Héritage: Unlocking Intergenerational Knowledge Transfer within the Montreal Aerospace Cluster

With the ageing population, industries in the West have been facing increasing challenges in the field of intergenerational knowledge transfer. As the baby-boomer working population begins to retire, younger generations need... [ view full abstract ]

With the ageing population, industries in the West have been facing increasing challenges in the field of intergenerational knowledge transfer. As the baby-boomer working population begins to retire, younger generations need access to their knowledge and experience before the older generation leaves the workplace. Given the knowledge-intensive nature of the aerospace industry, it is crucial for organizations to find ways to capture key knowledge and competencies or risk losing them.
With this in mind, the Montreal Aerospace Cluster decided to push forward an action-research project led by an academic research team, part of HEC Montréal Mosaic in collaboration with firms from the aerospace industry to help industrial partners address the problem of intergenerational knowledge transfer.
This report presents a literature review on the barriers related to knowledge transfer, focusing on an SOS framework (Subject Object Setting), and presents ways to deal with these barriers. The report then presents practical initiatives that have been implemented in various industries, with a focus on the aerospace sector. This benchmarking exercise has shown that the focus is now on the socialization of knowledge, through initiatives that favour human interaction and the promotion of knowledge sharing outside the organization.
After compiling these findings, the researchers conducted close to forty interviews with various stakeholders from industrial partners to better understand the context that was governing current knowledge transfer. To gather the views of the industry, a co-design session was carried out, allowing for the researchers to work directly with the industrial partners as well as to test certain scenarios and possible solutions.
The academic team concluded that there was no unique solution when it comes to intergenerational knowledge transfer, and instead suggested a “solutions menu” to help industrial partners implement effective initiatives based on their knowledge context.
The “solutions menu” rests on a conceptual framework that divides the company’s knowledge capital into three categories (intellectual, human and social), designed to help knowledge managers better understand the knowledge transfer context that they face. It was developed, taking into account the intensity of knowledge capital involved in a transfer, the level of transfer, the type of knowledge and stakeholders concerned and the particular situation of the transfer. The list of solutions is provided as a suggestion and should be supplemented by organizations as new practices are discovered or existing ones evolve.
The academic researchers further suggest eight recommendations that are aimed at improving the Montreal aerospace cluster context, to create a culture of knowledge sharing. Through the implementation of various levels of communities, and by helping the sharing of resources and Information Technology tools throughout the cluster, we can address the challenge of intergenerational knowledge transfer and prepare the aerospace industry for the future. Before the report was completed, the proposed “solutions menu” and key recommendations were tested with a core sample of industrial partners in a validation workshop, and the proposals were received enthusiastically.