Knowledge Workers: Issues and Perspectives

The term knowledge worker has been used for decades, but to date, there is not much understanding as to what knowledge workers do and how their productivity can be improved. As economies are increasingly moving towards becoming knowledge-based economies, enhancing knowledge workers’ performance has emerged as the most important economic issue. A knowledge worker has become the key to growth and differentiator in today’s knowledge economy. The success of organizations in the future will come through the use of brainpower —not natural resources—or the labor force. Knowledge workers do not necessarily work in knowledge-intensive industries, rather they work from small start-ups to big global corporations. As knowledge is an invisible asset that resides largely in the minds of human beings, management is no longer about close observation and monitoring. Because knowledge work can be and is done by both managers and workers, differentiation between them no longer makes sense. The right balance of managing and doing knowledge work varies with particular individuals and situations. It involves developing others, in addition to cultivating one’s own capabilities. So, management in the knowledge economy is a different game, with different rules. Against this background, the proposed book focuses on the perspectives and factors that impact performance in today’s vital workforce.