A Study on Senior Employees’ Intergenerational Knowledge Transfer Intention:The Roles of Meaning in Life and Developmental Stage in Life
WANG Changyu1,2,ZUO Meiyun3
1. School of Business, Jiangnan University of China 2. School of Business, Renmin University of China 3. School of Information, Renmin University of China
Abstract:Knowledge continuity is critical to organization sustainable development; and passing organizational knowledge from senior to younger employees is the key to successful knowledge continuity. Thus, it is necessary to conduct a study on the older employees’ intention of participating in Intergenerational Knowledge Transfer (IGKT). From the perspective of Socio-emotional Selectivity Theory, this study analyzes the different roles of two sub constructs of meaning in life (the search for meaning in life, the presence of meaning in life) in IGKT intention of senior employees who are in different psychological developmental stages in life (middle adulthood, and late adulthood). Smart Pls 2.0 is used to analyze 121 samples to examine the proposed hypotheses. The results show that, the presence of meaning in life is positively related to IGKT intention of senior employees in middle adulthood and late adulthood, but it is more closely related to IGKT intention of the senior employees in late adulthood compared with senior employees in middle adulthood. The search for meaning in life is not significantly related to senior employees in late adulthood, but related to senior employees in middle adulthood. The findings enrich the current research of IGKT and generativity theory. They are also enlightening for the intergenerational knowledge transfer in organizations.
汪长玉 左美云. 年长员工代际知识转移意愿研究:人生意义与人生发展阶段的影响[J]. 商业经济与管理, 2017, 37(9): 24-33.
WANG Changyu ZUO Meiyun. A Study on Senior Employees’ Intergenerational Knowledge Transfer Intention:The Roles of Meaning in Life and Developmental Stage in Life. Journal of Business Economics, 2017, 37(9): 24-33.