The effect of subjective age on knowledge sharing in the public sector
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-07-2018-0248 |
| Published date | 18 October 2019 |
| Pages | 303-323 |
| Date | 18 October 2019 |
| Author | Alessandra Lazazzara,Stefano Za |
| Subject Matter | Hr & organizational behaviour,Global hrm |
The effect of subjective age
on knowledge sharing in the
public sector
Alessandra Lazazzara
Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milan, Milan, Italy, and
Stefano Za
Department of Management and Business Administration,
G. d’Annunzio University, Pescara, Italy
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to examine whether subjective age –i.e., how old or young
individuals experience themselves to be –affects explicit and tacit knowledge sharing (KS) in the
public sector. Moreover, the study explores the moderating effect of three socio-organisational factors, namely
KS attitude, co-workers age similarity and organisational structure, on the relationship between subjective
age and KS.
Design/methodology/approach –Data were collected from employees working in public (n¼144) and
hybrid (n¼263) Italian organisations. Hierarchical linear multiple regression analysis was employed to
examine the multivariate effects on explicit and tacit KS.
Findings –Employees who perceive themselves to be older than they actually are experience lower explicit
KS in the public sector. In addition, the moderating effectof age similarity and organisational structure on the
relationship between subjective age and tacit KS was found to be significant.
Practical implications –This study may help managers and policy makers to manage age-diverse
workforce operating in highly structured and formalised organisationsand to develop HR programmes aimed
at fostering KS.
Originality/value –This is the first study linking subjective age to KS in the public sector. This is an
extremely interesting context due to the high average age and oldest workforce composition. In this way,
the paper extends the literature on subjective age and work-related outcomes and may potentially contribute
to the debate regarding KS practices in public organisations.
Keywords Public sector, Quantitative, Knowledge sharing, Organizational structure, Subjective age,
Age similarity, Knowledge sharing attitude
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Among the current major challenges affecting the public sector, one of the most dramatic is
the workforce ageing (Colley, 2014). Baby boomers still represent a significant part of the
working-age population, but organisations will face massive retirement in the coming years.
Indeed, by 2060 most of the Baby Boomers currently employed will have died out (Eurostat,
2011). Although this is a common issue across countries and sectors, its impact is expected
to be most pronounced over the next decades in the public sector of high-income countries
(Pilichowski et al., 2007). This is due to the rapid expansion and massive hiring that this
sector had from the 1970s to the mid-1980s. After that period, the size of the public sector
workforce stabilised but the average age of public employees has always been higher than
those in the private sector. Consequently, the public sector workforce is ageing more rapidly
with many employees now approaching retirement age and exiting the labour market
(Colley, 2014; McKinnon, 2010). As a result, the retention of critical knowledge is becoming
one of the most important challenges for organisations that want to survive in the next
decades (Calo, 2008). Organisational knowledge represents an organisational attribute
based on the collection of knowledge and experience, including procedures, routines and
rules (Cyert and March, 1963; Huber, 1991; Levitt and March, 1988; March et al., 2000;
Personnel Review
Vol. 49 No. 1, 2020
pp. 303-323
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-07-2018-0248
Received 13 July 2018
Revised 1 February 2019
Accepted 8 June 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
303
The effect of
subjective
age on KS
Schulz, 2001). In many cases, knowledge resides in specific individuals, recognised as
experts on particular issues or topics. Therefore, without appropriate knowledge sharing
(KS) practices, organisations risk losing this knowledge when these experienced workers
leave the organisation (Lazazzara and Bombelli, 2011).
Surprisingly, although age is one of the main variables affecting different forms of KS
(Lazazzara andZa, 2016), knowledge management (Massaroet al., 2015) and workforce ageing
(Colley, 2014)have received limited research attentionin the public sector. To fill this gap, the
aim of this study isto analyse the effect of subjectiveage on KS in the public sector. In doing
so, we want also to addressthe recent calls for going beyond chronological age when studying
organisational dynamics (Heckhausen et al., 2010; Kooij et al., 2013). Indeed, the peculiar age
structure and the organisational specificities of the public sector may influence how old
employees feel (Lawrence, 2004) and, as a consequence, their KS behaviour.
Subjective age is commonly defined as how old or young individuals experience
themselves to be (Montepare and Lachman, 1989). Indeed, individuals may experience
having a certain age, which may be higher, lower or equal to their chronological age (Barak,
2009; Barak and Stern, 1986). Individuals of the same chronological age may in fact attribute
different meanings to their age. This may result in better health, vitality and performance
when they feel younger than their chronological age (Kunze et al., 2015; Montepare, 2009;
Stephan et al., 2012; Teuscher, 2009), or more job-related strain when they feel older
(Barnes-Farrell et al., 2002).
The research questions addressed in this paper are:
RQ1. What is the relationship between subjective age and KS in the public sector?
RQ2. Which socio-organisational factors influence such relationship?
We rely on two theories, selection, optimisation and compensation theory (SOC) (Baltes and
Baltes, 1990) and socioemotional selectivity theory (SST) (Carstensen, 1991, 1993), to argue
that, in the public sector, employees feeling older than their real age may share less
knowledge because they are more prevention and maintenance focused (Ebner et al., 2006;
Kooij et al., 2013; Lazazzara and Za, 2016). Moreover, we analysed the influence of several
socio-organisational factors on the relationship between subjective age and KS (Bock et al.,
2005; Chen and Huang, 2007; Razmerita et al., 2016). Specifically, we explored the
moderating effect of KS attitude, as a form of intrinsic motivation (Wang and Hou, 2015),
co-workers’age similarity, as a measure of demographic diversity (Tsui and Gutek, 1999;
Williams and O’Reilly, 1998) and organisational structure, as a proxy for the degree of
centralisation and formalisation (Pee and Kankanhalli, 2016). We collected empirical data
from a sample of Italian public employees (n¼407). The country has the highest median age
Europe with an average age of 46.3 years old (Eurostat, 2019); the average age of public
employees is 51 years old for women and 49 years old for men (ARAN, 2017). Therefore, the
facilitation of KS in this context is even more crucial and challenging (see Lazazzara and
Bombelli, 2011).
Overall, our findings make several interesting contributions. First, by examining the
effect of subjective age on KS in the public sector, we demonstrate its role in determining KS.
This study is the first to explore this relationship and it can therefore potentially open
new frontiers within the subjective age and knowledge management research fields. As a
practical contribution, this study can make managers and policy makers more aware of the
existence of relevant age-related constructs affecting KS. Indeed, the identification of drivers
for KS within the public sector may help managers dealing with workforce ageing and an
age-diverse workforce to foster KS focusing on subjective age when designing knowledge
management or other HR practices (Kooij et al., 2013). Moreover, it can provide useful
suggestions in order to maximise the collaborative climate within age-diverse teams by
stimulating employees to feel younger than their chronological age (Kunze et al., 2015).
304
PR
49,1
To continue reading
Request your trial