Lost Knowledge: Confronting the Threat of an Aging Workforce
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Because the baby boomers have worked through a period of unprecedented technological change, and many have spent a big part of their career at one workplace, as they begin to retire, much irreplaceable knowledge will follow them to Florida and Arizona. DeLong (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) asks managers why they should care, how specific knowledge might vanish from their organization, the impact the loss would have, and how to retain critical knowledge when the knower moves on. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR Library Journal As long-term members of the workforce retire, what happens to their knowledge and skills? DeLong (Executive Support Systems: The Emergence of Top Management Computer Use), a research fellow at the MIT AgeLab and adjunct professor at Babson College, studies the effects of lost knowledge. The issues he addresses here include why organizations should care about the threat of lost knowledge, the different ways that knowledge disappears, and the effect of lost knowledge on performance. Most important, it considers how organizations can retain more critical knowledge in the face of major turnover, owing not only to an aging workforce but to increased attrition among mid-career employees. Solutions to the problem presented here include storytelling, mentoring, interviews/videotaping, and training. DeLong makes his points by drawing on case studies, e.g., owing to early retirement, NASA engineers lost knowledge on how to land on the moon. Extensive chapter notes list sources for further reading. An important, timely book; highly recommended for academic libraries.-Lucy Heckman, St. John's Univ. Lib., Jamaica, NY Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
1The landscape of lost knowledge112Diagnosing the strategic impacts of lost knowledge263A strategic framework for action434Developing an HR infrastructure for knowledge retention575Improving the transfer of explicit knowledge816Transferring implicit and tacit knowledge1017Applying IT to capture, store, and share intellectual capital1198After the knowledge is gone1439Stemming the flow of lost knowledge : stories of early adopters16310Launching knowledge retention initiatives : principles for action17111Overcoming organizational barriers to knowledge retention18912Creating the future : thinking strategically about knowledge retention217
