Retaining Mature Knowledge Workers: The Quest for Human Capital Investments

AbstractKnowledge society requires constant professional development since the growth no longer lies in improving efficiency but rather on workforce capabilities. Individual level of human capital in particular has become the key quality of labour upon which future economic growth is built upon. However workforce is aging in all developed countries and subsequently workforce aging will continue for decades. The skill shortages are predicted especially regarding knowledge-intensive occupations that raise question about competitiveness of organisations therefore mature knowledge workers do play an important role in workforce.The purpose of the paper is to provide a discussion on integrative approach toward professional development of mature knowledge workers within the wider organizations’ strategic plans to achieving competitive edge over those that ignore the demographic trends. The accumulation of human capital does not end with schools but is rather a constant process of professional development, a lever to augmentation and adaption of existing knowledge of an individual. Organizations that apply professional development of all the workers regardless of age will be able to rely upon human capital potential that can adequately adapt to internal and external business demands. Based on literature retrieval, the most important dimensions of professional development of mature knowledge workers are identified and the professional development framework proposed