Coping with the Sudden Loss of an Indispensable Employee

Using real-time longitudinal survey and interview data, the authors assessed explicit and tacit knowledge flows within a small manufacturing firm for an indispensable employee (IE). They then compared those flows to the flows for a replacement employee (RE) who took over after the IE became ill. As expected, they found that (a) explicit and tacit knowledge outflows to coworkers were greater for the IE than for the RE, and (b) tacit knowledge inflows from coworkers were slightly greater for the RE than for the IE. Explicit knowledge inflows from coworkers were not consistently greater for the RE than for the IE. Surprisingly, the loss of the IE did not have a negative impact on the firm's productivity.