In the course of our lives, most individuals develop cognitive reasoning critical in their social functioning both with family and at the workplace. As people age into their 60s, the aging process results in changes in both cognitive and social capabilities. Research by Hunt " Wolverson (2015) suggests that these changes vary from one individual to another depending on the situations encountered with in early life. Other researchers opined that perceptions also matter in the way cognitive changes affect an individual in late adulthood. Although cognitive decline is primarily caused by aging, the temporary decline may be caused by substance abuse, changes in kidney function and certain medication. Other causes include psychological issues such as loss of loved ones and stress which eventually results in depression. Consequently, depression affects both thinking and functioning making it difficult for an individual to work.
During late adulthood, individuals lose their cognitive abilities as a result of diseases or neurological dysfunctions. This condition is known as dementia. Dementia causes decline in higher some mental functions such as memory problems. For some individuals, language processing may also be affected significantly in late adulthood. Changes in language processing negatively impact comprehension, word retrieval, and speech organization. Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are also associated with aging. Research by Naveh " Ohta (2012) suggests that the frequency of dementia doubles in every five years during older adulthood. Such conditions make it difficult for older adult employees to perform their tasks because of safety concerns at the workplace.
Consequently, cognitive changes in late adulthood also affect the executive functioning of an individual. Aging results in reduced intelligence although some researchers argue that this is relative because older adults tend to become wiser. Studies show that although the mechanics of intelligence may decline, the pragmatics continue to develop. According to metamemory studies, older adults tend to overestimate memory loss because of their stereotyping associated with aging. The neurological changes result in the decline of perceptual speed which eventually affects memory. Nevertheless, the brain usually has the capability of compensating such declines. Today, the aging workforce has become an issue of concern among policy makers and employers. Majority of the workforce over the age of 60 years expect to continue working even after their appropriate retirement age. Regardless of the reason for choosing to continue to work whether money or staying active, there are many consequences associated with an older workforce.
As an individual age, cognitive changes occur over time resulting in decreased cognitive control. Studies have shown that as people age the dopamine system becomes dysfunctional causing a reduction in the cognitive power. This causes a decline in memory functioning, executive function, attention, episodic memory, and inhibition. Inhibitory functioning has been defined the process by which unnecessary information is repressed as an individual age. The decrease in functioning affects an individual’s capability to understand the context and maintain information. Aging results in a decrease in the speed of processing information which leads to changes in psychomotor speed, increased performance variance, and executive performance. The changes in brain frequencies may cause an increase in errors in both qualitative and quantitative perspectives. Research by Cabeza et al., (2016) concluded that such changes in error processing might result in a decline in work quality and variability due to poor awareness of errors. Cognitive changes may restrain performance, movement and the ability to monitor one’s actions and behaviors in the workplace.
The changes in brain frequencies decline with age affecting the visual processing ability of an individual. As such, older adults may find it difficult to differentiate various tasks in the workplace. As individual ages, the potential to contract pathological ailments increases which affect performance at the workplace especially in cognitive roles.
The various physiological changes that occur during aging results in decreased performance levels at work. Various studies have shown that older adults usually experience function decline in cognitive aspects of a task. Older adults tend to have decreased working temporal memory due to reduced associative memory and order information. According to Whitbourne " Sliwinski (2016), although older adults experience difficulty maintaining information, the difference was not significant when compared to young employees. However, since older adults experience difficulty when using associative memory, they are not capable of creating an association between different sets of information.
The visual cognitive function of older adult increases with the increase in age. As such, older adult employees require increased recognition and search time. Other studies revealed that older adult employees required a longer time to solve computational problems and the accuracy level decreased significantly. A study by Rath et al., (2016) that required selection of items showed that older adults performed slower when compared with younger participants. The study proves that employees in their late adulthood have job work performance. Many studies reveal the effects of aging on executive functioning such as delayed responses, planning, organization, and flexibility. The processing speed of older adult employees is slower which ultimately reduces the overall performance. Nevertheless, some studies conclude that individual people have different capabilities of completing tasks at the workplace.
