thesis_Daniela Noethen_print final - Jacobs University

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and have been replaced by younger ones without much further ado.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),
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