Networked Information Technology and the Transition to Retirement: A Field ExperimentThis report explores retirement as a social-psychological process, particularly from the perspectives of role incumbents on either side of the transition. It also considers whether and how networked information and communication technology helps to create or maintain task processes and social ties for spatially distributed groups, and attempts to determine what part such technology might play in supporting interactions among retired individuals and between them and their still-employed peers. It extends earlier studies of technology transfer and utilization, of social behavior in relatively healthy community-resident older adults, and of the effects of computer support in varied kinds of task groups by using a more powerful research design--a field experiment--that permits an evaluation of the comparative capability of new electronic media to provide intellectual and affective links between people who have no prior experience in using networked interactive systems. The experiment demonstrates that computers can serve as an effective infrastructure for social interchange; they are superior to traditional media for overcoming spatial and temporal barriers to interaction. |
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adjustment to retirement analyses analysis of variance assessed attitudes toward retirement average baseline Bikson capita hours chi squared close friends computer based correlated e-mail effects electronic communication electronic condition electronic group electronic mail electronic network electronic task force Eveland experimental condition F values family members forward to retirement friendships Gerontology group contact map indicate individuals interac interaction interview involvement logged mean ment Message Loops messages sent microcomputers Month Fig organization organizational overall patterns percent period project participants questions RAND relationships represent responses retirees and employees Retirees Employees Retirement Plan retirement transition role Satisfaction with contact scheduled meetings shows significant differences significantly social sociometric spent spouse standard condition standard group standard task force structures subgroup chairs subjects Table task force activities task force members task force participants tion transition to retirement tronic users versus weekday word processing