Retirement and the Sectors: Do Private and Public Personnel Differ in Their Retirement Decision?

Abstract

Retirement is a field of growing interest in both the public and the private sectors. Given the aging workforce in Western countries, understanding the factors that contribute to an employee’s decision to retire is an area of increasing interest to political, economic, social, and organizational scholars. Most retirement studies concentrate on a narrow set of factors, examining their impact on retirement in isolation of the broader context. Drawing from public management theory, and based on theories of person–organization fit (POF), we examine whether and when private and public personnel differ in their retirement decision. Findings indicate that previously shown relationships between individual-level financial status and the decision to retire are contingent on employment sector. The results of this research extend knowledge regarding the normative influence of mechanisms driving retirement and demonstrate the broader implications of sector on retirement decision-making.