Objectives: The objective of this research was to identify tacit knowledge retention barriers that could cause knowledge loss in an organisation. The paper presents a framework for the assessment of the impact of these barriers and discusses the research findings in order to critique that framework.

Method: A quantitative strategy was used to interpret the findings. The target population is information technology (IT) professionals in a government organisation. Interviews were conducted in order to produce a more context-sensitive interpretation of the findings. A quantitative research approach was used to ensure the findings would precisely reflect the target population.

Results: The majority of respondents confirmed that career development requires professional development, training prospects and improves the employability of employees. The agreed result was that respondents seek autonomy, that is, the ability to make decisions. Job stress and burnout are experienced because of problems with in filling posts, and the competition between the private and public sectors for experienced IT employees.

Conclusion: Certain determinants were found that affect barriers in knowledge management: organisational commitment, job satisfaction, job characteristics and talent management. These need to be measured to prevent barriers from occurring. Implications are drawn from the study; these provide a focus for further research to bridge some gaps in information technology that currently limit the widespread use of knowledge management.

In environments where knowledge sharing is not the norm, staff can become the sole owners of domain knowledge, meaning that this knowledge is typically lost when the employee leaves an organisation. There will always be the risk that valuable knowledge is lost to an organisation that does not protect its information through a documented business process. Hence, this research seeks to investigate what the barriers are to tacit knowledge retention.

Knowledge management (KM) promotes classification, administration and sharing of an organisation’s information assets. An information asset is organised information that is valuable and easily accessible to those who need it. Knowledge exists within the individual employees and is a key component for organisations that wish to be and remain competitive in the marketplace. It is therefore imperative for organisations to recognise it as a valuable resource (Bollinger & Smith 2001; Bender & Fish 2000).

According to Wiig (1997), management must focus on four areas in order to retain knowledge: initiating governance functions, focusing on staff functions, accepting the responsibility for operation functions to create, renew, organise and transfer knowledge assets, and leveraging knowledge assets, thereby ensuring knowledge is distributed and applied effectively through collaboration. Arif et al. (2009) present a retention model, which consists of a four-step process: socialisation, codification, knowledge construction and knowledge retrieval. Lee-Kelly, Blackman & Hurst (2007) state that the challenge in retaining knowledgeable workers is due to the relationships between a learning organisation, job satisfaction and the turnover of knowledge workers. The present exploratory fieldwork is intended to contribute to an understanding of the perceptions of KM by people both inside and outside the organisation.

In addition, the following research sub-questions were also investigated:

• What is knowledge retention?
• What are the typical barriers to tacit knowledge retention?
• How do barriers impact knowledge retention in government organisations?

According to Kikoski, as cited by Alwis and Hartmann (2008), tacit knowledge is less known; it is an unusual form of knowledge, of which we are not really aware. Furthermore, it is not exchanged through language, but is acquired by sharing experiences and by observation (Alwis & Hartmann 2008). Therefore, tacit knowledge is considered more valuable, because it offers a context for people’s thoughts, places and experiences. It normally requires considerable personal interaction and trust to share effectively (McAdam, Mason & McCrory 2007). Hence, a knowledge worker (KW) may be described as a person who wants to be valued for knowledge they own and who works with intangible resources. The desires and views of such people incorporate those of an expert or a thinker. Such people want to transform their knowledge, contribute to solving problems and effortlessly influence the organisation’s decision making, strategic direction and priorities. Drucker (1959) states that there are three important stages organisations must go through in order for knowledge processes to be valued, captured and measured:

1. utilise creative knowledge
2. recognise that KWs add value to the organisation
3. introduce formalised education programmes to allow the knowledge workers to apply their knowledge, both theoretically and analytically. (n.p.)

Davenport and Prusak (as cited by Ramirez & Nembhard 2004) define a KW as a person who creates knowledge or uses knowledge in an influential way in the workplace: ‘KWs [are] people with a high degree of education or expertise whose work primarily involves the creation, distribution or application of knowledge’.

