This may be especially true where the trust level is low or where the group believes that it must hold on to its knowledge in order to hold onto its power. In either case, the transferred knowledge may be broken. Other Kinds of Knowledge Breakage Knowledge may break over time as the underlying information or data supporting the knowledge changes. This can occur because of discoveries that modify or invalidate the knowledge or because of the lack of relevance as time progresses. Another contributing factor of breakage is organizational change.
Breakage can also occur through forgetting.
Forgetting can occur at an individual or organizational level. On an individual level, for example, it can manifest itself when an important ingredient is left out of a recipe. Preparing the recipe results in an unexpected product and a broken recipe unless the missing ingredient can be remembered or discovered. In the organizational setting knowledge can be forgotten over time, through changes in personnel, through a lack of formal maintenance, or through carelessness. Although knowledge is a very valuable and fragile entity, I also believe it can be fairly resilient depending on how it is treated.