Do you know your knowledge at risk?

This paper seeks to propose and discuss a knowledge management tool which has been designed to enable small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to obtain information about the concentration of relevant knowledge with certain individuals respectively in certain departments.

The tool represents an outcome of the authors' ongoing research activities related to the danger of knowledge loss due to turnover or long-term absence. A static knowledge map was developed based on a series of semi-structured interviews with 14 organization members from a German medium-sized enterprise operating in the printing sector. To apply this knowledge map to a broader range of SMEs a knowledge management tool has been developed. As underlying framework, the IC classification scheme and the concept of social capital were utilized.

The knowledge management tool helps smaller firms to calculate a “knowledge at risk” score, which gives them a better understanding of their critical organization members and what is making them critical.

The tool's outcome can illustrate the potential danger of organizational turnover, which hopefully triggers the development and implementation of specific replacement/retention measures in a timely manner.

A tool is proposed that identifies indispensable organization members within SMEs. The tool's strength is its simple but powerful nature which does not require long-term preparation and/or training.