Ageing Workforce Knowledge Management and Transactional & Transformational Leadership: A Socio-technical Systems Framework and a Norwegian Case Study
Chen, Susan P.; Redar J. Mykletun

Abstract
This study explores the relationship between leadership style and knowledge management in the context of a postmerger downsizing with an ageing workforce. We focused on the Statoil and Hydro merger in Norway. A sociotechnical systems approach was utilised, emphasising the interrelatedness of social and technological subsystems within organisations and those subsystems’ relationships to their environments. A qualitative approach was used to collect and analyse the data. The results support the existence of relationships between leadership style and post-merger knowledge management in the context of an ageing workforce. A positive link between transformational leadership and tacit knowledge transfer was found. Transformational leaders had a strong tendency to view and to act on knowledge management from a social perspective. A positive link was also found between transactional leadership and explicit knowledge transfer. Transactional leaders had a strong tendency to view and to act on knowledge management from a technical perspective.

Full Text: PDF