TY - JOUR
T1 - Surviving the Transience of Knowledge
T2 - Small High-Technology Businesses Parting Ways with Their Knowledge Workers
AU - MacDougall, Shelley L.
AU - Hurst, Deborah
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2007, Copyright CCSBE/CCPME.
PY - 2007/3/1
Y1 - 2007/3/1
N2 - Knowledge-intensive businesses in the fast-moving high technology sector are highly dependent upon the creation and transfer of knowledge among skilled employees. Ironically, this critical feature of organizational success resides with employees who tend to be somewhat transient, given the high demand for their knowledge and their own autonomy, creativity, and entrepreneurial preferences. This poses a challenge for all knowledge-intensive organizations but especially for small, young companies evolving from an entrepreneurial stage into one more formally managed. In a multi-organization study, two young, high-technology organizations revealed themselves as particularly adept at coping with such challenges. This paper describes how these two organizations attended to maintaining environments that fostered the creation and transfer of knowledge, encouraged knowledge-workers to stay, and managed the departure of those who left.
AB - Knowledge-intensive businesses in the fast-moving high technology sector are highly dependent upon the creation and transfer of knowledge among skilled employees. Ironically, this critical feature of organizational success resides with employees who tend to be somewhat transient, given the high demand for their knowledge and their own autonomy, creativity, and entrepreneurial preferences. This poses a challenge for all knowledge-intensive organizations but especially for small, young companies evolving from an entrepreneurial stage into one more formally managed. In a multi-organization study, two young, high-technology organizations revealed themselves as particularly adept at coping with such challenges. This paper describes how these two organizations attended to maintaining environments that fostered the creation and transfer of knowledge, encouraged knowledge-workers to stay, and managed the departure of those who left.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85051244584&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/08276331.2007.10593394
DO - 10.1080/08276331.2007.10593394
M3 - Journal Article
AN - SCOPUS:85051244584
SN - 0827-6331
VL - 20
SP - 183
EP - 199
JO - Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship
JF - Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship
IS - 2
ER -