Knowledge sharing as an intervention
for Gen Y employees’ intention to stay
Mohammad Faraz Naim and Usha Lenkla
Mohammad Faraz Naim is
based at Indian Institute of
Technology, Roorkee, India.
Usha Lenkla is based at
Department of Management
Studies, Indian Institute of
Technology, Roorkee, India.
PAGE 142 j INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL TRAINING
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the relationship between knowledge sharing, competency
development, affective commitment, and Gen Y employees’ intention to stay.
Design/methodology/approach – Based on a review of extant literature and using social exchange, and
social constructivist approach, this study develops a theoretical rationale behind developing a conceptual
framework to retain employees of the Gen Y segment.
Findings – Knowledge sharing in the organization has a great potential to foster competency development
and generate a sense of affective commitment and intention to stay of employees of Gen Y.
Research limitations/implications – A conceptual framework of knowledge sharing for competency
development could assist HR managers in fine-tuning their retention strategy for Gen Y employees. The future
work should carry out the empirical validation of the suggested conceptual framework.
Practical implications – Organizations should focus on knowledge sharing to enhance absorptive capacity,
which fosters competency development. The framework suggests an approach of generation-specific
retention strategy.
Originality/value – This study contributes to the literature in human resources pertaining to knowledge
sharing as a competency development intervention and develops a linkage between knowledge sharing and
Gen Y employees’ intention to stay. The study is one of the first of its kind to address knowledge sharing and
competency development in the context of Gen Y retention.
Keywords Affective commitment, Knowledge sharing, Gen Y, Competency, Intention to stay
Paper type Conceptual paper
Introduction
In today’s competitive and ever-changing business environment, retaining and developing
talent is central concern of organizations. Workforce mobility has become a frequent
phenomenon. One of the reasons is atypical characteristics of present workforce, comprising
of Baby boomers (1946-1960), Gen X (1961-1980) and Gen Y (1981-2000). Baby boomers
are nearing retirement and Gen X would be retiring in another few years. By 2030, 75 percent
of the global workforce will comprise of Gen Y. They are future workforce around the globe
with inherently different personality, attitude, behavior, and work values from baby
boomers and Gen X (Howe and Strauss, 2000). Therefore, motivational needs of Gen Y
needs examination for designing interventions for their retention through intense scrutiny of
extant literature.
In total, 91 focus group interviews of hospitality employees reports that Gen Y employees are
optimistic, prefer teamwork, and trust their colleagues (Gursoy et al., 2008). While boomers
respect authority and are patient with career advancement, Gen X challenges the authority and
is less patient with recognition and promotion. Likewise, another study reveals significant
differences in personality traits and motivational needs of Gen Y from its predecessors.
They are achievement oriented and motivated by growth needs, than that of power as desired
by Gen X and baby boomers (Wong et al., 2008). The catalysts behind these differences are
j VOL. 48 NO. 3 2016, pp. 142-148, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 0019-7858 DOI 10.1108/ICT-01-2015-0011
 varied life events witnessed by Gen Y during their socio-cognitive development. Raised
in a technologically advanced era, they are attuned to using technology (Naim, 2014).
They have affinity for social media for instant information and updating themselves. They seek
meaningful and challenging assignments to develop their professional competencies (Twenge,
2010). They are entrepreneurial by nature and exhibit risk taking, independent decision making,
and out-of-the-box thinking. They are called as “High maintenance generation” as they seek
autonomy, rewards and variety in work, and scope for learning and development to meet
their growth needs of self-esteem and self-actualization (Martin, 2005). Their quest is for
continuous learning by acquiring competencies and stay self-marketable. Therefore,
recognizing developmental needs of Gen Y and designing interventions to maintain their
efficiency is vital for organizations. Gen Y display relationship ethics and prefer to work in
collaborative environment because of the grooming to work in team projects at school/college
level (Twenge, 2010). Vygotsky’s (1962) social constructivist approach also supports that
learning is facilitated by social interactions. This leads to the cognitive development of
employees in terms of professional and social competencies. Professional growth is manifested
through enhanced decision making and problem solving abilities. Social interaction through
dialogue and enquiry promotes social competencies such as communication, negotiation,
collaboration, and interpretation.
They seek employment that offers opportunities for learning and career progression (Terjesen
et al., 2007). Their differences in personality and motivators leave no craze for job security,
hence they switch jobs frequently to satisfy their higher order needs (Kim et al., 2009).
To address this challenge, organizations emphasize on learning and development of Gen Y
employees. One of the ways to induce their learning behavior is through enhancement of
absorptive capacity, which is an individual’s ability and motivation to learn by acquiring
knowledge through acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation (Zahra and
George, 2002). It is strengthened by knowledge creation process of socialization,
externalization, combination, and internalization (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). Overall,
absorptive capacity of incumbents can be enhanced through knowledge sharing that promotes
competency development (Liao et al., 2007). Through social exchanges, employees gain
knowledge from peers thereby increasing their learning abilities. Also when employees perceive
that their organization’s focus is on knowledge sharing they feel motivated to learn, ultimately
developing their competencies. They feel attached and committed with the organization
causing intention to stay forth. In other words, when Gen Y employees foresee their career
growth and employability skill enhancement, they develop a sense of affective commitment to
the organization, which in turn, translates as intention to stay.
This study presents a conceptual framework to explore this relationship from the perspective of
social exchange theory. This theory states that all social relationships are formed, sustained
or severed based on the perceived cost-benefit analysis (Emerson, 1976). A sense of
reciprocity develops between two individuals, when there is mutual benefit in the transaction
causing positive psychological responses of commitment and intention to stay (Coyle-Shapiro
and Kessler, 2000).
This work will help in understanding the rationale behind linkage of knowledge sharing and Gen Y
employees’ intention to stay forth in the organization. This study opens new vistas on exploring
knowledge sharing from behavioral aspects, i.e. how knowledge sharing can influence employee
behavioral responses. While intention to stay has been the subject of academic and practitioner
interest, but so far no academic study relates it with knowledge sharing in context of Gen Y
employees. The paper begins with a review on knowledge sharing, followed by development of a
conceptual framework, and finally discussion with implications for practice.