Most of the cognitive changes that occur during aging result in reduced productivity at the workplace. Older employees have to focus more on their motor abilities and find it difficult to multitask especially tasks that require memorization. A study by Cavanaugh " Blanchard-Fields (2015) showed that the effects of aging became more profound with the increase in the complexity of the tasks. Nevertheless, some researchers argue that the decrease in memory, and poor work performance of employees, should be understood at an individual level and with specificity to the task being completed. This is because the majority of the studies show great variations.
Youdin (2016) suggests that there are various forms of cognitive decline among older adults which interfere with both work performance and daily routines. Mild cognitive impairment results in declined language skills, judgment and thinking. Continuous reduction of cognitive abilities makes it difficult for older adult employees to perform tasks. With age also comes many underlying health conditions, as such, treatment of such cognitive deficits to reverse the employees to normal functioning may result in extra health costs. Another common form of cognitive change the Alzheimer’s disease which manifests itself in the form of dementia. Dementia results in poor judgment and difficulty in decision making. Consequently, this makes it hard for older employees to deliver their duties at the workplace resulting in reduced productivity. While some older people may feel that retirement is necessary for relaxation, some prefer to continue working to avoid longlines and inactivity. The workplace should be adapted by adjusting work schedules to enable older employees to work despite their reduced cognitive function.
In contrast, despite the cognitive function decline, some studies reported that older workers are more productive than younger employees mmm. This is because their wealth experience enables them to implement strategies that can solve problems in the workplace. Also, the study indicated that older employees had higher motivation and were lees erratic (Bal et al., 2015). This may also be attributed to the fact that older employees are more focused and less distracted while on a task. Experience tends to compensate for their reduced cognitive abilities. Psychologists have determined that there is fluid intelligence which refers to a person’s ability to solve new problems, and crystallized intelligence describing accumulated knowledge. The knowledge reserve continues to increase as an individual age although the cognitive functioning continues to decline.
Over time, as cognitive changes increase, some employees may exhibit a problem with both memory and functioning. Consequently, they may forget attending meetings, experience difficulty in problem-solving or switching between tasks. Despite the circumstances, many employees can do their jobs. Thomson " Grandy (2018) suggests that the changes in cognitive functioning affect job performance of workers differently. It is important to note that cognitive functioning problems are not limited older employees but also younger employees. Notably, not all cognitive functions decline with ages.
Overall, from a cognitive perspective, as people age, they tend to lose their hearing. Although hearing aids may be used, some employees may avoid them. Consequently, the work performance may be negatively affected because their job requires oral instructions or presentations. Besides hearing, the visual perception of most people tends to decrease as they age. Since most professional jobs require employees to compose emails and write reports, older employees may find it difficult to perform their duties and keep up with the workload. Since age affects memory, older adults may experience difficulty working jobs that require them to memorize. Poor memory makes them slower in the completion of tasks which results in low productivity. Considering the effects of cognitive changes among older employees, workplace injuries and heath costs increase at the workplace.
Researchers suggest that older adults may stay mentally alert at the workplace by maintaining lifelong learning. To ensure that employee is most effective, employers should discourage stereotypes at the work place. Accordingly, employers should implement anti-aging policies to make older adult employees comfortable thereby fostering healthy working environment. Other associated mandatory age retirement ages should also be done away to destroy the culture that older adults cannot work.
Employers should focus on improving the cognitive health of older employees to enable them to work. Ergonomic adjustments can also be made in the workplace to ensure the safety of older adult employees and increase productivity. To conclude, with a better understanding of research, as shown here, employers should be aware of stereotyping at work and strive to combat them while trying to achieve maximum productivity among the older adult workforce.
Employers are encouraged to create programs tailored to meet the need of older employees. They should focus on making older employees feel important at the workplace despite their cognitive decline. Also, employers should renew the skills of older adult employees to adapt to the reduced cognitive functioning. Finally, older employees should be encouraged to work with younger employees who have better cognitive abilities to ensure productivity in the workplace. This will also ensure transfer of skills and knowledge from the older adult employees.
References
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Cavanaugh, J. C., " Blanchard-Fields, F. (2015). Adult development and aging.\
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Rath, S., Rath, M., Frankfort, L. R., " Natural Healing Research Foundation. (2016). Qigong for
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Whitbourne, S. K., " Sliwinski, M. J. (2016). The Wiley-Blackwell handbook of adulthood and
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