Staff Turnover as a Possible Threat to Knowledge Loss

Abstract

The article focuses on labour turnover as a potential threat to knowledge loss. Labour turnover results in an organizations inability to ensure knowledge continuity. In this study, induction was used to identify factors within organizations that determine employees’ exit from organizations. The verifiability of these factors was tested by means of correlation and regression. Subsequently, the presented causes of employee turnover were specified as potential threat to knowledge loss. In the current knowledge economy, employees in an organization are considered the key competitive advantage and the most important asset. If an employee leaves an organization, they take the knowledge they have acquired with them. The loss of knowledge is a potential threat to an organizations existence, especially if an employee with valuable knowledge leaves to join a competitor. Therefore, this paper deals with knowledge continuity as a probable means of eliminating this threat. Dependencies between selected qualitative variables were tested to determine their impact on organizations. The study concludes by indicating that, today‘s knowledge-based organizations must be aware of the main causes and consequences of employee fluctuation so as to maintain their competitiveness in times of economic crisis.

Keywords

• Turnover
• employees
• knowledge
• knowledge continuity
• competitive advantage