Factors affecting knowledge transfer between young and old employees at an engineering company in Cape Town

Abstract

The engineering industry is dealing with an ageing workforce around the world, which has a negative influence on the industry as it loses experienced workers, skills, enormous organisational knowledge and innovation targets as a result of retiring staff. Consequently, firms must engage in business transactions that increase collaborative networks and planned communication in order to accelerate knowledge transfer and sharing to achieve organisational goals. Even as more and more young people enter the engineering sector, several obstacles prevent them from enhancing their knowledge and skills in this field. The vast majority of ageing artisans find it difficult to mentor and pass on knowledge to younger artisans. Academic research has primarily focused on the interactions of these individuals' perceptions of one another, while knowledge transfer systems have been overlooked. As a result, corporations are unable to invest in research and development of new ideas, and young artisans and industry workers are unable to be more innovative. The study of factors influencing knowledge transfer focuses primarily on tacit knowledge transfer and psychological elements to improve information transfer systems as well and serve as a motivating goal to accelerate knowledge transfer. To gain a deeper understanding of the factors that influence knowledge transfer via tacit knowledge between young and old artisans at an engineering firm, a mixed methods approach was used, while a semi-structured survey questionnaire and (in-depth) interviews were employed to collect data from 71 participants. The study recommends future research recognise a set of factors affecting knowledge transfer between young and old employees that can be used to create a framework called Knowledge Window Effect Transfer (KWETRA). This study provides useful insights into tacit knowledge that could be strategically aligned with company goals.