thesis_Daniela Noethen_print final - Jacobs University

Intergenerational Knowledge Transfer in Work Teams: A Multilevel Social Network Perspective
The present paper aims to fill this research gap by investigating age effects related to
intergenerational knowledge transfer at three different levels of analysis: the dyadic level (i.e.,
between two employees), the individual level, and the team level, as well as examine
experience as a potential conveying factor of age effects.
3.3. Theoretical Background
Argote and Ingram (2000, p. 151) defined knowledge transfer in organizations as “the process
through which one unit (e.g., group, department, or division) is affected by the experience of
another,” although unit can also be a single employee. Thus, knowledge transfer can be
studied at various levels within the organization (Argote et al., 2000). Knowledge transfer
between single employees, which we define as the process through which one employee
receives knowledge from another, is one of the most basic ways of transferring existing
knowledge (Bock, Zmud, & Kim, 2005; Watson & Hewett, 2006). As the loss of knowledge
starts with the departure of a single employee, and as retirees should transfer their knowledge
to a colleague for the prevention of such knowledge loss, we focus on the inter-individual
level, i.e., the exchange within dyads of employees, for the study of (intergenerational)
knowledge transfer.
We define intergenerational knowledge transfer as the transfer of knowledge between two
employees, namely a source and a recipient (Szulanski, 1996), between whom there is a larger
age difference (although the difference might be smaller than what is usually termed a
generation). This includes the transfer from older to younger employees as well as the transfer
from younger to older employees. With respect to knowledge retention however, the transfer
of the knowledge of older employees, i.e., sources with a higher age, is of special importance.
Accordingly, when considering intergenerational knowledge transfer, our focus is on the
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