The knowledge management of older workers: Younger workers' perspectives

Abstract

With regard to projections of demographic trends, the knowledge management among workers over age 50 is relevant and useful in practice. In the Czech Republic, as elsewhere, there are still stereotypical beliefs about older workers. These stereotypes emphasize the health and social aspects of workers age 50+ in the labour market, resulting in the fact that this age group of workers becomes unpopular and unattractive to the organizations which prefer youth. The research presented in this paper promotes a positive view of older workers based on their knowledge and qualifications, which are still often overlooked and undervalued. Knowledge and skills as important parts of older workers' qualifications represent their main work potential. Thanks to years of experience, workers over age50possess knowledge and skills which are often crucial to the organization's development and success. Considering the fact that older workers generally possess a company's essential knowledge, practices of knowledge management should be focused also on these workers. With respect to this fact, inasmuch as knowledge management has a human (social) dimension, it may be seen as a part of strategic human resource management within a company. Human resource management strategies focusing on workers over age 50 and an appreciation of their knowledge and skills are rarely evinced. The organization either does not identify this potential at all (because it is not considered important) or works with this potential insufficiently and unsystematically. For this paper, a questionnaire was prepared and data were collected from employees under age 50 within personnel departments, management positions as well as administrative staff and production workers. The aim of this paper is to present the survey results and to determine how younger employees perceive older workers' knowledge in terms of organizational value, what they think about the possibility of older workers' training and development, and how they view retirement. Several additional topics are discussed as well, e.g., the possibility of older workers' career progression or their willingness to learn from younger ones. Results of the survey show that younger workers consider older workers to be valuable company resources. However, their opinion about older workers' training and development is not so positive. The survey results break down the stereotypes against older workers in society and also represent a useful part of a pilot study within one of the author's dissertation focusing on knowledge management (as a part of human resource management) among workers age 50+. The paper is related to the authors' involvement in the grant project TACR OMEGA TD No. 010129, the performance potential of workers age 50+ and specific forms of human resource management in a company.