thesis_Daniela Noethen_print final - Jacobs University

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General Introduction General Introduction In today’s “knowledge society”, knowledge and its application are the basis of power and the key to success (Drucker, 1993). For organizations, knowledge has come to be one of the most important assets, a productive resource that yields competitive advantage (Alavi & Leidner, 2001; Argote & Ingram, 2000; Argote, Ingram, Levine, & Moreland, 2000; Szulanski, 1996). In the management literature, this idea of knowledge as the most important productive resource is called the knowledge-based view of the firm (Grant 1996, 1997; Spender, 1996), and researchers from different fields have shown empirically that the creation and dissemination of knowledge leads to better performance at the individual, team, and firm level (Collins & Smith, 2006; Cummings, 2004; Darr, Argote, & Epple, 1995; Mesmer-Magnus & DeChurch, 2009; Quigley, Tesluk, Locke, & Bartol, 2007; van Wijk, Jansen, & Lyles, 2008). Thus, knowledge has to be managed, i.e., created, captured, organized, accessed, and used (Dalkir, 2005), so that organizations can take advantage of and use this most precious resource knowledge. There is at least one circumstance, however, that threatens parts of such valuable knowledge, and that is the demographic change. The demographic change, which we are facing in most of the industrialized countries, is affecting a wide array of issues at the societal and personal level. But it does not only affect pension plans, create jobs in the care and health industries, or alter the target groups of advertising; the demographic change has very specific consequences for organizations and their workforces as well. It leads to larger cohorts of older employees and extended work lives for older workers (Leibold & Voelpel, 2006; Ng & Feldmann, 2008; Vaupel & Loichinger, 2006). These changes within the workforce call for health issues to be solved, especially where labor is physically strenuous; hiring and further training of older employees becomes a must, entailing the necessity of changes in routines and procedures so far mostly targeting young applicants and learners; negative images of aging 8
General Introduction and of older workers have to be dealt with and fought, and age diversity has to be managed. And these are just a few examples. For knowledge management, the larger cohorts of older employees are a major problem as they now begin to reach retirement age. Thus, big waves of employees are about to leave organizations and will take with them all the knowledge and experience gathered during decades of employment. If no measures are taken, this valuable knowledge is lost to the organizations. This can incur immense costs by inducing a reduction in the capacity to innovate, threatening the ability to pursue growth strategies, reducing efficiency, and giving competitors an advantage (DeLong, 2004; Leibold & Voelpel, 2006). Of course, one might argue that older employees have always been leaving organizations and have been replaced by younger ones without much further ado. Therefore, a few more retirees should not constitute such a problem. The present situation, however, is not only characterized by a large wave of retiring employees, but there are several other circumstances, partly also related to the demographic change, that magnify the risk of knowledge loss, and turn it into a serious problem. First, career paths of the younger generations are changing. While for the generation of employees who are now starting to retire it was characteristic to stay in the same company for most of their working lives, younger employees nowadays tend to be less willing to remain with the organization (e.g., D’Amato & Herzfeldt, 2008; Lancaster & Stillman, 2002). Thus, not only are knowledgeable older workers leaving the organizations, but there are additionally more turnover incidents from younger experts to deal with. Consequently, there is even more knowledge at risk of being lost today. Second, the demographic change does not only entail larger cohorts of older employees, but also fewer younger workers entering the workforce (Leibold & Voelpel, 2006; Vaupel & Loichinger, 2006). Although there is some debate as to whether the demographic change will, for this reason, lead to a significant labor shortage (DeLong, 2004; Leibold & Voelpel, 2006), 9
Page 1 and 2: Knowledge Transfer in Teams and Its
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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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the demographic change. Accordingly
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analysis was dyadic knowledge trans
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questions. The limitations that wil
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would be very different than for a
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“there are situations where knowl
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employing the distinctions recommen
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valuable addition to the existing l
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covers a very specific area of know
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the importance of including lower l
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Foss, N. J., Husted, K., & Michailo
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Watson, S., & Hewett, K. (2006). A
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