Prusak (2001) affirms that KM is about people, the processes they apply to gather, share, transform, teach, learn and make use of information. According to Depres and Chauvel (1999), KM is an approach to improve efficiency, productivity, transparency and outward sharing of information that is used internally in decision making, thereby improving working relations and trust for workers in an organisation.

According to Riege (2005), the following KS barriers exist in some organisations:

1. Individual barriers, such as age and gender differences.
2. Differences in education levels.
3. Lack of trust and the failure to take ownership of intellectual property.
4. Organisational barriers, such as the lack of leadership and managerial direction.
5. The integration of KM strategy, and the sharing of initiatives in the company’s goals.
6. Knowledge retention of highly skilled and experienced staff is not always a high priority; the lack of transparent rewards and recognition are both counterproductive.
7. Technological barriers, such as a lack of integration and the compatibility of IT systems and processes.
8. Reluctance to use IT systems.
9. Lack of technical support and lack of communication.
10. The lack of demonstration of all advantages of any new systems in preference to the existing ones. (n.p.)

Furthermore, managers should create a vision for KM, assist in directing the change effort, and develop strategies for achieving the vision. The chosen structure employed in a KM leadership group should model and teach employees and stakeholders the importance of KS and using a common vocabulary. Context-sensitive and user-friendly technology that guides the user to the information with ease could improve adoption rates, and training using best-practice examples would help when searching and sharing information quickly.

Measurement before, during and after the phased implementation of KM would make it possible to link KM efforts with some return on the initial investment. Figure 1 depicts the basic model presented by Joseph et al. (2007). This will be utilised in this research, as it defines the determinants: job satisfaction and organisational commitment.

FIGURE 1: The old model.

Organisational commitment: As defined by Coombs (2009), is the extent to which an employee experiences a ‘sense of oneness’ with their organisation and the employee’s level of commitment to stay with an organisation. Associated factors, such as loyalty, trust, work-life policies, procedural justice and career development, have a potential influence that may cause a barrier to employees in an organisation. According to Greenhaus and Beutell (as cited by Bashir & Ramay 2008), work-life policies have an impact on work-life conflict, which they define as an incompatibility between responsibilities in the working environment and those to the family. Basher and Ramay (2008) indicate that a lack of work-life policies has a negative impact on organisational commitment. Wong, Tong and Mula (2009), Döckel, Basson and Coetzee (2006) and McKnight, Phillips and Hardgrave (2009) report that in order to develop employee trust in an organisation, management should steer clear of creating insincere promises that cannot be delivered on or commitments that cannot be achieved. IT professionals appreciate an open communication channel, in which management shares information regarding the business regularly and KS between colleagues can also occur.

Job satisfaction: This is an important organisational variable, and involves factors such as rewards, incentives, work exhaustion, competition and absenteeism. The word ‘reward’ is repeatedly discussed in the literature as an incentive that an organisation gives to employees in return for their involvement and performance; it can take the form of recognition, which is what employees most want (Allen et al. 2008, and Döckel et al. 2006). Lock (2003) states that a reward is a cash bonus or naming an employee ‘employee of the month’. Potgieter and Pretorius (2009) affirm that incentives increase job satisfaction and deliver results that contribute to the organisation’s goals.

It is evident from these employees that a lack of incentives worsens problems and produces poor results and the ballooning of costs in delivering systems. Extreme demands on time, such as being on call over weekends and vacations, can certainly lead to work exhaustion. Coombs (2009) and Lock (2003) both confirm that low morale, job stress and burnout experienced by public sector IT professionals are due to the problems that exist in filling posts. In addition, some factors that contribute to job satisfaction are competition between the private and public sector for experienced IT employees, the civil system that focuses on rules and regulations, control systems, the political situation and limited autonomy.

