So often we hear "everybody is a knowledge worker nowadays" (although this is questioned in an article "Are all Employees Knowledge Workers?" by John Hagel III, John Seely Brown and Lang Davison in Harverd Business Review online). This made me wonder, what actually is a knowledge manager, what characterizes a knowledge worker? This is what I'm trying to find out here.
“The most valuable asset of a 21st century institution will be its knowledge workers and their productivity”
Peter Drucker (1909-2005)
Are you a software developer, or maybe a lawyer or management consultant? Do you ‘think for a living’ (quote by Thomas Davenport on Wikipedia)? More and more people nowadays work in jobs that require their knowledge to produce products, instead of their hands or machines. And similarly, more and more companies rely on so-called ‘knowledge workers’.
Characteristics of a “Knowledge Worker”
This new type of worker, ‘knowledge worker’, was first described by Peter Drucker in 1973. At the same time, Drucker wasn’t very specific in what a knowledge worker exactly is, leaving lots of room for discussion and interpretation. “...the knowledge worker who puts to work what he has learned in systematic education, that is concepts, ideas and theories, rather than the man who puts to work manual skill or muscle” (Drucker quoted by Kidd [1]).
To make it more complicated, according to Evan Rosen in Business Week, “... ‘knowledge worker’ and ‘manual labourer’ are no longer mutually exclusive”. Any worker who carries out manual work, also has knowledge and information that contributes to the organization, to improve products and processes.
The Worker Foundation comes to a similar conclusion in its report “Knowledge Worker and Knowledge Work” by pointing out that a definition of knowledge worker becomes less clear when it involves vocational skills. “... it would be hard to argue that the more sophisticated vocational skills - for example, in diagnostic work - are not also engaged in the production and adaption of knowledge work”.
One can define knowledge workers from the type of work they carry out and the skills and education needed for that. According to Kelloway and Barling (2000) [2], “... knowledge work is understood to comprise the creation of knowledge, the application of knowledge, the transmission of knowledge, and the acquisition of knowledge” (p. 287).
Another way of looking at knowledge workers is the industries where they can be found. A study by Statistical Canada (*) carried out in 2004 shows that knowledge workers are not surprisingly overrepresented in ICT service industries. 84% of employees working in the ICT services industry can defined as knowledge workers. Other industries are architecture, engineering and scientific services (78% of employees is knowledge worker), management consulting (69%) and financial services (68%).
Looking at literature and research studies, we can conclude that there is no exclusive description of a knowledge worker. To keep it simple, we assume here that a knowledge worker is any employee that uses his or her brains (knowledge, from education and experience) to get his work done.
Some of the characteristics of a knowledge worker are:
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needs life-long learning (over life long employment)
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is responsibility over own productivity (Drucker)
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team work, communication, create share and maintain knowledge
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negotiate next steps as one works (from Human Interaction Management, in Wikipedia)
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subject matter experts in often a narrow field of expertise.
Knowledge products
Most of the work of knowledge workers is ‘invisible craft’ (Jim McGee in 2002). Lilia Efimova uses an iceberg metaphor to describe the top of the work that is visible, while the rest happens under water. For a company, often only the end product of knowledge work is interesting. Not the idea, thoughts, decisions and discussions, nor the half-products, that are needed to come to the final product. These end products can be: research reports, product design, software. Typically those products are unique and depend on the producer, who will bring a personal flavour that is caused by his or her education, experience, preferences and so on. To quote Drucker again: quantity of output [of a knowledge worker] is not most important, quality is at least as important.
Knowledge workers and productivity
Knowledge workers are often associated with productivity, or rather: productivity that needs boosting or at least be increased. Why is productivity a challenge for knowledge workers - more than for factory workers or farmers? One reason could be that the work of a knowledge worker and the expected end products are poorly defined. Part of a knowledge worker’s task is to define his/her own work, what steps to take, when to do the work. And if the result of the work is not clearly defined, there is a lot of ambiguity as well as interpretation differences. The consequence is that communication is essential for knowledge workers. Communication is often not seen as a productive activity (because, what is the end result?), could even be regarded as waste of time. Plus, take all the other (less important) tasks that the same knowledge worker is expected to finish and it becomes clear that a knowledge worker needs more skills than only professional capabilities to get the job done.
Tips for knowledge workers:
- Keep learning. You are responsible for your development and as knowledge is your asset, keep developing it. Don’t wait for your manager or HR to tell you to do so.
- Make your work visible, not only the end products. Share ideas, thoughts, questions, draft versions.
- Be aware that you are most vulnerable for issues like information overload, becoming burned out.
- Internal motivation is key to prevent becoming burnt out. Are you passionate about what you do? Do you feel challenged (in a positive way)? Are you learning new things all the time?
(*) The link seems to be archived since my last visit (June 2014)..
Sources
[1] Kidd, A. (1994). The marks are on the knowledge worker. Proceedings of CHI’94 (pp. 186-191). Boston: ACM Press.
[2] Kelloway, E.K., & Barling, J. (2000). Knowledge work as organizational behaviour. International Journal of Management Reviews, 2(3), 287-304.
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