Date of Award

Fall 2003

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Public Administration (MPA)

Abstract

An inevitable phenomenon which occurs in organizations in their mid-life stage (approximately 30 - 40 years) deserves further investigation in order to determine if this phenomenon will impact our organization; and identify solutions in order to mitigate or minimize the impact; and contains the level of damage our organization may sustain as a result of a brain drain. This phenomenon has several aliases: brain drain, corporate brain drain, corporate amnesia and knowledge retention. Most companies or corporations today are currently doing nothing or very little to capture the knowledge of staff members who are ready to retire or are pushed out the door while companies consider downsizing as a solution of keeping the organization from going under, or avoiding Chapter 11. By investigating and identifying proven methods practiced by other organizations will allow us to minimize the amount of trial and error and allow us to use proven methods in order to retain information necessary to conduct daily business. Implementing and practicing these proven methods may provide solutions and possible answers for our organization to utilize in order to mitigate the impact of this inevitable phenomenon. These proven methods have had a great level of success, include utilizing retired employees on a part time basis to train their successor, as well as several other techniques. Also, discuss and identify some of the potential consequences or problems associated with having employees with limited knowledge of the equipment, procedure and processes leave without passing on their knowledge. And finally, investigate if there are any opportunities to profit from this inevitable phenomenon.

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