The times where I've seen this applied are when 

	*  The people have lost faith in the organization for one reason or another and
	* The job market is very hot for their particular skills.
It's bad news for the losing company, but it can be a big boost for the industry as expertise becomes more spread out.

I've seen it happen twice. When I worked for NCR in the late 80's and very early '90's, it was a very exciting and interesting environment. Then AT&T bought the company. Projects ground to a halt as the fear uncertainty and doubt spread.  Then the first set of RIF's (Reduction-in-Force) came. Most of the really good technical staff (myself included) saw the writing on the wall and left fast. A lot of startups in Atlanta and Dayton saw some spectacular growth as a result of this.

At KSC, in early 1994, we had to (for various reasons) cancel a project that had become the life and soul for the group that was working on it. As a result, the entire group became disillusioned and left within a space of about six months.  They're now a core part of projects within IBM.

Apparently the same thing happened at Parcplace-Digitalk after the merger. The original Parcplace developers felt out of place in the new organization, and lost all confidence in its management. As a result, most of them work for Sun now...

-- KyleBrown

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Been there, done that. Instead of feeling disloyal for leaving, things once reached the stage where staying felt disloyal. See TribalLoyalty. -- BenAveling

(Perhaps TribalDevelopment? -- A. Nonymous, Wellington)

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The same thing seems to be happening now at EarthLink. EarthLink is a giant bad ISP that absorbed MindSpring, a giant good ISP. Mindspring's CorporateCulture was more fun, and more sympathetic towards customers, employing a set of CoreValuesAndBeliefs. Earthlink's CorporateCulture was cubicles and whips. They claimed to have adopted the CVBs, but according to former employees, this is hardly the case. Quittings ensued among former Mindspringers, and a former employee created http://www.earthlinksucks.net/. -- NickBensema