Being perceived as a knowledge sender or knowledge receiver: A multistudy investigation of the effect of age on knowledge transfer

Abstract

As a result of demographic changes, workforces are becoming older and more age diverse. While interactions between workers from different age groups can provide opportunities for mutual learning through bidirectional knowledge transfer, research has yet to investigate how age influences knowledge transfer between age‐diverse colleagues. Building on the organizational theory of age effects, we conducted two studies to examine how age influenced the roles assigned to individuals in knowledge transfer processes, that is, whether they were perceived as knowledge senders or knowledge recipients. In Study 1, we used an experimental vignette design with 450 employees to assess how age affected perceived ability and motivation to share and receive knowledge. Further, we tested the extent to which trustworthiness moderated these relationships. In Study 2, we extended these findings using a dyadic research design with data from 53 age‐diverse knowledge transfer dyads. We examined through which mechanisms the age of one's colleague affected one's knowledge transfer behaviour. We found that the age of one's colleague had a positive effect on one's knowledge receiving behaviour and a negative effect on one's knowledge sharing behaviour. Further, perceived ability to receive knowledge and perceived motivation to share knowledge mediated these effects.

Knowledge transfer in age‐diverse coworker dyads in China and Germany: How and when do age‐inclusive human resource practices have an effect?

“…First, as our study operated at the dyadic level, future studies can complement our results by taking a multilevel perspective and studying the effects of age‐inclusive HR practices on individual‐level knowledge transfer in age‐diverse workforces. For example, researchers may find that individual differences, such as age (Burmeister, Fasbender, & Deller, ), shape the strength of the effect of age‐inclusive HR practices. Second, research on perceived similarity versus actual similarity constitutes a promising avenue for future research because “people react on the bases of perceptions of reality, not reality per se ” (Ferris & Judge, , p. 464).…”

Respectful leadership and followers’ knowledge sharing: A social mindfulness lens

“…Further, we controlled for participants’ age, gender, education, working hours per week, and time pressure at Time 1. We included age as a control variable because older workers tend to have higher generativity motives and may be more likely to engage in knowledge sharing at work (Burmeister et al, 2018b; Fasbender et al, 2016). Participants’ gender (i.e.…”

“…As in Study 1, we controlled for followers' age, gender, education, and working hours per week. Furthermore, we controlled for dyadic tenure as the tenure of dyadic leader-follower relationships can influence the effect strength between dyadic interaction partners (Burmeister et al, 2018b(Burmeister et al, , 2018cNifadkar et al, 2018). Table 3 presents means, standard deviations, and correlations.…”

Consequences of knowledge hiding: The differential compensatory effects of guilt and shame

“…Employees who hide their knowledge (i.e., the information, ideas, and expertise that are relevant for their task fulfilment at work; Bartol & Srivastava, ) by engaging in evasive hiding, playing dumb, and rationalized hiding, deprive other organizational members of the opportunity to learn and co‐create new knowledge. As a consequence, the organizational capability to develop company‐specific expertise might be diminished because organizations can only generate benefits from individually held knowledge when employees make their knowledge available to others within the organization (Burmeister, Fasbender, & Deller, ; Serenko & Bontis, ; Webster et al ., ).…”