Summary

In developed economies such as Québec's, we are witnessing the aging of the labour force and early retirement among the babyboomer generation, as well as the influx of new workers. While retirements have always been a part of organizational realities, the current context points to major problems regarding how to make the transition and ensure the preservation of organizational (or corporate) memory. The challenge of job knowledge transmission is therefore being felt most acutely, and aging workers may be called upon to play a key role in this regard. This research project looked specifically at this role of aging workers. It sought to identify both the conditions conducive to the transmission of occupational knowledge and the obstacles to the process, ultimately to prevent both a loss of expertise and the exposure of workers of all ages to occupational health and safety (OHS) risks.

This interdisciplinary project included embedded case studies of four occupations: film technicians, home-help aides, homecare nurses, and food service helpers. These occupations were selected using the following criteria: a recognized high OHS risk; the presence of an aging workforce; the researchers had some knowledge of the work activity and work strategies developed in these occupations; interest was shown and requests were made by the work sectors involved. These occupations were also chosen because they allowed comparisons to be drawn between production and service occupations, between more or less atypical forms of work, and between more or less structured organizations. To report on this complex issue, data were collected from a variety of sources: 19 individual interviews of managers and worker representatives; 40 interviews of experienced and novice employees; 23 days of observation of the work activity and knowledge transmission activities; observation of 15 work meetings of different types in which home-help aides and homecare nurses participated; five group interviews; observation of four days of vocational training; administrative documents; and data on the workforce and on occupational injuries and absences for health problems in recent years. In addition, local follow-up committees and one overall research follow-up committee were formed.

The study results showed that learning an occupation is a complex process that continues throughout a person's working life. Even when vocational training exists, it alone does not suffice. In fact, experiential knowledge is developed mainly by having to deal with concrete work situations. This process of learning to deal with real-life situations may take more or less time, depending on the occupation, before all aspects are mastered. In other words, novices who are starting a job in a workplace must build their expertise on the basis of their specific work context. It is precisely at this time that experienced workers can play a key role in organizations because they have already developed this context-based knowledge.

In this study, characteristic activity situations or CASs (situations d'action caractéristiques) were identified using an approach focused on the work context and on the mobilization of the knowledge needed in these situations rather than on how the situations are classified. CASs are situations that are particularly vital to performance of the work; they recur frequently, and the ability to handle them is developed through learning in context. In fact, formal training (when it exists) does not prepare workers to handle these CASs, and novices must therefore learn to do so on the job. Analysis of these CASs revealed the complexity of the knowledge used and required to handle these situations. This knowledge serves to achieve many objectives: work efficiency, product or service quality, and protecting the worker's own health and that of others. These situations are replete with occupational knowledge and prudent knowledge, which are manifested in interwoven forms and derive from technical, relational, and work-related organizational dimensions that are an important part of the knowledge to be transmitted.

Analysis of these CASs also shed light on the workers' strategies and the compromises made to take into account the particular context in which the activities were being carried out. It was found that these compromises evolve over time for they depend on the work demands, on the workers' state of health and fatigue levels, and in the service occupations, on the particular characteristics of each clientele and how they evolve.

The fact that both novice and experienced workers are involved in CASs therefore allows the latter to pass on the knowledge, strategies, and compromises learned through job experience, as well as the reasons for the choices made.

This CAS-based approach facilitated the verbalization of this knowledge because it focused on situations that actually occur in the work involved.

Another finding of the study was that the knowledge transmission activity, whether formal or not, has an inevitable collective dimension. The activity is built in a two-person relationship dynamic between experienced and novice workers, but also with the support of a strong and stable work collective. These two aspects of the knowledge transmission process are inseparable.

The study also showed that more experienced workers have a key role in the transmission of knowledge to, and the integration of, novices. They care about passing on their knowledge and about helping to shape the next generation of workers. They have much to say about the work and they want to say it.

To do so, they develop many knowledge transmission strategies. The fact that more experienced workers have a need to pass on their knowledge can be put to good use by organizations if they equip these workers properly and entrust them with this new role. Likewise, novice workers have a role to play in learning how to perform their occupation. The more able the novices are to adopt behaviours consistent with the occupational culture, the faster they will be integrated into the work collective. And it is precisely this access to the work collective that opens the doorway to learning opportunities through the transmission of job knowledge.

Meetings and the possibility of exchanging ideas about the occupation are essential conditions to knowledge transmission. Thus, any reduction in these opportunities and forums for discussion has a direct impact on knowledge transmission. The transmission activity is opportunistic in the sense that in a given situation, experienced workers tend to pass on knowledge that can be generalized to similar situations or to draw novices' attention to more remote determining factors that explain the situation in order to increase the scope of their knowledge. Knowledge transmission is also opportunistic in the sense that new employees take advantage of certain situations to increase their own worth in the experienced workers' eyes so that the latter are willing to pass on their knowledge, as we witnessed in the institutional kitchen and film technician contexts.

In addition to times and places for exchanges, a number of organizational factors can also affect knowledge transmission. These include notably the magnitude of the time constraints, workload, and human resources management particularly as regards the organization of conditions for orienting and integrating novices and ensuring support from experienced workers. Factors such as organizational innovation, training, and flexibility can also play a determining role. Our results further indicate that the topic of prevention of OHS problems may come up in the knowledge transmission process, but that this depends more on individual initiatives than on formal mechanisms put in place within organizations.

This study showed that the factors influencing knowledge transmission at various organizational levels are interdependent, and that the less involved the higher-level managers are in supporting this transmission, the heavier the load or responsibility borne by individual workers and local managers, who in this case are the only persons that can influence the situation. However, our observations revealed that it is possible to introduce measures to mitigate the unfavourable impact of certain organizational decisions.

It further suggests that possible ruptures occur in the transmission process, not necessarily because experienced workers do not want to become involved, but rather because of a deterioration in the work environment. These ruptures would appear to stem more from issues related to the definition of the occupation, values, and ethical problems. In the current context of an aging labour force and a major round of hiring, this is a matter of great concern.

The study also allowed us to modify the conceptual schema of the various factors involved in successful knowledge transmission in the workplace. Lastly, it offers a number of suggestions for organizational improvements and various research avenues that should be pursued.