When employees leave the organization, they leave with more than what they know, they are also left with the critical knowledge of who they know. Thus, the departure of key people can significantly affect the structure of the relationship and the subsequent operation of the organization. In particular, companies should be aware of the unique knowledge held by the three important types of workers: the "central terminal" (those who regularly asked for help, usually because they have a high level of expertise in one or more areas), "brokers" (the ones that act as bridges across subgroups) and "peripheral players" (those who live in the edge of the network, but still have valuable experience niche and outside knowledge). missions of which is filled with all of these roles is the loss of knowledge risks that need to be addressed. Administration of the few key brokers, for example, can damage the social network organization into separate subgroups. Thus, companies need to take a variety of measures: (1) identify the main vulnerabilities of knowledge by both that person knows and as the administration that person will affect the network and (2) address the specific issues of the loss of knowledge, based on the different roles that employees play in the network. "Hide
by Salvatore Parise, Rob Cross, Thomas H. Davenport Source: MIT Sloan Management Review 10 pages . Publication Date: July 13, 2006. Prod. #: SMR211-PDF-ENG
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