Age Management

Research about age management could examine the following allegations:

Initial conditions

  • The paradigm of aging is changing in revolutionary ways.
  • Active Aging is the new paradigm.
  • The elderly population is increasing disproportionately.
  • Learning is no longer (has never really been) a domain of youth.
  • Older people are mythmakers. They want to be taken seriously in their experiences.
  • More and more older people are reliant on income from work, because they have low or no pension.
  • The problem shifts from age to questions of healthiness and fitness

Story-Way has dealt with the compilation and communication of effective methods of teaching and performing for special groups. Focus so far was the group of „disadvantaged“ young people on their way from school into training or into the labor market as well as the group of 50 +, the elderly, who are in employment. From this work, among other things, is emerged a handout „Guidelines for course organizers and lecturers generation experience“ and a book titled: „Status-Lust-Identity. Motivational methods of Teaching and Leadership“.

Problems which are (yet) not enough spoken about

  • Workers without adequate pension (despite regular income) who, however, also can not provide an additional insurance,
  • Former freelancers, whose incomes have never served with the possibility of banking,
  • False selfemployed people,
  • Debtors, insolvent,
  • People without family support,
  • Victims of divorce,
  • Victims of violence and crime.

The historical development of the situation of older people in the production and in the development

Older workers were originally the personification of empirical knowledge in a company. Either as a master or executives they were living repositories of knowledge (wisdom = experiential knowledge), which could be directly consulted as needed. After retirement most important knowledge holders were a consultant. That older people had mainly a preservative and stabilizing function for the company’s development.

With the development of electronic data processing, their crowning glory is the Internet, this role changed fundamentally. SMBs were first confronted with the problems of older workers, as in a phase of computerization and rationalization of working conditions of knowledge and experience can be extracted from workers had before they were replaced by new technology or new procedures. Under the title of knowledge management or outsourcing a variety of methods have been developed to retain experience in the company and ask for the process control and the accounting system is available, even if the carrier of this experience, for reasons of age or for reasons of personnel policy were eliminated from the company, or the company changed.

In this context, the strongest impulse to the work originated with the so-called storytelling techniques, ie, the use of not only logical, Facts and Figures based knowledge extraction, but the historically older form of transport knowledge about narratives. The observed narrative forms ranged from the How-I-Did-It, the narrative instruction, the success story that consciously heroic story to work with anecdote circles accompanied in which, during an informal exchange of experience, and recorded by experienced facilitators stories found and collected be, which can then become the starting point of change in my job, either. considered best practice, or as elements of corporate philosophy

In present, the Web 2.0, which means the supply and provision of information by the users of the Internet or from the company’s own knowledge bases itself peaked. Even specialized knowledge is often with very little effort at all times. The Crowd learning, ie the mediated via the Internet independent learning from others has become a standard which the importance of empirical knowledge has been reduced from extremely elderly.

Thus begins the role of older workers to fundamentally change the experience of conservative media to innovative employees. In other words, it increases the potential employee about the same performance for 10 years.

Among the now we are facing changing conditions of a regional demographic change-, which by a

  • Increase in the proportion of older people in the available potential employees and by
  • fundamental change is respected so far as immovable age paradigms

could work with this group of the population to be economically attractive. As a group, which makes up almost more than a third of the population, the group of 50 + not only economic importance as consumers, a meaning which turns to advertising and product presentation by little, not only as a cultural medium, which in itself supply and the evaluation of age in the culture, is the subject of movies, etc., but as a worker in entirely new forms of employment, which distinguish them:

  • Pursuit of flexible work hours
  • project-based work
  • meaningful employment oriented
  • Retirement and pensions are only financial requirements for new challenges, not a retreat from the world of work
  • An unprecedented amount of statistically elderly without or with insufficient pension is willing and forced to work for a living until they die
  • Life itself can be financed from bonds only for a few
  • The generation of heirs will inherit even fewer.
  • The number of rich old, which previously populated the coaches and community colleges will be less, their higher claims.

Methodic Elements

There are five elements of didactics for Older People:

1. Contact

A methodology for the elderly, both the logical, scientific narratives for numbers, dates, facts and scientific contexts for topoi such as „if … then …“ and the mythical, religious and experience-based narratives to topoi such as „I’ve experienced …“ „It’s like a miracle (crazy), but …“, „the secret of my success / failure, is …“ cover.

In all educational contexts, the experience, this is the personal and situational self-experienced knowledge creation, are considered. Personal contact is about listening „triggered“ stories, is triggered by directional questions.

Older take at least as much training as younger, but are rarely decided because they fear loss status. Moreover, the traditional learning paradigm „What does not teach an old dog new tricks“ strongly internalized and shapes the learning behavior of older workers. Learning seems to be the domain of younger people.

Older therefore require the provision of effective and modern teaching techniques with the aim of changing their embossed learning paradigms. For this form of new media, especially Internet and tablet computers excellent initial conditions.

2. Status

Older have problems to cope with large state change.

  • Be it that they want to defend their high status, which you have gained through years of struggle and monopolization of knowledge,
  • either because they have vearbeiten the loss of such status by the sudden dismissal, burn out or bullying,
  • be it that you have to endure a contradiction between their age and status in the new working groups

Status is an important starting point for working with people, and also in a special way for the elderly.

3. Lust

Older people are more than ever desire Settled, they go dancing, running extreme sports are healthy and active, they are willing to take risks, and completely start over.

4. Identity

This „new old“ no longer comply with previously established paradigms of the age (cf. Karstadt study: The Free Generation 2009 ):

  • the self-perception of age has been postponed for at least 10 years, that is, the real and the perceived age apart more and more.
  • Being old is set at about 70 years, that is, „No one is really old“
  • older people are more active, healthier and innovate than previous generations, and Internet Party belong to their everyday lives.

5. Transfer

Older and want to play an active role in the economic and working life. Projects, which are only to meaningful employment, to pleasure, to supply or community involvement, ie free work areas for social aims, are always less attrakiv.

All they want to learn, they put them into practice, whether in regional policy, the employees in companies or family. Learning with older must always be transfer-oriented. „Gadgets“ will not be tolerated.

Working with employers

  • The demographic change is faster than the paradigm shift in society.
  • Companies that need to make under pressure from the economy in times of crisis to stable production conditions can not afford experiments. Projects whose peculiarity is that they also „may go wrong“ can be assumed therefore rather suspicious.
  • On the other hand, there is shortage of skilled workers and future uncertainty.
  • The potential of older workers is not traditionally perceived. In the traditional experiences rather the old paradigms and confirmed to be remembered as new paradigms and success stories handed down.
  • Employees aged 50 and over have experience over many years maintained networks, discipline and a willingness to take responsibility. Her family planning is completed.
  • Through training and support, mobility can be improved older.
  • Older must be used in their role than Mythenbildner for the stabilization of corporate structures.
  • The training, loading and revaluation of their experiences is the central focal point of any work with the elderly.