Job characteristics: As defined by Earle (2003), are those aspects that are specific to a job, for example knowledge and skills, mental and physical demands and working conditions that can be recognised, defined, and assessed. The IT professionals she surveyed in her study who earned a poor salary endeavoured to seek employment elsewhere. Allen et al. (2008) affirm that in order to retain or attract IT professionals, organisations should establish a positive relationship with employees and provide a pay enhancement programme. Coombs (2009) and Lacity, Iyer and Rudramuniyaiah (2008) believe that employees who seek autonomy demonstrate the ability to make decisions that are challenging and interesting and desire opportunities to apply these to their work activities. Coombs also states that employees want freedom and discretion in the arrangement of their work, and in determining work procedures; this has a positive influence on work performance. They also want responsibility for the outcome of their work and increased work motivation. According to McKnight et al. (2009), supervisor support is a developed relationship, characterised as being a partnership between a supervisor and his subordinates, and involves support, trust, information sharing, respect, career progress and valuing a mutual relationship. Lacity et al. (2008) state that a lack of supervisor support creates an undesirable attitude. This may contribute to poor work performance, lack of trust and poor support from subordinates.

Talent management: As argued by Joubert (cited by Van Dijk 2008), is a human resource process that produces an essential benefit for an organisation. Mentoring development (as described by Allen et al. 2008) is an informal training vehicle to improve the quality of human resource development. Glen (2007) indicates that mentoring development, employee competence and recruiting are factors associated with talent management. Van Dijk (2008) confirms that mentors play a vital role for IT professionals in providing opportunities for learning and career development and promoting the transfer of knowledge to ensure continuity of corporate knowledge. Mentoring development is a tangible approach to demonstrate that employees are valued and have a future in the organisation, and ensures that the organisation retains the best employees. Cunningham (2007) and Earle (2003) state that in order to recruit the best potential person for the job, the characteristics of the organisation must fit; the candidate’s values and work attitude should be the focal point during a recruitment process, rather than just their specific skills and experience. Rectifying a wrong value fit choice is typically a very costly exercise.

Moreover, Allen et al. (2008) state that in the public sector there are various factors to consider:

• Lack of a reward system – IT professionals who are discouraged work defensively and not creatively; this can impact negatively on service delivery to the customers.
• Poor salaries influence IT professionals to find jobs elsewhere, which would prevent core knowledge from being retained within an organisation.
• Work exhaustion and burnout are the result of continued impractical work demands on the employee, which leads to a lack of innovative thinking and innovative services.
• The lack of time and the lack of mentor training and understanding prevent the transfer and sharing of knowledge; this results in continued poor skill outcomes, and can affect service delivery negatively. (n.p.)

According to Lockwood and Ansari (1999), knowledge retention includes all activities to protect knowledge in the organisation. Knowledge retention comprises three activities: acquisition, storage and retrieval. Further, Marshall (2005) affirms that knowledge retention is a division of KM, in which organisations use their combined intelligence to achieve their objectives by managing their cultural, social and technological environment.

Finally, the literature review reveals that barriers to knowledge retention do exist in IT organisations. Based on the literature, it is clear that organisations need to provide employees with incentives: financial or non-financial rewards, encouragement from management to share knowledge amongst employees, career development and mentoring programmes to retain knowledge. It is also clear that loyalty and trust contribute to employee behaviour, and need to be nurtured, as these qualities are of strategic importance to an organisation.

Other barriers are work-life policies, work-life conflict, poor salaries, relationships amongst colleagues and supervisory support. It is evident from the literature that the key success factor for a knowledge organisation is to grow, attract and retain talent.

Based on the above theoretical support, the researchers were interested to include two additional determinants: job characteristics and talent management, as these may be driving forces in knowledge retention barriers. The updated model is shown in Figure 2.

FIGURE 2: New model.

According to Christensen, Johnson and Turner (2009), simple random sampling is the best sampling method to use to ensure an equal probability for all items in the population. Ten completed questionnaires were collected; these were used as a pilot study and were excluded from the main data collection process.

A total of 230 staff is employed by this branch, of which 60 individuals were asked to participate in the quantitative study. A closed-ended questionnaire was developed with brief answers based on a five-point Likert scale (see Table 3). The content of the questionnaire was developed after reviewing the literature on factors influencing the determinants’ organisational commitment, job satisfaction and job characteristics.

