Knowledge Workers and Their Working Field and Circumstances
DQ 4 about Knowledge Workers and their working field and circumstances
The term knowledge worker was first used by Peter Drucker in his book Landmarks of Tomorrow from 1959. His opinion is right that knowledge workers have positions in the technology field, researching, system analysts, technical writers, academical professionals and so forth.
The concrete definition of a knowledge worker is described in Thomas Davenports Book Thinking for a living (2005) as someone who uses his mind for work. Knowledge workers do primary solve “non-routine” difficulties and not daily tasks. They possess knowledge and are able to carry out combining convergent, divergent and creative thinking (Reinhardt et al., 2005).
As knowledge workers need time to search for their information – according Mcdermott (2005) they spend about 38% of their time searching for information – knowledge workers can not be treated as other workers. They do not receive all necessary information from their management in order to fulfill their tasks. They are analysing and working with their creativity in order to develop strategies, new products or other outputs. They often work out of their head office, they are displaced by their managements or they work in a home office (2005).
They are considered by Cooper (2006) as people who “think for a living” and they are working in positions often related to the information technology and they include doctors, lawyers, teachers, nurses, financial analysts and architects.
In our times, the percentual number of the knowledge workers in most of the working fields is increasing. Due to the information technology, the number expands dramatically.
So what is the challenge for a company to have a suiting organisational arrangement for knowledge workers? There are circumstances which assist and others stop the creativity and performance of knowledge workers:
Assiting circumstances:
-free time table
-possibility of learning and teaching during work
The term knowledge worker was first used by Peter Drucker in his book Landmarks of Tomorrow from 1959. His opinion is right that knowledge workers have positions in the technology field, researching, system analysts, technical writers, academical professionals and so forth.
The concrete definition of a knowledge worker is described in Thomas Davenports Book Thinking for a living (2005) as someone who uses his mind for work. Knowledge workers do primary solve “non-routine” difficulties and not daily tasks. They possess knowledge and are able to carry out combining convergent, divergent and creative thinking (Reinhardt et al., 2005).
As knowledge workers need time to search for their information – according Mcdermott (2005) they spend about 38% of their time searching for information – knowledge workers can not be treated as other workers. They do not receive all necessary information from their management in order to fulfill their tasks. They are analysing and working with their creativity in order to develop strategies, new products or other outputs. They often work out of their head office, they are displaced by their managements or they work in a home office (2005).
They are considered by Cooper (2006) as people who “think for a living” and they are working in positions often related to the information technology and they include doctors, lawyers, teachers, nurses, financial analysts and architects.
In our times, the percentual number of the knowledge workers in most of the working fields is increasing. Due to the information technology, the number expands dramatically.
So what is the challenge for a company to have a suiting organisational arrangement for knowledge workers? There are circumstances which assist and others stop the creativity and performance of knowledge workers:
Assiting circumstances:
-free time table
-possibility of learning and teaching during work
References: Davenport, Thomas H. (2005) Thinking for a living, Boston: Harvard Business Press Drucker, Peter (1959) Landmarks of Tomorrow, Harper & Row Reinhardt, W., Schmidt, B., Sloep, P., & Drachsler, H. (2011). Knowledge worker roles and actions – results of two empirical studies. Knowledge and Process Management, 18.3, 150-174. doi:10.1002/kpm.378, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/kpm.378/abstract accessed 29 of June 2013 My company in Greece: Bluemar Hellas Ltd. http://www.bluemar.gr last accessed 29 of June 2013 Mcdermott, Michael. "Knowledge Workers: You can gauge their effectiveness." Leadership Excellence. Vol. 22.10. October 2005, ABI/ Inform Global, p. 15. Retrieved on 29 of June 2013. http://search.proquest.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/docview/204608225/fulltextPDF/13287B92CD243559B98/16?accountid=14771 Cooper, Doug. "Knowledge Workers." Canadian Businesses. Vol 79.20. October, 2006, Rogers Publishing Limited, p. 59. Retrieved on 29 of June 2013 http://search.proquest.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/docview/221415046?accountid=14771