| Private and public sector managers are concerned with the impending retirement of the "baby boomers" since many of them possess tacit knowledge, much of which is undocumented, relevant to the operations of their organizations. Government organizations are especially vulnerable to this potential brain drain since mission critical knowledge is at risk. Faced with this issue and in response to prevailing business factors, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) developed and instituted a knowledge retention program. Program actions are based on a formula that connects an employee's approaching retirement date with a knowledge criticality score. When the managers have determined an individual's score, they set in motion a series of events which reflect the criticality of the impending knowledge loss and the actions needed to capture the information. This study analyzes the TVA program from the perspective of the tacit knowledge and expert literature, comparing the criteria used to define expertise by the TVA with the criteria found in the literature. A second consideration of the study is how the program practices consider the attributes of tacit knowledge, the attributes of the expert and principles of knowledge retention. |
