This article questions whether the concept of active ageing unintentionally devalues the life experiences of disadvantaged groups of older people. It is argued that talking up the expectation that older people will continue to be physically active may further marginalize significant groups of elders, including those from diverse non-dominant cultural groups. The article draws on a study of Australian Aboriginal Elders to illustrate this point, with suggestions about culturally appropriate ageing policies. The article concludes that alternative conceptions of ageing, such as ‘ageing well’ or ‘authentic ageing’, may better capture the cultural diversity of ageing and promote social inclusion.

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This paper aims to extend the understanding of human and structural capital as key components of intellectual capital by refining their definitions and outlining their relationships. It argues that psychology and sociology can further develop the understanding of intellectual capital despite having not previously been sufficiently recognised as relevant to the debate. The paper draws on these disciplinary areas to develop a model that specifies subsets of human and structural capital, of intellectual capital and the relationship between them, as a basis for a more comprehensive definition and effective measurement of it across a range of industries and firms. Finally, it argues that it is important for employers to determine how to capture human capital and convert it into structural capital so that it is not lost in times of rapid restructuring and high staff turnover.

This article reports on a confirmatory analytic study of the Bachman Revision (1970) of Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale (1965) that was used in the Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ALSA). Participants comprised 1,087 elderly people aged between 70 and 103 years (mean 77 years). Five competing factor models were tested with LISREL8. The best-fitting model was a nested one, with a General Self-Esteem second-order factor and two first-order factors, Positive Self-regard and Usefulness/Competence. This model was validated with data from a later wave of ALSA. Usefulness and competence have received little attention in the gerontological literature to date. Preliminary results indicate that usefulness/competence may be an important predictor of well-being. Further work is required on the relationships among usefulness, competence, self-esteem, and well-being in elderly people.

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Australia, together with most other developed and developing countries, faces a difficult demographic pattern in the first half of the twenty‐first century, due to a low and declining birth rate and an ageing population. This has led to an ageing workforce, with a relative shortage of younger entrants. One issue for government is what further steps they could initiate to persuade more people to remain in the labour force beyond the currently median retiring age of around 55 years. Employers will need to consider the degree to which they are prepared to reverse present negative attitudes towards employment of older staff, and workers need to resolve whether they need or desire to keep working and under what conditions. Boundaries constructed by government policy and employer actions, and their resolution by older individuals, form the content of this paper. The paper concludes that employers now face the management of up to four generational groups and resolving their intergenerational differences will present as a major future challenge. Revisiting practices for managing older workers will be essential and the paper offers suggestions for employers towards more effective utilisation of their older staff and more effective integration of workers of all age groups.

Psychological good life theory needs to be adapted and modified when considering the needs of cognitively intact older adults in residential care.