Coping with the Sudden Loss of an Indispensable Employee: An Exploratory Case Study

Frederick A. Starke, Bruno Dyck, Michael K. Mauws

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Articlepeer-review

    23 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Using real-time longitudinal survey and interview data, the authors assessed explicit and tacit knowledge flows within a small manufacturing firm for an indispensable employee (IE). They then compared those flows to the flows for a replacement employee (RE) who took over after the IE became ill. As expected, they found that (a) explicit and tacit knowledge outflows to coworkers were greater for the IE than for the RE, and (b) tacit knowledge inflows from coworkers were slightly greater for the RE than for the IE. Explicit knowledge inflows from coworkers were not consistently greater for the RE than for the IE. Surprisingly, the loss of the IE did not have a negative impact on the firm's productivity.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)208-228
    Number of pages21
    JournalThe Journal of Applied Behavioral Science
    Volume39
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2003

    Keywords

    • indispensable employee
    • loss

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