Comparing normative influences as determinants of knowledge continuity

• We study knowledge continuity (KC): passing knowledge from departing employees to their successors.
• We examine the role of org. knowledge management (KM) culture, and supervisors’ KM behavior in KC.
• We consider both the departing employee’s and the successor’s points of view.
• We develop and validate a scale for measuring KC.
• We find and discuss the duality of responses to a work environment that supports KC.

This study attempts to identify factors influencing knowledge continuity (KC), the passing of knowledge from a departing employee to his or her successor. Considering the perspectives of both the departing employee and the successor, we examine how employee perceptions of KC quality are affected by two normative influences: organizational knowledge management (KM) culture, and the KM behavior of the employee’s current supervisor. Data were collected from 44 departing employees (who transitioned to new jobs) and their 44 successors, up to 6 months following job transition. Participants were full-time engineers employed in a large high- technology firm in Israel. The extent to which departing employees perceived the organization as fostering KM culture, and the extent to which they perceived their current supervisors as engaging in KM behavior, were, respectively, negatively and positively associated with KC quality as perceived by successors. Successors’ perceived organizational KM culture was positively related to their perceptions of KC quality. Successors’ perceptions of their own supervisors’ KM behavior were not significantly associated with their perceptions of KC quality. We discuss the potential duality of responses to a work environment that supports KM, and ways to synchronize opposing effects. We also develop and validate a scale for measuring KC.