CELEBRATING GOOD-BYE: Functional Components in Farewell Parties for Retiring Employees in Israel DAN JACOBSON* Tel-Aviv University ABSTRACT: This article describes an explorative attempt to generate a preliminary typology of the functions farewell partiesfulfillfor retiring employees andfor the orga- nizations they are about to leave. On-site observations of 14 parties in four Israeli organizations suggest that these secular rituals, marking the imminent rupture of long- standing social and organizational bonds, provide the retiree with an essential support mechanism or coping resource helping him or her weather the role transition with its attendant affective and cognitive adaptational stresses. At the same time, farewell par- ties can also be seen as serving explicit and implicit organizational goals by clarifying appropriate codes of behavior, reinforcing the commitment of younger workers to the organization, providing relevant information and enhancing the organization’s reputa- tion as an “enlightened” employer. While the present study focused mainly on the intendedfunctional and integrative messages conveyed by means of the rituals studied, it is suggested thatfiture research efforts be devoted to the assessment of their actual effects including the dysfunctional and negative ones. According to Moore and Myerhoff (1977), the category of events ordinarily called rather loosely collective secular ritual (or ceremony) is usually employed to structure and present particular interpretations of social reality in a way that endows them with legitimacy. In their words, “a collective ceremony is a dramatic occasion, a complex type of symbolic behavior that usually has a statable purpose, but one that invariably allures to more than it *Direct all corre.spondence to: Dan Jacobson, Department of Labor Studies, Tel-Aviv lJniversit.v, Tel-Aviv 69978, Isruel. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA JOURNAL OF AGING STUDIES, Volume 10, Number 3, pages 223-235. Copyright 0 1996 by JAI Press Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. ISSN: 0890-4065.