Knowledge retention in a platinum mine in the North West Province of South Africa

Background: Knowledge retention plays an important role in combating organisational knowledge loss. However, some organisations, including mining companies, still lose organisational knowledge because of employees’ retiring, resigning, downsizing, attrition and so on. This leaves the organisations w...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:South African journal of information management 2018, Vol.20 (1), p.1-8
Main Authors: Ngoepe, Mpho, Makhubela, Salmon
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aging
Artisans
Brain drain
Competition
Competitive advantage
Computer Science, Information Systems
Employee turnover
Employees
Human resource management
Information Science & Library Science
Knowledge
Knowledge management
Knowledge organization
knowledge retention
knowledge transfer
Layoffs
Management
Methods
Mines
Mining engineering
Mining industry
platinum mine
Platinum mining
R&D
Research & development
Retention
Retirement
Shortages
Skills
South Africa
Workforce
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Summary:Background: Knowledge retention plays an important role in combating organisational knowledge loss. However, some organisations, including mining companies, still lose organisational knowledge because of employees’ retiring, resigning, downsizing, attrition and so on. This leaves the organisations with a shortage of qualified senior experienced employees to meet production needs, which has a negative impact on the running of the operational functions on a day-to-day basis. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate knowledge retention strategies in a platinum mine in the North West Province of South Africa. Method: The study used qualitative research approach. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and document analysis. Results: The key findings of the study revealed that although the mine has a knowledge retention policy, some of the employees are not aware of its existence and there was not enough support of knowledge retention initiatives from the management.  Conclusion: The study concludes by arguing that having knowledge retention policy, strategies and initiatives on paper but failing to implement is as good as not having it. The organisation needs to implement knowledge retention policy in order to benefit from the knowledge retention initiative.
ISSN:2078-1865
1560-683X
1560-683X
DOI:10.4102/sajim.v20i1.905