thesis_Daniela Noethen_print final - Jacobs University

General Introduction
in the smooth transition of retiring employees into their past-work-life. Consequently, a large
set of measures is necessary to address the threat of knowledge loss, with measures usually
belonging to one or more of several broader categories, for example Human Resource policies
and practices, improvement of knowledge transfer practices, information technologies or
knowledge recovery programs (DeLong, 2004). As of yet, these measures and strategies have
been proposed in theoretical works or referred to in practical literature on best practices, but
they have not been systematically tested. Despite the urgency of the topic, there have not been
any empirical investigations of effects of these strategies more generally, and, more
specifically, of effects on the threat of knowledge loss in organizations.
The present dissertation focuses on one of these broader strategies, namely on the
increase and improvement of knowledge transfer. This strategy for the prevention of
knowledge loss was chosen as knowledge transfer is the most basic and crucial aspect of
retaining knowledge within the organization; in some way or another, the knowledge at
question has to be transferred from the retiree to the successor or other employees who will
need to use it. For this reason, the strategy of increasing and improving knowledge transfer
usually forms part of suggestions for knowledge retention, not just the ones brought forth by
DeLong (e.g., Droege & Hoobler, 2003; Leibold & Voelpel, 2006). This presence in most
knowledge retention models again increased my interest in studying knowledge transfer out of
the different possible strategies.
Thus, the aim of the present dissertation was to investigate knowledge transfer between
employees as a means to fight knowledge loss. To this end, I wanted to find out how
employees’ knowledge transfer can actually be encouraged and by what it might be impaired.
Beyond “general” knowledge transfer between employees, my special interest was directed at
intergenerational knowledge transfer, as in the situation of retiring employees it is usually a
veteran employee who should transfer knowledge to a younger colleague or successor. Last
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