thesis_Daniela Noethen_print final - Jacobs University

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Furthermore, as I did not preliminarily evaluate if the employees who thought of leaving did actually have knowledge that would create costs if lost, it is questionable in how far results really say something about the appropriateness of knowledge transfer as a strategy to prevent actual knowledge loss. Thus, the results obtained and described in chapter 4 can only give a first clue about the adequacy of day-to-day within team knowledge transfer as a strategy to prevent knowledge loss, but the question as such stands to be answered. 5.3.4. Overall: Knowledge transfer and the prevention of knowledge loss Summing up, the research question that inspired this dissertation has not been satisfactorily responded to, but several parts have been added to the puzzle that constitutes the answer. Nevertheless, adding to the points mentioned in the last three sections and under limitations, it should be noted critically that with the very broad definition of knowledge applied in this research and with measuring the quantity of knowledge seeking and sharing in work teams, it might not even be possible to properly capture the transfer of knowledge that is at risk of being lost. Instead, it might be necessary to use much narrower definitions of knowledge, that are content or job-specific, to really be able to address the research question at hand. Thus, it remains for future research to complete the puzzle and shed more light on predictors of knowledge transfer behaviors as well as their outcome with respect to knowledge loss, as well as on the role intergenerational knowledge transfer might play. Some directions for such future research are presented in the following. 5.4. Future Directions The previous section clearly shows that there are still many open questions with respect to the broader as well as the more specific issues investigated in this dissertation. For example, as already mentioned, a meta-analysis on individual level knowledge transfer would constitute a 186
valuable addition to the existing literature, and would help clarify the picture of predictors of knowledge transfer. Furthermore, intergenerational knowledge transfer seems to be a promising construct for further research with many open questions concerning its divergence from general knowledge transfer (e.g., with respect to predictors), and the opportunities of positive outcomes as well as challenges it might present. But with respect to practical relevance, and the main research question of this dissertation was born out of a very practical problem, the most interesting and most pressing question is, in my opinion, the one concerning the impact of knowledge transfer on knowledge loss, or, framed more broadly, the influence of different prevention strategies on actual knowledge loss. As already mentioned in section 5.3.3., one of the major challenges for investigations to this end is the measurement of knowledge loss. Directly measuring knowledge loss is rather complicated, as this builds on measuring a change in the knowledge base, for example, of a team. And measuring changes in the knowledge of a unit is very challenging, as it entails various problems, e.g., because parts of knowledge are tacit and cannot be captured in verbal assessments (Argote & Ingram, 2000). Thus, a direct measurement of knowledge loss would possibly necessitate an entirely new and creative approach, potentially combining different measurement techniques. Instead, researchers might rather try to capture knowledge loss indirectly via its effects on team processes, productivity, innovation, creativity, etc. To do so, researchers could, for example, build on work on turnover: there is quite a large body of literature on consequence of turnover, for example, the turnover of indispensable employees (Starke, Dyck, & Mauws, 2003). A recent attempt at measuring the effects of knowledge loss has been presented by Massingham (2008), who tried to capture effects on human capital, social capital, structural capital, and relational capital. For a direct, but even more so for an indirect measurement of knowledge loss, it would furthermore be necessary to investigate a 187
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Knowledge Transfer in Teams and Its
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Table of Contents Contents Acknowle
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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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Outline on knowledge sharing, as we
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Knowledge, Knowledge Management, an
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Multilevel Investigation of Anteced
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Intergenerational Knowledge Transfe
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Preventing Knowledge Loss When Empl
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