for a growing number of older French people and for the society as anywhere else in the European Union (EU). Nevertheless, as today's workers evaluate their own retirement security, and as policymakers and business leaders assess the viability of the nation's aging related programs and policies, they must recognize the need for significant changes in attitudes and practices. Work will be central to this process of change. The development and enhancement of employment for older workers constitutes a crucial issue for the Member States of the EU and for France in particular where less than 37% of workers over 55 years old are working. If the concern is global, a one-size-fits-all approach to face those challenges is not appropriate nowadays. How to plan working life will be crucial for all EU societies for economic, social and psychological and health issues. Finding ways to retain older workers, offering re-training and re-deployment if necessary, would make much more sense. Also, a human Knowledge Management which deals with the transfer of competences from experienced OW to youngsters and a human. Workforce management promoting a mixed-age workforce will be crucial and essential. Thus, there is a clear demand for more sophisticated and sensitive and human management throughout people's working lives, alongside ongoing investment and training. With the shortage of younger workers within the next decades and the baby-boomers departure, organisations are faced with the problem of loss of knowledge, skills and personnel. Nevertheless, if this concern is global, the successful responses will have to be locally based. Managers face a dilemma. Managers will have to evolve to manage higher diversity of situations, especially when the main issue is at keeping the strategic and key competences in the company at all local levels. Thus, each company will have to explore ways of retaining knowledge and personnel with a range of ages, skills and experience in the work force according their needs. They will need to put in place processes and supporting systems and work atmosphere to manage the retention of knowledge in the organisation when experienced workers retire, thus enabling older workers to transfer their skills, knowledge and experience as a corporate asset. Thus, managing age relations in organisations require an understanding of the ways in which workers of different ages are perceived and how these associate with optimal deployment. It requires a strong local knowledge on the company functioning and on its workforce to manage changes successfully. Consequently, those global challenges (I) suppose to rethink the organisational management in a human way. Above all, it will suppose to promote (II) diversity and to revisit knowledge and human resource managements toward an ergonomic, more human and ethic ways to allow a quality of work life and a better aging, working, learning, and living together (Gendron, 2007 submitted).