Abstract
Knowledge leakage is the loss of knowledge. Staff turnover causes many knowledge leakages. Internal and external knowledge leakage in software development organisations lowers the organisations’ competitive advantage. Knowledge sharing is a process of innovation and value creation that leads to competitive advantage. Innovation is a result of effective knowledge sharing process. Knowledge can be shared internally and externally, however, not all knowledge can be shared externally due to some confidentiality. Some organisations do not promote knowledge sharing in order to avoid knowledge leakage. This study broadens our knowledge on understanding knowledge leakages and knowledge sharing in software development organisations. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from IT professionals to explore knowledge sharing and knowledge leakages. A response rate of 52% were received. The results indicate that people always move from one organisation to the other resulting in an increased knowledge leakage as people will always share whatever they have learnt in the new organisation. Three key critical findings that cause staff turnover are management and citizenship, organisational culture and employee morale.