Knowledge management in practice: insights into a medium-sized enterprise's exposure to knowledge loss

The purpose of our paper is to examine how a medium-sized enterprise characterised by slow executive turnover might identify and manage its critical knowledge. The main interest is in the management's handling of the potential danger of knowledge loss due to turnover or long-term absence. A qualitative research approach is adopted through semi-structured interviews with seven members of top and middle management of a German medium-sized enterprise operating in the printing sector. Our findings contribute to the literature on knowledge management in SMEs and provide fresh insights into the management of knowledge attrition. A knowledge map of the firm is derived and used to demonstrate how smaller firms can identify key organisation members and their relevance to the firm's business model. This may provide a better overview of potential areas of knowledge attrition. The information provided by the knowledge map can raise awareness of the perils of knowledge loss and suggest initiatives that not only help firms defend competitiveness and save financially but also sustain their intangible resources.