Discourse communities have changing memberships;individuals enter as apprentices and leave by death or in other less involuntary ways. However, survival of the community depends on a reasonable raito between novices and experts.
John Swales
In a discourse community, such as the insurance industry, having a company such as an insurance brokerage, which contains people that range in competence not only adds a certain depth in the context of the staff of the insurance brokerage, but also provides room for potential growth in a sense that the individuals who obtain a higher competency can provide additional information that would provide of assistance towards the individuals of lower competency. Say, if a training program were set in place for the brokerage in which certain emplyees with higher qualifications were able to train employees with lower qualifications, so that they become more effective in the work place. For the employer of this insurance brokerage, this would prove volatile, as this would save the brokerage money in hiring individuals with a higher qualification due to the fact that there’s a program set in place that creates a cycle in which employees, over time receive the additional training to become more qualified as opposed to remaining complacent in competency.