This study aims to explore the impact mechanism of technological anxiety among older employees on knowledge sharing behavior, as well as the roles of job crafting and relational energy and to test the moderating effect of organizational identity.
The samples used in the study are mainly from the survey data of older employees in enterprises under the background of China’s digital transformation. A total of 403 valid samples is obtained, including manufacturing, finance, information technology, public services and energy industries, as well as various types of organizations such as state-owned enterprises, private enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises. The samples have good structural distribution and industry representation. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method was used to test the research model.
The results of an empirical survey reveal that technological anxiety significantly and negatively affects older employees’ knowledge sharing behavior, while job crafting and relational energy play a sequential mediating role. Moreover, organizational identification moderates the first stage of this chain mediation by buffering the negative impact of technological anxiety on job crafting.
The findings not only deepen the understanding of older employees’ knowledge sharing behavior in the context of digital transformation, but also expand the application of the job demands-resources framework and socioemotional selectivity theory in the research on technological anxiety among older employees.
