For the sake of my job security: examining the effect of age-based stereotype threat on older workers’ knowledge hiding

Purpose

Organizations can greatly benefit from the transfer of knowledge from older employees to younger generations. However, older workers often hesitate to share their expertise with their younger colleagues. Grounded in conservation of resources theory and the stereotype threat framework, this study aims at examining the negative impact of age-based stereotype threat on organizational knowledge management.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors developed a moderated mediation model and collected data from 219 older workers with a time-lagged design to explore the effect of age-based stereotype threat on older workers’ knowledge hiding.

Findings

The results showed that age-based stereotype threat could lead to knowledge hiding behaviors among older workers due to increased job insecurity, and leader-member exchange can potentially mitigate these effects.

Originality/value

The findings underscore the detrimental effect of age-based stereotype threat on organizational knowledge management and suggest that organizations should foster an age-inclusive environment to facilitate effective intergenerational knowledge transfer.