Knowledge is Walking Out the Door: Senior employees’ experiences of knowledge retention

Abstract

Age Management has never been as important as today. The ongoing demographic change, with populations aging rapidly in developed countries, has made that organizations currently are struggling with a large number of workers retiring. A large loss of workers does not only mean a loss in bodies but also a loss in key competences that can be difficult to replace. Previous research has examined organizational, societal and managerial efforts in retaining knowledge but there is a lack of studies considering senior employees’ efforts and experiences. This study, based on a field study at a Swedish multinational company, contributes to previous research by studying knowledge retention in regards to retirement from a senior perspective. Findings indicate that knowledge retention is a situated learning process in which knowledge is retained through daily interactions among employees. Therefore, knowledge will only contribute to organizational performance if it is perceived as valuable in the social context in which knowledge retention takes place. This study illustrates the importance of considering the situated aspects of knowledge to prevent valuable knowledge from walking out the door.