Organizational knowledge retention: international literature review

ABSTRACT

The aim of this work was to select an international knowledge fragment about the organizational knowledge retention theme, and to identify the characteristics of these studies. Methodologically, this research is guided by a constructivist perspective, with a qualitative-quantitative approach and with an exploratory and descriptive objectives. The Knowledge Development Process - Construtivist (Proknow-C) was used to select a Bibliographic Portfolio in line with the research theme and for bibliometric analysis. Among the main results, the co-authorship network demonstrated little relationship between the 48 researchers of the theme. However, the citation network showed constant and historically evolutionary referencing between articles. Most of the researches aimed to identify or present aspects of organizational knowledge retention. The main related topics were: knowledge management, human resources management and organizational structure. The most used dimensions were: knowledge retention, knowledge loss, information systems, organizational memory, turnover, retirement and knowledge transfer. United States of America, Australia and Canada stood out as host countries of organizations where empirical researches took place and also as headquarters of research institutions. The results showed the dynamics and characteristics of researches on organizational knowledge retention, in the sample used, and provide guidance for the evolution of the theme.

Keywords:
Knowledge retention; Knowledge loss; Knowledge management; Proknow-C; Bibliometrics