Older workers and commitment to workplace safety policy

Abstract

In the literature review, the field of organizational commitment is considered to be the result of situational conditions that change employees' general attitudes towards safety at work. Replicated in this present descriptive qualitative study on a sample of 35 workers in the construction sector and aged (+45yrs) in a situation of declining resources contracted with age made it possible to address it. The findings are clear. Workers engaged in a context of forced submission, having strongly internalized the negative stereotype associated with the characteristics of the group of older workers and suffering from age-related resource declines, remain insensitive to safety at work. This leads to a reduced capacity of this active population in certain jobs from the mid- to end-of-career transition phase (+45 years), hence the importance of raising the question of the attitudinal change model specific to applications of commitment theory on older workers with a view to facilitating the implementation of a safety approach in the organizational context.