Assessing Knowledge Loss Risk

Abstract

Knowledge has been recognized as a critical asset for companies that want to compete in today's turbulent business environment. Researchers and practitioners recognize that the loss of knowledge due to loss of employees that hold valuable knowledge can have grave consequences to an organization. This paper provides a methodology for assessing potential risk of losing knowledge when employees retire or otherwise leave the organization based on the traditional risk calculation that is compensated for the quality of knowledge to be lost. This paper tests a method for scoring each factor in the risk calculation and then assessing the criticality of the risk based on the final calculated score and pilot tests this approach with 85 subjects. A discussion is provided on actions that organizations should take based on the criticality of the risk associate with knowledge loss.