On Being a Knowledge Worker

2000

It is widely believed that knowledge work is a relatively new phenomenon and constitutes the main form of activity in post-industrial organisations. While the term remains undefined, it is taken to refer to the knowledge that individuals apply while performing business activities in 'knowledge-intensive' firms. Here, the subjective knowledge of individual social actors' is applied to objective organizational knowledge as the raw material of the production process. Thus, knowledge is considered to be both an input and an output of business processes and to also underpin the process by which knowledge inputs are transformed to outputs. This conceptualization is incorrect, and in order to illustrate why, the socially constructed nature of individual knowledge and its relationship to knowledge-produced data is subjected to critical analysis. Cooley (1975) was one of the first to employ the term 'knowledge worker'; however, his conception encompasses both white and blue-collar workers, professionals and craftspeople alike. This paper echoes Cooley's perspective in many respects; however, it seeks to extend and apply it in a contemporary context. Accordingly, the first section of this paper explores the constitution of individual knowledge and deconstructs commonly held beliefs on knowledge by examining its relationship to data and information. However, in order to help researchers and practitioners understand better the phenomenon, the third section presents a conceptual model and taxonomy of knowledge in organizational contexts. This paper's motivation is to eliminate the hype that surrounds the concept of knowledge work and to propose an understanding of the phenomenon that is more in tune with the 'reality' of organisational life as evidenced by the author's experience as a practitioner and his empirical research on information and communication technologies (ICT) infrastructures in the newspaper industry. Thus the fourth and penultimate section of the paper draws on this research in support of its thesis and, also, to inform its conclusions.

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

AMCIS 2000 Proceedings, 2000

The new economy, which has emerged in the last two decades, is critically dependent on the capacity to generate, process and efficiently apply knowledge. Yet, with notable exceptions, knowledge work has not been seriously addressed in the literature. The purpose of this paper is to understand the internal characteristics of knowledge work. Our analysis is concerned with the concept and nature of knowledge work rather than the philosophical questions that underlie it. We interpret knowledge work is as work that is based on a body of knowledge, usually entails working on representations of the objects of work, stipulates typically a deep understanding of the objects of work, and the outputs of which entail knowledge as its essential ingredient. These elements are used in characterise knowledge work. The paper also discusses how this analysis contributes to the development of a theoretical model of knowledge work

The knowledge economy is emerging and writers from various disciplines have written about it. The aim of this paper is to provide a definition of what knowledge is in relation to this new form of economy. It uses literature from writers across disciplines such as sociology, economics, and business management and empirical data. The writers include Bell (1973), Castells (2000), Lash and Urry (1994), Quah (1999), Knorr Cetina (2005), Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995), and Drucker (1993). Using a relational approach, this article argues that there is a wide spectrum of views and that this emerging economy has no defined boundaries but connective dimensions with other styles of economies. Knowledge from the perspective of knowledge economy should also be viewed in a relational manner. Knowledge of science, technology, and culture industries are important. In addition to a definition of knowledge relating to the knowledge economy, this article also offers insights that are relevant for those people - creative knowledge workers – utilising such knowledge creatively to produce commercially viable products/services. The paper uses an example of such a worker to exemplify the types of knowledge required to carry out his/her role in the knowledge economy. It finishes with some implications for working and learning.

2019

Knowledge workers' information needs vary. The key to better productivity is applying technology more precisely. Rethinking knowledge work: A strategic approach In the half-century since Peter Drucker coined the term "knowledge workers," their share of the workforce has steadily grown-and so has the range of technology tools aimed at boosting their productivity. Yet there's little evidence that massive spending on personal computing, productivity software, knowledge-management systems, and much else has moved the needle. What's more, a wide variety of recent research has begun suggesting that always-on, multitasking work environments are so distracting that they are sapping productivity. (For more on this problem, see "Recovering from information overload," on mckinseyquarterly.com.) After researching the productivity of knowledge workers for years, I've concluded that organizations need a radically different approach. Yes, technology is a vital enabler of communication, of collaboration, and of access to rising volumes of information. But least-commondenominator approaches involving more technology for all have reached a point of diminishing returns. It's time for companies to develop a strategy for knowledge work-one that not only provides a clearer view of the types of information that workers need to do their jobs but also recognizes that the application of technology across the organization must vary considerably, according to the tasks different knowledge workers perform. Few executives realize that there are two divergent paths for improving access to the information that lies at the core of knowledge work.

Canadian Journal of Communication, 2009

In the epoch of modern globalization, knowledge economy has become a prolific approach in the 21st century because of its self-sustaining capability to survive in the coming global economic battle and its growing importance as one of the key sources of growth in the global economy where organizations and people acquire, create, disseminate and use knowledge more efficiently for the greater aspect of economic and social development as well. It has a unique role to restructuring at the latest stage of development considering its core philosophy towards the sustainable global economic challenge. Here, the core idea of the knowledge driven economy is not merely a demonstration of high tech industries; it means something more than of its traditional concept, a set of new sources of competitive advantage which can easily be applied to all sectors, all companies and all regions at the same time to establishing its feasibility in an effective manner. “Knowledge Economy”, the phrase was popularized by Peter Drucker as the title of Chapter 12 in his book “The Age of Discontinuity”. But, the initial foundation for the knowledge economy was introduced in 1966 in the book “The Effective Executive” by Peter Drucker. In this book, Drucker described the subtle difference between the manual worker and the knowledge worker. According to him, the manual worker works with his or her hands and produces goods or services. In contrast, a knowledge worker works with his or her head, not hands, and produces ideas, knowledge and information. Peter Drucker also emphasizes that knowledge economy is a relative concept; a vague definition of knowledge which creates the key problem in the formalization and modeling of knowledge. Because, it is not proper to consider information society as interchangeable with knowledge society; information is usually not equivalent to knowledge as their use depends on individual and group preferences which are "economy-dependent". Here, due to the recent triumph of ICT, all traditional economic patterns have been changed now; a new concept of knowledge economy has been introduced which is playing a pregnant role to meet up the today’s challenge of globalizing and to keep the world beyond our imagination.

South China Morning Post, 29 March 2017

Human Resource Development Quarterly, 2007

In 1969, Peter Drucker said in his book The Age of Discontinuity that "to make knowledge work productive will be the great management task of this century, just as to make manual work productive was the great management task of the last century" (p. 290). People nowadays have become more familiar with the term knowledge work than when the guru used it. However, there is yet to be substantial advancement on how to make knowledge work productive, and in many cases we do not even attempt to make it productive. Thomas Davenport, who has a long-standing reputation as an expert in knowledge management, extends his attention to knowledge work and starts to address how to make it productive in his latest book, Thinking for a Living: How to Get Better Performance and Results from Knowledge Workers. In this book, he describes two typical ways of dealing with knowledge workers: HSPALTA, which means "hire smart people and leave them alone" (p. 39); or manage them with techniques designed for the Industrial Age. He defines knowledge workers as those who "have high degrees of expertise, education, or experience, and the primary purpose of their jobs involves the creation, distribution, or application of knowledge" (p. 10). Starting with this definition, he shows how knowledge workers differ from others, how they think and accomplish tasks, and what motivates them to perform better.