Building an IT team with too many different kinds of experts actually makes them more likely to all quit at the exact same time.
March 25, 2026
Original Paper
Addressing Collective Turnover Among IT Professionals: Does Knowledge Diversity Matter and Can Leaders’ Network Positioning Help?
SSRN · 6462220
The Takeaway
Management theory usually treats knowledge diversity as a stabilizer or a clear benefit for innovation. This study reveals a dark side: units with higher knowledge diversity are significantly more prone to 'collective turnover,' where multiple professionals quit simultaneously, threatening organizational stability.
From the abstract
IT industry has experienced significantly increased levels of collective turnover—the simultaneous resignations of multiple employees within a given period, raising concerns about workforce stability and managerial decision making related to workforce design and retention. We examine this phenomenon through the lens of knowledge diversity. Although assembling project teams with experts from diverse knowledge domains has become a dominant practice in the IT sector, evidence remains limited regard