thesis_Daniela Noethen_print final - Jacobs University

Intergenerational Knowledge Transfer in Work Teams: A Multilevel Social Network Perspective
transfer from older to younger employees, and following DeLong (2004), we assume that to
prevent knowledge loss, an increased intergenerational knowledge transfer is necessary.
Intergenerational knowledge transfer can occur in various organizational settings, such as
in mentoring relationships (Allen, Eby, Poteet, Lentz, & Lima, 2004), in joint further training
of younger and older employees, and, of course, in daily work activities within more or less
age diverse teams (Hagestad & Uhlenberg, 2005). Although all of these settings might be
interesting to study, we will focus on day-to-day work in teams, as this is the most natural and
surely most frequent of the possible settings and exists in all kinds of organizations, no matter
of what size. More specifically, we will focus on work teams that work together on a longterm
basis in contrast to project teams, which are created for only a few months and then
dissolved.
In the following, drawing on theories and results from life-span psychology
(intergenerational relations, age stereotypes) and organizational behavior (organizational
citizenship behavior, contextual performance, diversity), we will argue that intergenerational
knowledge transfer is prominent in teams in terms of an influence of age on knowledge
transfer at different levels. The proposed relationships are then summarized in a research
model. In a next step, we will demonstrate how a social network approach can be employed to
test this model, followed by the description of an empirical survey study conducted to this
end. Results are then discussed on the basis of the presented theoretical framework.
3.3.1. Knowledge transfer from older to younger (intergenerational knowledge
transfer)
The idea that older and more experienced individuals are inclined to pass on their knowledge
to younger generations is not new. About 60 years ago, Erikson (1950) introduced the concept
of generativity within the framework of his life-span theory. Generativity, which is loosely
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