Will Senior Employees Be Willing to Voluntarily Transfer Their Knowledge to Younger Employees? The Effect of Perceived Age Discrimination and Organizational Identification

Abstract

This research focuses on the important issues of age discrimination and intergenerational knowledge transfer. Through online questionnaire method, where 291 effective responses were acquired, this research found that perceived age discrimination by senior employees was negatively related to their intention to transfer their knowledge to younger employees. This negatively effect was fully mediated by organizational identification, where perceived age discrimination was negatively related to organizational identification while organizational identification was positively related to intergenerational knowledge transfer intention. This research made theoretical contribution by linking the two important issues, age discrimination and intergenerational knowledge transfer, as well as by identifying the underlying mechanism for this linkage. The research would hopefully help manager in workplace to encourage senior employees to transfer knowledge to younger employees, by providing a more respectful workplace for senior employees.