General information

Due to globalization as well as increased remote work options, the transfer of knowledge within organizations increasingly occurs online. In this paper, we examine how different types of age diversity affect online knowledge search and knowledge transfer. We focus on age diversity as an increasingly important, but often overlooked, dimension of diversity for knowledge transfer within organization. We argue that within any organization there is a large variation of different age-related dimensions, but that the way in which people conceptualize and perceive age may not affect knowledge transfer in the same way. By focusing on two interrelated dimensions of age (generation and employment level), we aim to create a deep level understanding of how age diversity affects online knowledge exchange. Analyzing 5 million dyads across 53 different cohorts in an online business program over 6 years, we find that especially generational diversity between knowledge seekers and knowledge providers hinders effective knowledge exchange, but that this effect can be mitigated if people from different generations share the same employment level. Furthermore, we find that the lack of knowledge exchange is primarily driven by people not viewing content posted by dissimilar others. Hence, while previous research has mainly focused on the cost and benefits of online communications, our results indicate that encouraging diversified viewing behavior might be a crucial factor when aiming to improve online knowledge sharing.

Hybrid seminar

This will be a hybrid seminar. If you are interested in joining this seminar, please send an email to the secretariat of Amsterdam Business School at secbs-abs@uva.nl.