“[…] all social relationships are formed, sustained

or severed based on the perceived cost-benefit
analysis.”

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 Literature review
Understanding knowledge sharing
Knowledge is recognized as a strategic resource of an organization. It is defined as an
understanding or awareness in the form of belief and judgment, achieved through learning or
experience (Davenport et al., 1998). In organizational context, knowledge comprises of
explicit and implicit knowledge (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). Explicit knowledge is an objective
knowledge that can be articulated and documented, whereas implicit knowledge is the subjective
knowledge that resides in the minds, cultures and experiences within the organization.
Implicit knowledge encompasses employees’ skills, expertise, events, and experiences.
Therefore employees should exhibit willingness to share and communicate their knowledge in
order to reinforce organizational learning (Hislop, 2003).

Knowledge sharing is considered to be the central element of knowledge management practice.

It is the process of dissemination of knowledge in an organization (Bock et al., 2005). It is a
behavioral phenomenon that involves information exchange and knowledge creation among
employees, groups, and organization through socialization, externalization, combination, and
internalization (Van den Hooff and De Ridder, 2004b). Knowledge sharing takes place when an
individual is willing to share and acquire knowledge from others, resulting in building
competencies. Moreover, it is accompanied by socio-cognition perspectives whereby
employees develop social relationships, exchange knowledge, insights and experiences
assisting their cognitive development. In broad sense, it is facilitated by social interactions that
involve dialogue and enquiry, leading to competency development. There are two facets of
knowledge sharing, namely, knowledge donating and collecting (Van den Hooff and De Ridder,
2004b). Knowledge donating is the individual willingness to disseminate their personal
knowledge or skills to others, whereas knowledge collecting is to persuade others to share
their knowledge assets. Both these aspect of knowledge sharing boosts competencies of
initiative taking, opportunity identification, problem solving, questioning, interpreting,
communicating, conceptual and analytical skills.

The extant research on knowledge sharing is focussed more on its antecedents and impact on
organizational performance (Hsu, 2008; Van den Hooff and De Ridder, 2004b). However the
impact of knowledge sharing in shaping positive employee outcomes, namely, intention to stay is
largely unexplored. The conceptual framework addresses this gap by developing proposed
relationship between knowledge sharing and Gen Y’s intention to stay. It further explores
the relationship between knowledge sharing and competency development of employees of
Gen Y, which results in affective commitment, in turn translating to intention to stay forth.

