thesis_Daniela Noethen_print final - Jacobs University

Preventing Knowledge Loss When Employees Expect to Leave
Although the retention of retirees’ knowledge is an important aspect of preventing
knowledge loss, other employee groups should not be neglected. Younger employees, for
example recent university graduates, often have knowledge that is more up to date, and that
covers recent developments in the field that have not yet reached the organizations.
Furthermore, there is oftentimes a high degree of specialization in tasks, with the consequence
that there are many experts, who can also be younger employees, who are the only
organization or team members covering a certain field of knowledge. And there is actually a
higher risk for younger employees’ knowledge to be lost to the organization, more
specifically young professionals’ knowledge. First, in contrast to members of older
generations, younger employees tend to be less willing to remain with the organization
(D’Amato & Herzfeldt, 2008). Second, it has been shown that age is generally negatively
related to the probability of changing a job (e.g., Campbell, 1997; Kidd, 1991, 1994), and
third, turnover inclinations have been shown to increase with the level of education (Sousa-
Poza & Henneberger, 2004). Taken together, young professionals seem to have a higher
probability of leaving voluntarily than other employee groups. This shows that efforts to
retain knowledge should not only target older, soon retiring employees, but should also focus
on other groups of (younger) employees, especially those who are at risk of turnover.
One strategy to prevent knowledge loss is to encourage knowledge transfer between those
leaving the organization and their successors or team members (Droege & Hoobler, 2003;
DeLong, 2004; Leibold & Voelpel, 2006), and this before they actually leave (Droege &
Hoobler, 2003). But, depending on the reasons for turnover, e.g., if it is voluntary or
involuntary, employees might be less inclined to make an effort for the organization’s sake
and, thus, less inclined to share their knowledge prior to leaving. Accordingly, to determine if
knowledge transfer can be an appropriate strategy to prevent knowledge loss that works
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