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The current article investigates the impact of generational diversity on knowledge sharing and group performance. It, further, explores the moderating effects of intergenerational climate, boundary-spanning leadership, and respect in facilitating greater knowledge sharing and enhanced group performance.

The authors applied partial least square structural equation modeling to test the model, using a sample of 635 employees working in the banking industry.

Results indicate that generational diversity negatively influences knowledge sharing among employees at work. However, the moderating roles of intergenerational climate and boundary-spanning leadership aid in mitigating this negative affect and facilitate knowledge sharing among employees, thereby, resulting in better group performance.

The study extends extant literature on generational diversity and differences by examining its impact on knowledge sharing and group performance. Further, the study also contributes by highlighting intergenerational climate and boundary-spanning leadership as key facilitators in promoting knowledge sharing among employees. Future research may include other industries/contexts to widen the generalizability of the findings and a longitudinal design to ascertain the causal effects.

This study identifies the need to effectively manage multigenerational workforce to capitalize on the unique benefits of each generation. An intergenerational climate free from ageist attitudes and employing leaders possessing boundary-spanning abilities would help organizations to create an inclusive workplace.

The authors attempt to explore the relationship between generational diversity, knowledge sharing, and group performance through the moderating effects of intergenerational climate and boundary-spanning leadership, which has not been studied in the past.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight challenges and opportunities that surround the process of intergenerational learning and knowledge transfer. Several options in this regard have been discussed from the managerial and employee perspective.

The systems approach has been implemented to identify options of intergenerational learning and knowledge transfer that could be valuable when developing a strong individual and organizational body of knowledge with the purpose to avoid the “knowledge crash.”

A review and analysis regarding intergenerational diversity, especially in the light of information and communication technology and social media, has been proposed along with the discussion on possible intergenerational knowledge transfer practices and methods of developing learning agility in all generations though engaging in internal mobility and building communities of practice and learning.

Conclusions and remarks provided in the paper need further empirical testing and validation.

Implications for practitioners, especially mangers, have been identified regarding recommendations for implementing intergenerational knowledge transfer solutions which could benefit all stakeholders – not only younger and senior employees but also managers responsible for pursuing enterprise development based on continuous learning and knowledge sharing.

Implementation of suggestions provided in the paper regarding intergenerational knowledge transfer and learning could result in significant benefits in terms of less intergenerational conflict and stress and greater organizational working cohesion as well as further advancements in organizational learning and knowledge management.

Challenges that surround the process of intergenerational learning and knowledge transfer have been identified along with options to manage this complicated and often delicate processes from the managerial and employee perspective.

Meetings are conducted by increasingly age-diverse participant groups as the workforces in most industrialized economies are aging due to demographic change. There are at least three reasons why meetings constitute a particularly interesting environment to study intergenerational learning processes, defined as individuals’ joint construction of knowledge through an exchange of information with one or more individuals from different age groups. First, meetings allow us to observe a wide variety of interactions that may foster or inhibit intergenerational learning. Second, the interactions taking place in meetings reflect general organizational practices as well as social exchange and age norms. As such, meetings offer a view through the magnifying glass at the age-inclusive or age-discriminating organizational culture which is interwoven with the engagement of different generations in intergenerational learning processes. Third, organizational members use meetings as an arena for strategic interactions to negotiate their current and future status by positioning themselves in relation to their colleagues through social comparisons. This chapter particularly focuses on the latter topic and develops a conceptual model outlining the motivational and emotional coˇnsequences as well as antecedents that link social comparison processes in meetings to intergenerational learning outcomes of participants from different age groups.

Drawing on theories pertaining to knowledge sharing, ageing at work and human resource practices for ageing workers, this article explores knowledge sharing challenges arising from the interaction between an increasingly ageing workforce and younger employees.

Contextually, the authors focus on China, where the pace of demographic transformations offers a unique opportunity to investigate knowledge sharing practices in their socio-economic context. Empirically, the authors analyse knowledge sharing behaviours and practices of retail banking professionals in a Chinese big four bank.

The encouragement of knowledge sharing between younger and older workers should be incorporated into organisations' human resource strategies. The availability of development, maintenance, utilisation and accommodative human resource practices signals to older workers that they are valuable and are worth investing in.

The authors’ contribution to theory and practice is twofold: starting with the identification of perceived knowledge sharing challenges, the authors’ analysis offers important contextually grounded insights into what types of managerial practices are relevant in eliciting successful knowledge sharing within organisations faced with an ageing workforce.

Demographic changes and consequent diversification of teams of employees in organisations require us to change one’s approach to managing human resources and to search for new methods adjusted to contemporary challenges. One of such methods is reverse mentoring. It is a new form of mentoring where the younger employee is the mentor sharing expertise with the older employee. The purpose of this article is to identify advantages that reverse mentoring offers individuals who participate in the mentoring relationship – the younger mentor and the older mentee, and the entire organisation, as well as to identify conditions conducive to revealing desired advantages.

The article presents results of empirical research conducted based on the qualitative method and semi-structured individual interviews. The research focussed on five pairs from five different organisations operating in Poland who applied reverse mentoring as well as managers or human resources managers of these enterprises.

Research results show that reverse mentoring may offer numerous advantages to both individuals engaged in the relation (the mentor and the mentee) and the entire organisation. Thus, reverse mentoring seems to be an efficient tool for sharing knowledge, creating engagement, developing leadership and, first and foremost, building intergenerational relations based on mutual acceptance. Conclusions drawn from the research show that efficacy of reverse mentoring depends on the level of engagement in the mentor/mentee relation and the level of organisational support – engagement of the officers, supportive organisational culture and atmosphere conductive to cooperation.

