KNOWLEDGE WORKERS

Knowledge workers, the intellectual capital of the 21st century, are transforming the global economy. Their unique skills and abilities are the driving force behind innovation and progress. Let's delve into their world and understand their significant role in shaping our future.

Knowledge workers are those who acquire, manipulate, interpret, and apply information in order to perform multidisciplinary, complex and unpredictable work

they analyze information and apply expertise in a variety of areas to solve problems, generate ideas, or create new products and services.

• They are characterized by the use of information, by unique work situations, and by creativity and autonomy.

Communication Skills

Knowledge workers must be able to speak, read, write, and listen in one-on-one and group settings.

• The goals of organizational effectiveness and continual improvement of products, together with the need to continually consider new information in order to accomplish work, require communication between supervisor and supervised and among team mates or colleagues.

IntelLECTUAL CAPABILITIES

Knowledge workers must have the intellectual capabilities to acquire the skills discussed above.

• Persons who perform knowledge work must possess the abilities needed to acquire appropriate communication skills and to learn how to figure out where and how information can be located.

The Workplace

The characteristics of each individual knowledge worker’s workplace depend on the type of work accomplished and what the employer is willing and able to provide.

• Workplace arrangements range from traditional physical office space occupied by employees between the hours of 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M., to virtual office space which can exist just about anywhere.

Finding and accessing information

Distribution of information within organizations has become problematic due to the massive amount of information with which employees need to be familiar

Challenges and Opportunities

Challenges include attainment and maintenance of a well educated, highly skilled, and efficient workforce

• Opportunities include chances for greater numbers of working age people to hold more rewarding jobs than previously possible and for employees to be judged according to their unique talents and abilities
• Hiring, retention, and productivity of knowledge workers will remain important issues
• Employers will have to figure out how to promote teamwork among knowledge workers, how to best design the workplace, and how to keep knowledge workers from becoming overwhelmed with the information they need to do their jobs

Ability to Apply Information

Knowledge workers use information to answer questions, solve problems, complete writing assignments, and generate ideas.

Motivation

Knowledge workers must remain interested in finding information, memorizing that information, and applying it to their work

Further Reading

Cortada, James W., ed. Rise of the Knowledge Worker. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1998

• Drucker, Peter F., Managing in a Time of Great Change. New York: Truman Talley Books/Dutton, 1995
• Goldsmith, Marshall. “Retain Your Top Performers.” Executive Excellence 14, no. 11 (1997): 10-11
• Gordon, Edward E., and Barbara R. Levin. “Building a Free Agent Community.” Compensation and Benefit Management 14, No. 3 (1998): 24-30
• Krebsbach, Karen. “Outsourcing: Fighting a Giant Sucking Sound: Banks Face Backlash on IT Job Exports Overseas.” Bank Technology News (August 2003). Available from http://infotrac.galegroup.com
• Munk, Nina, and Price, Steven M., eds. “Facilities Planning: A Perspective for the Information Age.” IIE Solutions 29, no.(1997)

Possessing factual and theoretical knowledge

Knowledge workers need years of formal education to master the information needed to enter a particular field of work.

Historical Background

Some occupations have always centered on the use of specialized information

• Only recently, however, have persons employed in these types of occupations begun to outnumber those employed in jobs that do not require intensive knowledge
• In the late 1950s and early 1960s, writers such as Fritz Machlup and Peter Drucker first identified and described the reasons behind this phenomenon
• Today the increase in knowledge work professions concerns business administrators, professors, management consultants and others interested in learning how to increase business profits or improve life’s quality
• Information continues to influence work and alter the way it is accomplished

There is a Knowledge Worker Shortage

The information society requires a highly qualified workforce. The fact that traditional blue-collar workers cannot acquire easily the knowledge and skills needed to become knowledge workers will create a shortage of these types of workers.

• Hiring and Retaining the Knowledge Worker
• In order to hire and retain knowledge workers, employers may offer higher salaries, attractive work environments, and continuing educational opportunities
• Employers make work attractive and rewarding by providing growth opportunities

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