thesis_Daniela Noethen_print final - Jacobs University

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Preventing Knowledge Loss When Employees Expect to Leave 4. Preventing Knowledge Loss When Employees Expect to Leave: Effects of Expected Turnover on Knowledge Transfer and Interactions with Perceived Supervisor Support 5 This is the last of the three empirical chapters of the present dissertation. With this paper, I shift the focus from predictors of knowledge transfer to knowledge transfer in situations that bear a threat of knowledge loss for the organization. More specifically, I am looking at situations in which employees expect or intend to leave the organization. Ideally, this would be situations in which the employees’ knowledge is safeguarded against loss by increased knowledge transfer to other employees, but there is good reason to belief that employees in such situations are less inclined to share their knowledge with colleagues. Thus, with this paper, I examine if knowledge transfer in such situations is actually a preferable prevention strategy. 4.1. Abstract The prevention of knowledge loss is a pressing issue in the era of the knowledge-based view of the firm (Grant, 1996, 1997), not only because of the large cohort of baby boomers now starting to retire, but also because turnover rates among the younger generations are on the rise. Increased knowledge sharing can be one strategy to counteract organizational or group knowledge loss prior to employees’ turnover. However, knowledge sharing is a discretionary behavior which can be encouraged, but hardly demanded of employees intending or expecting to leave the organization. The objective of the present work was to investigate the effects of voluntary turnover intention and expected involuntary turnover on employees’ knowledge sharing within teams, as well as to examine a buffering effect of perceived supervisor support 5 I thank Torsten Biemann and Sven Voelpel, who will be co-authoring this paper upon publication, for their input and collaboration. 132
Preventing Knowledge Loss When Employees Expect to Leave on the presumably negative relationships. Results of a cross-sectional survey study in three branches of a German public administration with N=281 participants revealed the hypothesized negative effect of expected involuntary turnover on knowledge sharing, but a positive effect of turnover intention. The influence of perceived supervisor support (PSS) was two-fold; beyond a direct positive effect on knowledge sharing, PSS buffered the negative relationship between expected involuntary turnover and knowledge sharing. 4.2. Introduction The prevention of knowledge loss in situations where employees leave an organization is becoming more and more of an issue (Ashworth, 2006; Massingham, 2008). It has been long established that knowledge is one of the, if not the most important resource in organizations (Grant, 1996, 1997), and constitutes a basis for competitive advantage, especially when it is successfully applied, transferred, and newly created (Alavi & Leidner, 2001; Argote, Ingram, Levine, & Moreland, 2000; Argote & Ingram, 2000; Szulanski, 1996). Knowledge exists at different levels within the organization, e.g., at the individual, group, or organizational level (Davenport & Prusak, 1998; Nonaka, 1994), but primarily resides in the minds of individual employees (Alavi & Leidner, 2001; Davenport & Prusak, 1998; Nonaka, 1994). Accordingly, losing experienced and knowledgeable employees without retaining their knowledge can be very costly (Ashworth, 2006; DeLong, 2004; Massingham, 2008). Up to now, the literature on knowledge loss has mostly focused on veteran employees who are starting to leave the companies in large numbers as the baby boomer generation reaches retirement age (e.g., Ashworth, 2006; DeLong, 2004; Leibold & Voelpel, 2006). These veteran employees have oftentimes stayed in the same organization for most of their professional careers (e.g., D’Amato & Herzfeldt, 2008; Lancaster & Stillman, 2002) and have gained decades of experience and knowledge which organizations cannot afford to lose. 133
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Knowledge Transfer in Teams and Its
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Acknowledgements Acknowledgements T
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Acknowledgements Last but not least
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General Introduction and of older w
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General Introduction in the smooth
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Outline Outline The core of the pre
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Knowledge, Knowledge Management, an
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Watson, S., & Hewett, K. (2006). A
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