Knowledge retention

Knowledge Retention, also known as Knowledge Continuation, is a concept in knowledge management and organizational learning addressing the challenge of knowledge loss as a result of people leaving.

Usage

Reference:[1]
Organizations are concerned with workers who leave and take the accumulated knowledge with them. It can be employees who retire, people switching jobs, or even consultants or other workers who work within the organization, but leave the organizations without having their knowledge captured or documented in some way. Some people refer to “organizational amnesia” as this knowledge loss in an organization.

Knowledge retention is also applicable to families and societies, in the sense of transferring knowledge from generation to generation.

Methodology

There are several methodologies helping to systematically retain the knowledge of those who may not be with an organization or community in the future. Implementing regular Knowledge Management activities may reduce the need of special efforts of knowledge retention, when people leave; yet for experts or other people with unique knowledge, some knowledge retention will always be required.

Knowledge retention methodologies may include:

Ongoing:[2]

  • Mapping knowledge competencies and identifying current or future predicted gaps.
  • Defining for each chosen role the main knowledge that should be retained, and building rituals in which the knowledge is documented or transferred on, from the day they start their job.
  • Building a first body of relevant knowledge for each role

Towards known date of leaving:[3]

  • Learning one’s disciplines of knowledge and prioritizing what specific areas to focus on, based on the knowledge in risk.
  • Transferring the knowledge regarding the selected topics, including both explicit and tacit knowledge. Transferring may take place in many formats including sharing documents, observations, shadowing, mentoring, knowledge capturing, and more.
  • Documenting the knowledge; organizing the relevant documents in a shared accessible space.
  • Changing the routines so that the knowledge is easy to locate and used on a regular basis.

Methodology classes may be blended.

Challenges

Reference:[4]
People and organizations find it difficult to retain the knowledge:

  1. We are all caught in daily activities, and often planning for tomorrow may be considered a luxury.Communicating both importance and applicability can help in changing the will. Identifying a specific need and succeeding to show value in retaining the knowledge can be a key factor to moving from willing to doing.
  2. Knowledge of each one of us is endless. There will probably never be enough resources to document all knowledge. Overcoming such an obstacle can be obtained by the prioritizing stage, choosing only the most vital topics to be captured and documented.
  3. The documented knowledge is buried and not used. Retaining knowledge should never end before a proper way to leverage the knowledge to its potential user is provided.

References
  1. Liebowitz, J. (2008). Knowledge retention: strategies and solutions. CRC Press.
  2. DeLong, D. W., & Storey, J. (2004). Lost knowledge: Confronting the threat of an aging workforce. Oxford University Press.
  3. Levy, M. (2011). Knowledge retention: minimizing organizational business loss. Journal of Knowledge Management.
  4. Martins, E. C., & Meyer, H. W. (2012). Organizational and behavioral factors that influence knowledge retention. Journal of Knowledge Management.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.