Knowmad Society

Knowmad Society explores the future of learning, work, and how we relate with each other in a world driven by accelerating change, value networks, and the rise of knowmads. Knowmads are nomadic knowledge workers: Creative, imaginative, and innovative people who can work with almost anybody, anytime, and anywhere. The jobs associated with 21st century knowledge and innovation workers have become much less specific concerning task and place, but require more value-generative applications of what they know. The office as we know it is gone. Schools and other learning spaces will follow next. In this book, nine authors from three continents, ranging from academics to business leaders, share their visions for the future of learning and work. Educational and organizational implications are uncovered, experiences are shared, and the contributors explore what it’s going to take for individuals, organizations, and nations to succeed in Knowmad Society.

Organizational Dynamics, 2008

2010

Introduction to Book: Livingstone, DW and Sawchuk, Peter H. (2004). Hidden knowledge: organized labour in the information age. Toronto: Garamond [University of Toronto Press].

The contemporary world demand knowledge and skill-sets that can cope with the environmental flux and economic instability of the prevailing climate. How enterprises respond to such demands will determine whether they survive or perish. Especially within the context of globalization and its implication for recruiting knowledgeable workers, organizations must respond to such challenges by providing competitive learning environments that will foster learning and will allow knowledge workers to obtain optimal performance capable of withstanding and surviving the brutal force of globalization and other "knowledgeintensive companies" (Huang, 2011, p. 924).

Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 2020

What are the potential futures of knowledge work, given its transformation into almost exclusively digital work during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis? Our ongoing research program on digital nomadism informs a Hegelian dialectical analysis and an envisioning of the future(s) of knowledge work. We contrast the Factory paradigm of work (thesis), exemplified by the "ideal type" of the 9to-5 corporate worker, with the Hypermobility paradigm of work (antithesis), exemplified by the ideal type of the digital nomad. Reflecting on this contrast, we envision the possible digital futures of knowledge work as a continuous spectrum, ranging from a future based on the Digital Taylorism paradigm of work to a future based on the Worker Autonomy paradigm of work. These futures are discussed in terms of different approaches to organizing work, working with technology, delineating work/life boundaries, and provisioning the social safety net. IS researchers are uniquely positioned to perform research and inform decision-making in all these areas, and thus make a difference in determining whether the future we end up with more closely resembles Digital Taylorism or the Worker Autonomy vision.

International Journal of Lifelong Education, 2008

Springer eBooks, 2022

This chapter investigates what forms the knowledge work design in the future on a corporate level. The future is 2030. The methodology includes 20 in-depth interviews (before and during the Covid-19 worldwide pandemic) with researchers working with these issues in the Swedish telecommunication company Telia and the Norwegian telecommunication company Telenor. These are both companies making their living from understanding the future of work on a corporate level. The difference between the two rounds of interviewing is that online homework is the actual work situation in the pandemic March-April 2020, and the interviewed believe that 50% of the work will be done online outside the workplace. The corona crisis changed the way we are working for the future.

European Conference on Knowledge Management

Our paper investigates what forms the knowledge work design on a corporate level in the future. The future might be 2025, 2030, or 2035. The methodology includes interviews with researchers working with these issues in Telia and Telenor. These companies make their living from understanding the future of work both on a corporate and societal level. The main finding is that AI and robotics will be more advanced, but management and organizational structure will be the main changes. The work will be done more as distance work and through virtual teams. The management and organization of work through the coronavirus have opened for more work done independent of time and the workplace and in virtual teams. There is also predicted a lack of professionals and all types of employees in the years to come, leading both to compete for talent and increased importance in keeping the employed knowledge workers through internal career pipelines. AI and robotics will not reduce the need for profess...