A Temporal Knowledge Continuity Framework: Explaining Delayed Performance Effects of Employee Turnover

Abstract

Employee turnover threatens organizational performance primarily through the disruption of knowledge continuity, although its most consequential effects often emerge only after a temporal delay. Existing knowledge management research has extensively examined turnover, knowledge retention, and knowledge loss, yet it offers limited explanation of why performance deterioration frequently emerges only after employee departure rather than immediately. This paper develops a Temporal Knowledge Continuity Framework (TKCF) that conceptualizes employee turnover as a knowledge discontinuity shock and explains how delayed organizational consequences emerge over time. Drawing on the knowledge‐based view, knowledge retention theory, dynamic capabilities, and temporal process logic, the framework explains how turnover at t 0 initiates latent rupture in tacit expertise access, how tacit knowledge discontinuity emerges at t 1 when teams face ambiguity and coordination‐intensive demands, and how team performance deterioration becomes visible at t 2 through reduced decision quality, weakened innovation responsiveness, and increased coordination friction. The framework further positions knowledge management interventions—including mentoring, shadowing, communities of practice, structured handovers, and AI‐enabled continuity systems—as dynamic continuity capabilities that buffer the conversion of turnover shocks into tacit erosion. The paper contributes by extending the knowledge‐based view through a temporal explanation of knowledge continuity, identifying Tacit Knowledge Discontinuity as the missing intervening mechanism linking employee turnover to delayed performance deterioration, and repositioning knowledge management interventions as continuity‐preserving dynamic capabilities.