德国企业老龄化的劳动力和人力资源管理的挑战外文文献翻译.doc

毕业设计（论文）外文翻译外文题目： Ageing Workforces and Challenges to Human ResourceManagement in German Firms译文题目：德M企业老龄化的劳动力和人力资源管理的挑战 文献出处： 〈〈Human Resource Management in Ageing Societies〉〉，外文作者:2008，P13-28Uschi Backes-Gellner， Stephan Veen外文文献:Ageing Workforces and Challenges to Human Resource Management in German FirmsThe aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the main challenges imposed by demographic change on the human resource management (HRM) policies of German companies. Although many more aspects of business are affected by demographic change，such as changes in consumption or in savings and investment and therefore in capital costs，we concentrate on changes in personnel policies prompted by an ageing workforce. We cover a wide range of HRM policies，starting with recruitment problems concerning innovation and technological change.Ageing workforces and human resource managementDue to demographic change，company workforces will on average be older in the future. Consequently，an age structure in which workers above 50 are the dominant group will no longer be an exception, but will instead become the rule. In this context， the actual share of older workers，as well as the optimal share，is partly determined by differences in firm characteristics in addition to external factors.General challengesDespite increasing public awareness of challenges arising from future demographic transitions，company awareness of problems resulting from an ageing workforce is still rather low. In fact，only 25% of firms expect that demographic change will cause serious problems in the long run. However, there is a growing literature on the challenges presented by ageing workforces and on prospective solutions. Busch presents a collection of studies analyzing the capabilities of older workers in general，and gives practical examples of HR policies that deal with older workers. Wachter and Sallet present a collection of papers studying company attitudes towards early retirement and attitudes towards an extension of working life. In those studies，the abilities of older workers are typically assumed to be different，not inferior， pointing to an optimal workforce age-mix that depends on the particular requirements of different companies. In general，however，demographic change will generate increasing pressure on all kinds of personnel policies due to a growing lack of qualified employees.In particular, small and medium-size companies without internal human resource departments，and thus with a lack of special infrastructure, face serious challenges. Contrary to their normal planning horizon of about two to five years，they will increasingly have to deal with long-term personnel problems and planning. On the other hand，it has been shown that medium-size enterprises are often more flexible with regard to older worker and family issues because they are able to deal with them more informally than larger firms. Within larger firms，an increasing number of pilot projects deal with the problems of an ageing workforce，highlighting important areas in need of consideration as well as the scope for organizing an ageing workforce. These areas include health management issues, adjusted promotion policies and career planning, changes in work designs, new personnel development strategies，changes in working time patterns and lifetime working arrangements.One of the main problems with the discussion so far is that it is focused on the potential benefits of such measures, whereas their costs are often neglected. Thus, cost-benefit analyses are often missing，and general conclusions are difficult to draw because results are dependent on companies’ business strategies and on the markets in which they operate, meaning that optimal HR policies vary from company to company. In short，there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution.To evaluate age structures and respective problems, Kochling and Deimel make use of a practical tool for human resource managers based on detailed qualitative case studies in the electronics industry. They study the problems that would arise if the present personnel strategy were retailed. Initial results for the application of this tool can be found in Kochling and Deimel. According to Bullinger，Buck and Schmidt， successful personnel policies need to focus on finding, binding，enhancing and deploying employees. These are the HR fields that we will study in more depth below.RecruitingAccording to human capital theory，companies prefer younger job applicants in comparison to older job applicants because younger workers have more time to accumulate firm specific knowledge. In addition，their amortization period in the firm is longer，making investments more profitable. Signalling theory also holds that companies prefer younger applicants. Unemployed older workers represent a stronger negative signal for productivity than unemployed younger workers. This is because companies generally prefer to lay off younger workers as 。