DYNAMICS OF THE EARLY RETIREMENT DECISION: A THIRD TYPE OF EMPLOYEE WITHDRAWAL

The present study investigated affective, cognitive and demographic factors which serve to predict as well as to explain the retirement decision. Further, the study examined the fit between a model which specified interrelationships among retirement correlates and actual retirement decision-making processes. The goal was to position early retirement as a third distinct type of employee withdrawal.;Results led to three major conclusions: (1) Employees of different age groups tend to approach the retirement decision differently. More specifically, the younger an employee plans to retire, the greater the extent work-related factors are associated with the decision; (2) The retirement intention/retirement relationship is moderated by demographic factors. That is, the younger the employee, the more likely he/she is to postpone retirement; and (3) The decision to retire, when operationalized in terms of both behavioral intentions and actual behavior, does appear to involve more of a "process" than previous research has suggested.;The conclusions stated above have broad implications, particularly in terms of positioning early retirement as a third distinct type of employee withdrawal. The notion that employees of different age groups tend to approach the retirement decision differently broadens research conducted by industrial gerontologists which characterizes retirement as a demographically-determined response which is affective in nature. The notion that the retirement intention/retirement relationship is moderated by demographic factors highlights the value of considering both intentions and actual behavior when studying the decision-making process. Finally, the notion that the decision to retire involves more of a "process" than previous research has suggested provides initial support for the retirement decision-making model offered in the present study.;The study was carried out in a large midwestern utility. Subjects consisted of a stratified random sample of 404 management employees 50 years old and above drawn from a total population of 2341. The stratified variable chosen was age group, which corresponded to pension-eligibility requirements and historical trends in management retirement ages of the organization.