One of the limitations of the research is the fact that reverse mentoring is not common in Polish organisations, thus the number of the interviews is limited. Furthermore, the data were collected from companies operating in Poland and they refer to one cultural circle. Another limitation is closely connected with the nature of qualitative research, as the research findings may be influenced by the personal perspective of participants.

The paper helps managers to build intergenerational relations. It encourages the use of reverse mentoring by emphasising its various benefits. It also specifies the conditions which need to be taken into consideration in order to increase the chances of enjoying the benefits, especially the necessity to prepare individual development plans adjusted to the needs and expectations of participants, proper selection of pairs for the mentoring relation and sufficient preparation of each party to the relation. This knowledge may be used by practitioners of managing human resources to develop organisational support for mentoring programmes.

The paper presents reverse mentoring as an opportunity for intergenerational knowledge sharing and developing intergenerational cooperation.

The results of the research extend the knowledge in the area of applying reverse mentoring to create intergenerational relationships. So far, this subject has received limited attention in the literature. Since reverse mentoring is not a widespread method, and research in this area is relatively rare, the value of the paper is to fill the gaps in this subject.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze the main strategies used in organizations to enhance intergenerational learning (IGL) and reduce knowledge loss. The emphasis is on universities that have an age layered or nested structure.

The research is based on an integrated approach of literature search, content analysis, survey based on interviews and questionnaires and the analytic hierarchy process method. The research questions are as follows: What is the level of awareness in organizations about knowledge loss and the role of IGL in reducing its consequences? What kind of organizational structure is adequate for promoting IGL? What are the most suitable strategies for enhancing IGL and reducing knowledge loss?

Universities have a nested generational structure, which makes them adequate for IGL. The most used strategies for enhancing IGL are mentoring, intergenerational research teams and intergenerational creativity workshops.

Empirical investigations covered only four universities. Research should be extended to a larger number of universities and also to companies.

Findings are valuable for organizations having an aging workforce and which want to reduce knowledge loss through the IGL process.

The study provides an insight look of how organizations experiencing a workforce aging phenomenon can enhance IGL to reduce knowledge loss.

The purpose of this work is to investigate the relationship between human resources management practices (HRMP) and altruistic helping behaviors (HB) with knowledge sharing behavior (KSB) following a theoretical rationale supported by the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Social Exchange Theory.

The study explores linear and non-linear relationships between the variables to further understand knowledge sharing in the context of prosocial behaviors. The study sample gathers data from 130 employees coming from service sector companies operating in Portugal. The authors analyze the linear relationship following a structural equation model (SEM) approach using a partial least squares (PLS) analysis. Then, the authors conduct a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to analyze non-linear relationships and provide insight over circumstances where the presence and absence of knowledge sharing behavior is achieved.

Quantitative findings show that HRMP positively impacts KSB outcomes. Similarly, HB also positively impacts KSB. Qualitative findings show a single configuration leading to the presence of KSB, corroborating the quantitative results. On the other hand, findings offer multiple alternative configurations leading to the absence of KSB.

Few studies explore the complex combination between HRMP and individual HB impacting knowledge sharing, with lesser studies discussing circumstances leading to the absence of KSB. We explore a) the linear influence of HB and HRMP and, b) their asymmetric combined influence along with employee demographics to better understand KSB complexity – ensuring a conceptual and managerial contribution driving future work and practices.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of generation in teachers’ advice and information-seeking interactions in Flemish secondary school teams, and moreover how the content of advice shapes these interactions. Four content-related advice and information-seeking networks are investigated in this study: subject-matter knowledge, classroom management, innovative teaching methods and ICT.

Data were collected from 660 teachers in ten secondary education schools in Flanders (Belgium) by using an online socio-metric survey. Social network analysis was conducted, more specifically quadratic assignment procedure and multilevel P2 modeling.

The findings underline the importance of investigating content-related advice networks. Generation affects the formation of interactions. First, the results revealed that older teachers are less likely to ask advice on subject-matter knowledge, classroom management and innovative teaching methods. Second, the data showed that older teachers are more likely to be asked for advice on subject-matter knowledge. Third, young teachers are more likely to be asked for advice on innovative teaching methods and ICT. Fourth, homophily effects occurred for the youngest teachers when advice is about subject-matter knowledge, and for the oldest teachers for advice about classroom management.

This study is innovative due to its application of social network analysis to investigate intergenerational knowledge flows, and due to its clear focus on content-related advice-seeking interactions that go beyond the approach of general advice and information-seeking interactions.

This research aims to identify the most suitable intergenerational learning strategies for the private higher education institutions, using the analytic network process.

In order to achieve this goal, two private higher education institutions from Curacao and Spain are analyzed. Data are collected based on a systematic literature review and Delphi studies and processed using the analytic network process.

The results show that teachers also learn at the workplace not only through the formal educational system but also through volunteering activities, mixed-aged teams, and mentoring, which are the most appropriate strategies for fostering intergenerational learning in the private higher education institutions. Besides, their selection is strongly influenced by institution's structural capital (namely, institutional policy, organizational culture, organizational memory) and by employees' psychological profile (such as interpersonal trust, knowledge self-efficiency, motivation).

This research helps the policymakers to prepare for the upcoming aging society by providing them with a viable tool for selecting the most suitable IGL strategy. Furthermore, it supports strategic thinking and scenario development by emphasizing how the situation could change if the importance of the individual and organizational factors varies.