"By analyzing patent citations, they were able to show that companies can benefit from a reverse flow of knowledge that results when an engineer or other technical expert moves on. Why? Because, according to Rosenkopf, there are social networks that transcend companies and allow the employees left behind to gain access to the knowledge being generated at their colleague's new place of business. She is not talking about corporate spying, but rather the flow of ideas and information among professionals who work in the same field. Their findings, she concludes, "call into question the conventional wisdom that losing employees means losing knowledge."
Other studies have looked at the opposite phenomenon—"inbound mobility"—documenting the transfer of knowledge that comes with hiring. When people are viewed strictly as "human capital," the departure of an employee results in the former employer's loss of that person's intellect and talent, and the corresponding gain of those same valuable attributes for the company doing the hiring. "The belief has been that if you lose an employee, that's a bad thing for you," Rosenkopf says. Even common lingo—that a company is losing a worker to another firm—implies that there is nothing good that could possibly result.
But Rosenkopf says the picture is different when employees are viewed in terms of "social capital." Workers aren't just silos of knowledge and skill unto themselves, but rather are part of social networks of workers from various firms who talk about what's going on in their field. Those networks may involve formal arrangements, such as strategic alliances, but they may also be informal, involving professional conferences, e-mail exchanges, common blog sites or even after-hours socializing."
Interesting concept realignment. 'Losing staff' may be a benefit not a loss after all...
The emphasis on the value of social networking is inherent to this: "In other words, whom you know does matter. On a lower level, inner-office networks play a role in how information flows around a company. The corporate organization chart tells only so much. Who chats with whom around the office and whom people go to for advice also matter."
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