Continuity Management: Preserving Corporate Knowledge and Productivity When Employees Leave

Part I. Knowledge Continuity in the Information Age

To understand both the urgent need for—and the great potential of—continuity management is to understand the radically different environment in which contemporary organizations are required to operate. The new context created by this environment is transforming the nature of management itself. It is a context defined by the transformation of knowledge into a capital asset, the unique nature of that asset, impending baby-boomer retirements and chronic job turnover that threaten the asset, and the relationship of knowledge continuity to productivity and innovation in the Information Age. Part I provides this contextual understanding and sets the stage for the design and implementation of continuity management described in Part II.