CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 100Retirement, Disability, and EmploymentKnowledge Management and SharingHuman Resource and Talent Management

Knowledge Retention From Older and Retiring Workers: What Do We Know, and Where Do We Go From Here?

Burmeister, Anne, Deller, Jürgen·2016·Work, Aging and Retirement
DOI 10.1093/workar/waw002
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

The aging and shrinking of skilled workforces already has been, and will continue to be, a major challenge for organizations, particularly in highly developed economies. In light of the massive wave of retirements of members of the baby boomer generation, the retention of valuable organizational knowledge from older and retiring workers has been identified as an urgent need. Surprisingly, research on this specific area of knowledge transfers in organizations is scarce, the nature and antecedents of the knowledge retention process are not yet well understood, and an integrated conceptual framework is missing. As a first step to address these limitations, we conducted a systematic literature review. We summarized the existing literature on knowledge retention according to the 4 main antecedents of knowledge transfers: knowledge, individual, relationship, and contextual characteristics. Furthermore, we examined the nature of the knowledge retention process and identified theories that can explain the proposed relationships. We developed a conceptual framework of knowledge retention that specifies the most relevant antecedents, clarifies how this process unfolds, and summarizes the theoretical foundations. Finally, we utilized the conceptual framework to propose research questions, to identify avenues for future research, and to derive implications for practitioners.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1093/workar/waw002

Cites

134 of 134 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

6 of the 140 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Burmeister, A., & Deller, J.
Affiliations
Leuphana University of Lüneburg (DE)
ORCID
Venue
Work, Aging and Retirement
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published
2016-02-16
Volume
2
Issue
2
Pages
87-104
ISSN
  • 2054-4642 (ISSN-L)
  • 2054-4650
DOI
10.1093/workar/waw002
OpenAlex
W2341430644
Cited by
100
References
140
Citations by year
2026: 10 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 1
FWCI
23.42
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Work Aging and Retirement (publishedVersion)
  • Multilingual Matters (Channel View Publications) (publishedVersion)
  • BORIS (University Library Bern) (submittedVersion)
  • HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Demography › Retirement, Disability, and Employment
  • Social Sciences › Communication › Knowledge Management and Sharing
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Human Resource and Talent Management
Keywords
knowledge retention, older workers, baby boomers, aging workforce, knowledge transfer, conceptual framework, organizational knowledge, intergenerational knowledge transmission

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review