Conceptual framework and propositions

Knowledge sharing and competency development
Competencies are observable knowledge, skills, attitude, aptitude, and behaviors required to
perform a job successfully. These are success factors that differentiate top-performers from
others and contribute to organizational effectiveness (Kennedy and Dresser, 2005).
Competency development is an organizational initiative to foster employees’ proficiency in
handling job responsibilities, to maintain or enhance their career, learning, and functional
expertise (Forrier et al., 2009).

Knowledge sharing’s positive influence on organizational performance is achieved through its

enhancement of employees’ skills. A qualitative study conducted on 20 Chinese HR
professionals reveals that knowledge sharing nurtures and supports learning, and career
advancement leading to competency development (Wang-Cowham, 2011). More importantly, an
emphasis on knowledge sharing fosters individual learning, organizational learning, and
innovation (King, 2009; Swift and Hwang, 2013). In order to nurture knowledge sharing in the
organization, it is critical to promote social interactions among employees. Social interactions
involve exchange of knowledge, skills, and expertise, in turn, creates a learning environment,
which reinforces organization-wide learning. Importantly, as Gen Y employees are new to

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organizations and lack work experience, hence when they work together with peers in project
teams, they gain valuable organizational insights, knowledge, and experience. This results in
building their professional competencies such as decision making, opportunity identification,
analytical aptitude, strategic acumen; social competencies such as negotiation, interpersonal
skills, initiative taking, networking, and collaboration; personal competencies such as leadership,
emotional self-control, internal locus of control, self-confidence, and achievement motivation.
In addition, Gen Y employees continuously seek learning and developmental opportunities to
ensure their career success and progression. Therefore, they will quickly embrace knowledge
sharing to gain business insights, experiences, and knowledge and share with peers
in anticipation that they will reciprocate. Thus, knowledge sharing will have a profound effect
on competency development of Gen Y employees. In similar vein, it can be proposed that
employees’ competencies are more likely to develop in the organization with knowledge sharing
culture. Therefore, we propose:
P1. Knowledge sharing will have a positive influence on competency development of Gen Y
employees.
Competency development and affective commitment
Affective commitment is an employee’s sense of emotional attachment, identification and
involvement with the employing organization (Meyer and Allen, 1991). Organizations offering
developmental opportunities to enhance employees’ competencies, earn a sense of emotional
bonding and experience better retention rates (Samuel and Chipunza, 2009). In particular, skill
and capacity development of employees are vital to generate affective commitment (Hay, 2002).
This factor is most relevant to Gen Y employees who harbor an ambition to succeed and have
learning goal orientation; hence they are more likely to participate in developmental initiatives
(Godshalk and Sosik, 2003). Another study confirms that nurses with knowledge sharing
opportunities gain new knowledge, in turn satisfying their self-actualization and self-development
needs and exhibit low propensity to leave (Jacobs and Roodt, 2007).

Moreover, when an organization exhibits care and concern for employees and offer avenues for
development in a compelling employee value proposition, it satisfies their higher order needs of
self-esteem, and self-actualization and generates reciprocal behavioral outcome of affective
commitment. Furthermore, it also improves perceived organizational support, which in
accordance to social exchange theory, positively influences the affective commitment
(Eisenberger et al., 1986). Therefore, we propose:
P2. Competency development will have a positive influence on affective commitment of Gen Y
employees.
Affective commitment and intention to stay
Intention to stay is the tendency of employees to remain with their current organization (Currivan,
2000). It exhibits an employee’s willingness to continue employment with the organization (Lyons,
1971). It can be assessed through certain factors categorized as individual, work-related, and work
environment factors. Individual factors are motivation, work attitudes of engagement, commitment,
and satisfaction. Work-related factors are training and development opportunities. Work
environment factors are supervisor support, conducive culture, and organizational justice (Meyer
and Allen, 1991). In context of Gen Y employees, intention to stay is generated, when they perceive
personal and professional development. In other words, when the organization offers developmental
opportunities to enhance their personal, social and professional competencies, it demonstrates its
commitment toward them and nurtures a sense of emotional attachment; leading to building
affective commitment. This affective commitment ultimately translates to intention to stay.

