Harnessing the Power of Age-Diverse Innovation Teams – Examples from Singapore

This paper presents interim results of an on-going research project aimed at examining the antecedents and performance outcomes of age-diverse innovation teams in Singapore. While the effects of an ageing workforce on innovativeness are relatively well documented in non-Asian firms, there is little knowledge about the extent to which an age-diverse workforce creates synergistic combinations of task-related resources in ‘Asian’ organizations in the context of innovation management. Based on qualitative interviews with managers and members of innovation project teams taking part in a Master of Innovation program led by the first author, we examine the relationships between innovation leadership, an age-diverse workforce as potential source of (experience-based) new idea generation and the organizational ability to integrate their insights into the management of innovation. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the topic in the context of Singapore’s on-going national efforts to become an ‘innovation city’ and to upgrade the local business sector with its diverse talent pools, comprising both mature and younger employees with different approaches towards work etc. Our interim results suggest that it is important to tackle inter-generational issues within an organization through effective inter-generational communication strategies and flexible working arrangements. Business leaders are well advised to initiate workshops so that employees understand the basic values binding each generation and to promote a culture of mentoring and knowledge sharing comprising different generations. Setting-up multigenerational project teams as communities of practice can help to enable the division of responsibilities between generations, leveraging their capabilities to ensure innovation success. A key challenge is to convince business leaders that age diversity management frameworks actually work.

Keywords: Age diversity, innovation, Singapore