Workplace flexibility across the lifespan

As demographic changes impact the workplace, governments, organizations and workers are
looking for ways to sustain optimal working lives at higher ages. Workplace flexibility has been
introduced as a potential way workers can have more satisfying working lives until their
retirement ages. This paper presents a critical review of the literature on workplace flexibility
across the lifespan. It discusses how flexibility has been conceptualized across different
disciplines, and postulates a definition that captures the joint roles of employer and employee in
negotiating workplace flexibility that contributes to both employee and organization benefits.
Moreover, it reviews how flexibility has been theorized and investigated in relation to older
workers. The paper ends with a future research agenda for advancing understanding of how
workplace flexibility may enhance working experiences of older workers, and in particular
focuses on the critical investigation of uses of flexibility in relation to older workers.