Linking career calling to knowledge sharing in late career: the mediating role of generativity motives and the moderating influence of job complexity

Purpose This study aims to examine when and how career calling translates into knowledge sharing among older employees. We tested generativity motives as a developmental mechanism and job complexity as an opportunity-affordance boundary condition. Design/methodology/approach Through a two-wave time-lagged survey of 490 employees aged 40–60 years, we tested a moderated mediation model with latent moderated structural equations. Findings Career calling was positively correlated with knowledge sharing via generativity motives. Job complexity moderated the calling–generativity link, such that the association was stronger when job complexity was low. Consistent with this pattern, the conditional indirect effect of calling on knowledge sharing through generativity motives was stronger at lower levels of job complexity. These results suggest that organizations can sustain intergenerational expertise transfer even in structurally stagnant roles by cultivating a calling-oriented culture, which empowers older experts to utilize internal purpose as a compensatory resource for generative agency and person-environment fit. Originality/value By integrating socioemotional selectivity theory (Carstensen, 1995) and the process model of successful aging at work (Kooij et al., 2020), this study identifies job complexity as an opportunity-affordance shaping mechanism that fuels late-career generativity and knowledge sharing. When job complexity is low, the calling–generativity link strengthens, indicating that calling compensates for constrained external opportunities.