In Search of Late Career: A Review of Contemporary Social Science Research Applicable to the Understanding of Late Career

Concerns expressed in the mid-1990s about the lack of research on late career are no longer valid. There is a growing body of research; however, it is scattered across a range of disciplines. In an effort to gather current thinking on late career, this review draws upon work addressing chronological aging, labor economics, sociology and social psychology, retirement research, human resource management, and career theory. Several cross-disciplinary observations were made: (1) Cognitive declines with age are not sufficient to impact work performance; (2) Current economic models assume declining productivity among older workers, but this reflects perceptions rather than reality; (3) Aging may be better understood as a series of discrete transformations rather than as a continuous process of decline; (4) A productive use of older workers recognizes individuals' specific strengths and the increasingly distinctive individual differences among older workers.