Articles in academic research and practice

¶ … Health

Ballenstedt's work confronts an issue of growing prominence in 21st century America: employment. Her writing does more than address the issues of employment in of itself, but includes discussion of retirement or the end of employment, and yet another issue of returning to work after retirement. This article is a specific meditation on the situation of federal retirees returning to work after retirement and what kinds of economic and social consequences the government and the country would face if such action were taken on a massive scale.

According to Ballenstedt, the Office of Personnel Management is pushing policies that would increase incentives for federal retirees to return to the workforce. Ultimately, other experts have considered this situation and believe that additional monetary incentives to retired federal employees wishing to return to the workforce would cost the government a lot of money and may end up hurting the government, the federal branch specifically, rather than acting as a solution to an impending wave of mass retirement in the United States.

Other agencies, such as federal labor unions like the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) are extremely concerned about the potential for government abuse of returning employees as well as the potential of returning employees to exploit policies that may favor them. The consequences of this issue have effects at the highest levels of government as well as across many areas within the federal branch.

This article brings to light a confusing and disturbing trend as a result of the current status of the United States economy and infrastructure. There is a great deal of Americans who have retired or are retirement aged, and are returning to work or simply continuing working. Across many industries such as retail, food, and civil service, there are increasing numbers of older employees. If these people want to work and are able to, they should be allowed to persist. Many of these older workers continue to work or return to work because of economic hardship and desperation to survive.

Ballenstedt, B. (2008) Bring 'Em Back. Government Executive, 40(8), 16 -- 17.

Hanbury et al. research and explain the importance of a manager to fit within his/her work environment as well as offer elaboration on the factors that contribute to a manager fitting in with an organization, a management position, and with the other employees. The authors contend that they chose this field for research because leadership is a trait that is valuable in numerous situation, in and out of the workforce and because this specific topic, leadership style & fit, has received little attention in the academic realms. There are numerous issues and potentially problems that stem from an inharmonious dynamic among the manager/leader, the organization, and the subordinates of the manager/leader. Therefore, their research in this area has a great deal of potential for practical application and use.

Among the factors the authors believe contribute to the successful fit of a leader within an organization, they list factors such as leadership style and personality traits that are more personal and distinctive per individual. They also cite factors such as perceptions of the manager, and demographics of the city wherein the organization is. It is a logical yet rare occurrence to read in research about leadership mention about how the physical space, not just where the organization conducts business, but the greater and larger community space affects leadership efficacy. Such techniques and methods of thinking are present in areas such as organizational & industrial psychology, but they have yet to catch on in a large-scale, meaningful way.