Home >> Development Initiatives >> Knowledge Transfer >> Step 3

Employees do not view intangible or "soft" knowledge in their heads to be valuable to others.  As a result, they simply do not think to pass it on.

Tip: A manager of departing employee may conduct a pre-departure meeting and ask the incumbent if there were any "secrets" to success in the position that can be passed on to the next incumbent. These may include how to best function within the company's distinct culture, communication styles, and decision-making styles, and how to best handle external relationships with customers, suppliers or any other stakeholders.

There is a lack of motivation to share knowledge.

Tip: Reward systems must be aligned with your organization's need to keep critical knowledge in the unit. According to David DeLong, " ...cultures that don't reward behaviors to prevent critical knowledge loss are much less likely to see the value of investing in programs that encourage such activities." Rewards do not always have to be cost prohibitive. (See Rewards & Recognition Program).

There is a lack of standardized mechanism for capturing knowledge. This makes knowledge transfer more burdensome to knowledge holder and to the recipient.

Tip: See Model Options for KT Program.

Communication is poor.

Tip: Just because employees are experts on the job does not mean they can do equally well passing on knowledge to their successors. There is no easy solution to this problem, but if management is aware of those with poor communication skills, they can plan for alternative methods of transferring the knowledge. See Model Options for ideas.

Organizational culture may undermine knowledge sharing.

Tip: Upper management must buy into the need to change the organizational culture to one that discourages knowledge silos, and approve the necessary resources to effect the sharing of information. It must be communicated that sharing knowledge is an organizational priority. It takes time, money and an excellent cross-divisional communication plan to have a successful Knowledge Transfer Program.

Time and cost may be a negative.

Many managers are focused on controlling operational costs and just getting their unit-specific job done. They do not think they can pay for two people to do one job, as may be the case in a mentoring or job-shadowing situation. The sensitivity to time also may lead managers to think they cannot afford to have their top performer taking the time to mentor or help train a potential successor.

Tip: It's not easy to reconcile conflicting values, but the solution should not be one of choosing between the two. Efforts should be made to integrate competing needs into an approach that serves both goals - making the conflicting values interdependent instead of mutually exclusive. For example, controlling cost while developing employees need not be viewed as opposing goals; they can be integrated and balanced. As explained by DeLong, sequencing and cycling between objectives makes it feasible to deal with each in a fashion that allows for interdependence.

These are a few of the barriers and obstacles to implementing a successful KT program, but they and others that may be identified can be overcome with creative planning and commitment. Although management needs to be willing to invest in programs to support knowledge retention, there are things that can be done by first-line managers to help themselves in stemming the loss of critical knowledge within their own work units. See available Model Options for ideas.

All of the tools needed to help implement a successful Knowledge Transfer Program have been provided with each of the three steps to set up a program.