Department

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Dept. of Psychology

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

Intergenerational workplaces contain multiple generations (Iweins et al., 2013) contributing to an organization’s climate with unique challenges as employees learn to work together despite generational barriers. With employees having increased career lengths and average lifespans, intergenerational workplaces are more prevalent, and the benefits of an age-diverse workplace cannot be understated (e.g., increased creativity, Backes-Gellner et al., 2011, increased decision-making capabilities Wegge et al., 2008). Knowledge management research has considered knowledge sharing within intergenerational teams, suggesting that age may be an important factor when considering employee’s knowledge sharing (Fasbender & Gerpott, 2021), but not explicitly knowledge hiding. Further, given there are many routes that age can have an influence on workplace processes, there have yet to be studies to consider the relationship between intergenerational contact and knowledge hiding. The current study investigates the moderating role of intergenerational contact between perceptions of organizational justice, age, and knowledge hiding. Additionally, we examine how knowledge hiding may subsequently impact exit, voice, loyalty, and neglect (EVLN). This study aims to address how issues arise in age-diverse organizations and how knowledge is effectively transferred to develop healthier age-diverse workplaces. This study considers the role of age, organizational justice, and intergenerational contact as predictors of knowledge hiding facets: playing dumb, evasive hiding, and rationalized hiding. Additionally, intergenerational contact, a subfactor of the workplace intergenerational climate scale (WICS) is expected to moderate the relationship between organizational justice and knowledge hiding. Further, the impact of knowledge hiding on EVLN is considered as differing knowledge hiding facets may impact these behaviors differently. For instance, evasive hiding may lead to increased neglect and rationalized hiding may lead to more loyalty. Data will be collected in a cross-sectional survey with a sample of 500 full-time workers obtained via CloudResearch’s Connect. Measures will include chronological age, WICS (King & Bryant, 2016), organizational justice (Colquitt, 2001), knowledge hiding (Connelly et al., 2012), and EVLN factors (Rusbult et al., 1982; Hirschman, 1970). Moderated mediation will be used. If the proposed model is accepted, the theoretical implications will situate more than chronological age within the knowledge management space by suggesting that age-diverse climates should be considered in knowledge management behaviors. Subsequently, the current study will identify facets of knowledge hiding that could warn employers about different workplace outcomes, like turnover. For practice, there may be ways to promote intergenerational contact within the workplace and alleviate knowledge hiding to provide recommendations for helping different aged workers.

Subject

Industrial and organizational psychology

Document Type

posters

Language

English

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Minding the Intergenerational Gap: The Impact of Age on Knowledge Hiding and Organizational Justice

Intergenerational workplaces contain multiple generations (Iweins et al., 2013) contributing to an organization’s climate with unique challenges as employees learn to work together despite generational barriers. With employees having increased career lengths and average lifespans, intergenerational workplaces are more prevalent, and the benefits of an age-diverse workplace cannot be understated (e.g., increased creativity, Backes-Gellner et al., 2011, increased decision-making capabilities Wegge et al., 2008). Knowledge management research has considered knowledge sharing within intergenerational teams, suggesting that age may be an important factor when considering employee’s knowledge sharing (Fasbender & Gerpott, 2021), but not explicitly knowledge hiding. Further, given there are many routes that age can have an influence on workplace processes, there have yet to be studies to consider the relationship between intergenerational contact and knowledge hiding. The current study investigates the moderating role of intergenerational contact between perceptions of organizational justice, age, and knowledge hiding. Additionally, we examine how knowledge hiding may subsequently impact exit, voice, loyalty, and neglect (EVLN). This study aims to address how issues arise in age-diverse organizations and how knowledge is effectively transferred to develop healthier age-diverse workplaces. This study considers the role of age, organizational justice, and intergenerational contact as predictors of knowledge hiding facets: playing dumb, evasive hiding, and rationalized hiding. Additionally, intergenerational contact, a subfactor of the workplace intergenerational climate scale (WICS) is expected to moderate the relationship between organizational justice and knowledge hiding. Further, the impact of knowledge hiding on EVLN is considered as differing knowledge hiding facets may impact these behaviors differently. For instance, evasive hiding may lead to increased neglect and rationalized hiding may lead to more loyalty. Data will be collected in a cross-sectional survey with a sample of 500 full-time workers obtained via CloudResearch’s Connect. Measures will include chronological age, WICS (King & Bryant, 2016), organizational justice (Colquitt, 2001), knowledge hiding (Connelly et al., 2012), and EVLN factors (Rusbult et al., 1982; Hirschman, 1970). Moderated mediation will be used. If the proposed model is accepted, the theoretical implications will situate more than chronological age within the knowledge management space by suggesting that age-diverse climates should be considered in knowledge management behaviors. Subsequently, the current study will identify facets of knowledge hiding that could warn employers about different workplace outcomes, like turnover. For practice, there may be ways to promote intergenerational contact within the workplace and alleviate knowledge hiding to provide recommendations for helping different aged workers.