The researchers held short interviews with the participants after completion of the questionnaire, to discuss whether, in their opinion, the questions were fair, whether any question offended them, and whether it was easy to complete. The results were used to make adjustments to the structure of two questions that the pilot group identified as making the questionnaire too long.

The questionnaire consisted of 30 questions, which were developed using the insight gained from the literature review. The literature review established a number of factors within each determinant that could be used to retain knowledge in the organisation. These factors were grouped under organisational commitment, job satisfaction, job characteristics and talent management. Statements were developed and presented in a questionnaire to determine whether the factors would introduce any barriers into the organisation.

Table 1 presents a summary of the statements, the supporting factors and the determinants.

60 participants were targeted; 56 questionnaires were returned. These were checked for accuracy and completeness. Two participants telephonically contacted the researcher after the data had been captured and their questionnaires were therefore not included; two individuals did not complete the questionnaire at all. A return rate of 94% was reached. The categories of data were compiled for an ordinal dataset. The data analysis was completed using Microsoft Excel. This meant that the data capturing time was reduced to a minimum, which facilitated ease of analysis.

Tables and percentages were used to present and interpret the numerical data. The purpose of analysing the data in table format, categorised and displayed in textual and numerical form, allowed for fast viewing.

The agreed result in statement 10 was supported by the literature, according to Coombs (2009) and Lacity et al. (2008). It applies to employees who seek autonomy, have the ability to make decisions, seek challenges and opportunities to apply their working skills. These authors further state that many employees want the freedom and discretion to arrange their own work, and to determine work procedures that have a positive influence on their performance and that increase their motivation.

For statement 16, the literature confirms that job stress and burnout are experienced by public sector IT professionals, due to problems that exist in filling posts, and competition between the private and public sectors for experienced IT employees (Coombs 2009; Lock 2003). In addition, continuous pressure, expectations and deadlines make employees vulnerable to work exhaustion and burnout (Lacity et al. 2009; Allen et al. 2008).

The disagreement and uncertain percentage for statement 20 is very high in comparison with the developmental statement 22, which is about the responsibility of management. Wong et al. (2009) and Döckel et al. (2006) argue that in order to develop employee trust, management should steer clear of making dubious promises that cannot be delivered on, or commitments that cannot be achieved. The research findings establish that knowledge loss challenges derive from various factors which have an influence on the determinants and may cause barriers. The determinants are presented in Figure 3, categorised as organisational commitment, job satisfaction, job characteristics and talent management. The research findings indicate that the rules and procedures are not fairly applied to all employees, which was confirmed by Bashir and Ramay (2008). Bashir and Ramay (2008) further contend that, although the outcome may be unfavourable to all employees, fair and acceptable processes should be followed.

FIGURE 3: The determinants. Less than 45% (minus -), more than 49% (plus +).

FIGURE 4: Barriers to tacit knowledge retention.

The findings indicate that the respondents do not have a mentor to support them in their current jobs. The literature also found that mentors play a vital role in providing learning and career development opportunities for IT professionals (Van Dijk 2008). This augurs well for the continuous transfer of knowledge and contributes to easy introduction of new IT professionals into the work environment.

Determinants of barriers to knowledge retention were identified, such as organisational commitment, job satisfaction, job characteristics and talent management. Factors were identified and need to be measured to prevent such barriers from occurring in an organisation. Poor salaries influence IT professionals to find jobs elsewhere, which prevents core knowledge from being retained within an organisation. Furthermore, work exhaustion and burnout can occur as a result of continuous impractical work demands by the employer, which can lead to a lack of innovative thinking and services. The lack of time and the lack of mentor training and understanding also prevents the transfer and sharing of knowledge, which results in continuous poor skill outcomes. Finally, a lack of trust can leads to poor decision making and to poor service delivery.

This study highlights the barriers and gaps that exist in a government organisation and places renewed focus on the potential knowledge retention barriers in the context of South African government organisations.

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