The influence of olfactory stimuli on social cognition, prejudice and emotions: a systematic review of the literature.

Against the backdrop of profound global demographic shifts, workforce aging has become an unavoidable strategic issue in the field of organizational management (). According to United Nations data, by 2050, the proportion of the global population aged 60 and above is projected to reach 22%. Against this trend, how to effectively activate the creative potential of older employees (typically defined as those aged 40 and above) has become both a key to maintaining organizational competitiveness and a practical challenge for human resource management (). Regarding the relationship between age and creativity, the existing literature presents a seemingly contradictory picture. On the one hand, a widely held stereotype suggests that older employees are rigid in their thinking and have difficulty generating novel ideas (); on the other hand, empirical research indicates that creativity does not inevitably decline with age (). Instead, it evolves, drawing upon richer life experiences and deeper domain expertise, with older employees even demonstrating unique advantages in radical innovation (). This contradiction suggests that the creative potential of older employees objectively exists; the question lies in how to activate this potential through appropriate organizational support mechanisms. This study proposes that knowledge counterflow—the process by which knowledge flows from younger to older employees—may be one of the key mechanisms for activating older employee creativity. Unlike traditional top-down knowledge transfer (from senior to novice), knowledge counterflow exposes older employees to emerging knowledge domains such as information technology and cutting-edge methods (). The input of such non-redundant knowledge may precisely break the cognitive entrenchment that older employees develop through long-term reliance on existing experience (; ), thereby providing a cognitive opportunity for the emergence of their creativity. Furthermore, we point out that the effect of knowledge counterflow on enhancing creativity is not unconditional. When the knowledge conveyed by younger employees is difficult to understand and absorb (i.e., when knowledge stickiness is high), older employees may not be able to effectively utilize these knowledge resources (). Therefore, this study integrates cognitive flexibility theory with the knowledge management literature to construct a moderated mediation model, aiming to answer: “when” and “how” knowledge counterflow facilitates older employee creativity. In this study, we propose that a key factor for facilitating older employee creativity is knowledge counterflow, i.e., the process by which knowledge transfers from younger to older employees (; ). This study draws on cognitive flexibility theory to argue that knowledge counterflow can enhance cognitive flexibility and thus increase older employee creativity. The theory suggests that, as people get to learn a new complex domain of knowledge, they are aware of the new frameworks of thinking (; ). The information and knowledge held in different generations differs in terms of scope and structure (). As such, knowledge transferred from younger employees may introduce new ways of thinking; the recent rapid development of new technologies makes it even more likely to occur (; ). Seeking to gain a deeper understanding, the older employees tend to adapt their thinking to the new structure and framework (). This enables them to take a new perspective, thus facilitating their creativity (). We therefore suggest that cognitive flexibility—the tendency to adapt thinking and switch perspectives in processing information and solving problems (; )—serves as one of the key intermediating mechanisms through which knowledge counterflow facilitates older employee creativity.