In this vein learning can be a strategy to retain Gen Y employees as they have strong tendencies to
learn and grow. In addition, organizational commitment, particularly, affective commitment is shown
to be a strong determinant of intention to stay as an employee shows emotional bonding with the
organization, it results in a desire to stay forth (Ghosh et al., 2013). Therefore, we propose:

P3. Development of affective commitment will have a positive influence on intention to stay with
the organization (Figure 1).

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 Figure 1 Conceptual framework of knowledge sharing as an intervention for intention to stay

Knowledge P1 Competency P2 Affective P3 Intention to

sharing development commitment stay

Discussion and implications

The extant research reveals that never before has there been much emphasis placed on talent
development and retention. Information processing capacity developed through observing,
questioning, listening, suggesting, interpreting the role models reinforce a knowledge sharing
culture within organizations. The process of knowledge sharing generated through collecting
and donating knowledge both in explicit and implicit forms create an urge for learning and
competency development among employees. Gen Y employees have creative, carefree,
and risk-taking personality characteristics. They have dominant growth needs and are enticed by
knowledge sharing strategy. In particular, Gen Y employees, by their inherent nature are prone to
job switching. One of the catalysts behind this is the changing nature of psychological contract
wherein job security and life-time employment are replaced by multitasking, flexibility and
employability skills. In addition, global competition is forcing organizations to continuously
develop their workforce in order to stay sustainable and offset any future contingencies.
The proposed conceptual framework elucidates the role of knowledge sharing in developing
personal, social and professional competencies of Gen Y; leading to generate affective
commitment and ultimately translating into intention to stay. Knowledge sharing is
conceptualized as a process that occurs in a social environment involving the exchange
of information through interactions among organizational members. As such, it is consistent with
information processing theory and Vygotsky’s (1962) social constructivist approach, which is a
sociological theory of knowledge emphasizing on learning in a social context. This theory is further
supported by information processing, which highlights that knowledge interflow among
organizational members, strengthens learning behaviors of employees and develop their
competencies. Therefore, organizations need to invest in competency development of Gen Y
employees to equip them with latest employability skills. A culture of knowledge sharing is crucial
to facilitate organization learning and development. The implicit knowledge embedded in
experiences, know-how, value system, and competencies of employees create a sustainable
competitive advantage. Therefore, organizations need to nurture a knowledge sharing culture to
foster learning. The perception of learning and competency development will give employees an
increased assurance of a profitable future. This in turn will result into positive psychological
responses leading to intention to stay with the firm. The present study has significant implications
that extend to both industry and academia. From an industry standpoint, managers gain the
understanding on Gen Y needs and motivators, to develop their strategies accordingly.
In addition, HR managers can fine-tune their retention strategy and cultivate knowledge sharing
culture to expand Gen Y competencies. From an academic standpoint, this study contributes to
the literature on linkage between knowledge sharing and intention to stay. Another notable
aspect is that competency development of Gen Y employees is linked to affective commitment
and intention to stay.

Limitations and suggestions for future research

The model proposed in this paper is a conceptual work and has not yet been empirically tested.
This paper serves as a stepping stone for further exploration of knowledge sharing in the given
context. There are some directions to work upon in future research. First, future work in this
domain is meaningful as evidence on suggested relationships is lacking. Therefore, empirical
studies will confirm our suggested conceptual model Second, qualitative and quantitative

PAGE 146 j INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL TRAINING j VOL. 48 NO. 3 2016

“Information processing capacity developed
through observing, questioning, listening,
suggesting, interpreting the role models reinforce
a knowledge sharing culture within organizations.”

research will be beneficial to elucidate the concept in organizational context. Finally, it will be
prudent to design a scale to measure competency development, affective commitment and
intention to stay from the perspective of Gen Y employees as most available scales on these
constructs are developed in different context.

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diligence, commitment, and innovation”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 73 No. 1, pp. 51-9.

Corresponding author
Mohammad Faraz Naim can be contacted at: mfaraznaim@yahoo.com

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