MANAGING KNOWLEDGE WORKERS CHAPTER 15 Chapter 15 Managing

MANAGING KNOWLEDGE WORKERS CHAPTER 15

Chapter 15: Managing Knowledge Workers What Is a Knowledge Worker? ® Embodies experience, innovation, creativity, and transformation of experience into knowledge for leveraging products or services ® Transforms business and personal experience into knowledge through capturing, assessing, applying, sharing, and disseminating it within the organization to solve specific problems or to create value 2

Chapter 15: Managing Knowledge Workers Personality and Professional Attributes ® Holds unique values ® Aligns personal and professional growth with corporate vision ® Adopts an attitude of collaboration and sharing ® Has innovative capacity and a creative mind ® Has a clear understanding of the business he is a part ® Willing to learn, unlearn, and adopt new ways that result in better ways of doing a job ® In command of self-control and self-learning ® Willing to grow with the company 3

Chapter 15: Managing Knowledge Workers Makeup of the Knowledge Worker Transformatio n process IT Tools Value s KNOWLEDGE WORKER Organizationa l Culture Personal and corporate experience 4

Chapter 15: Managing Knowledge Workers Core Competencies ® Thinking skills—having a vision how the product or the company can be better ® Continuous learning—unlearning and relearning in tune with fast-changing conditions ® Innovative teams and teamwork—via collaboration, cooperation, and coordination ® Innovation and creativity—”dreaming” new ways to advance the firm 5

Chapter 15: Managing Knowledge Workers Core Competencies (cont’d) ® Risk taking and potential success—making joint decisions with calculated risk ® Decision action taking—be willing to embrace professional discipline, patience, and determination ® Culture of responsibility toward knowledge— loyalty and commitment to one’s manager or leader 6

Chapter 15: Managing Knowledge Workers Business Roles in the Learning Organization ® Learning organization—an organization of people with ingrained commitment to improve their capacity, to create, and to produce what they want to produce ® Data and information are givens ® Since the 1960 s, focus shifted from quantitative to qualitative performanceoriented value-added decision making (See Fig. 15. 2) 7

Chapter 15: Managing Knowledge Workers From Data Processing to Self-Learning—A Trend Non algorithmic (heuristic) Non programmable SMARTNESS KNOWLEDGE INFORMATION Algorithmic DATA From Data Processing to Self-Learning Programmable 8

Chapter 15: Managing Knowledge Workers Work Management Tasks ® Managing knowledge workers ® Searching out, creating, sharing, and using knowledge regularly ® Maintaining work motivation among knowledge workers ® Ensuring readiness to work, especially during an emergency 9

Chapter 15: Managing Knowledge Workers Work Management Tasks (cont’d) ® Allocating effort and switching control among tasks ® Sharing information and integrating work among knowledge workers ® Hiring or recruiting bright, knowledge-seeking individuals ® Managing collaboration, coordination, and concurrent activities among knowledge workers 10

Chapter 15: Managing Knowledge Workers Factors That Limit Knowledge Workers Productivity ® Time constraint ® Working smarter and harder and accomplishing little ® Knowledge workers doing work that the firm did not hire them to do ® Work schedule ® Motivation against knowledge work productivity 11

Chapter 15: Managing Knowledge Workers Work Adjustment Model ® Ensuring the right match between the vocational needs of knowledge workers and the requirements of their jobs ® Achieving and maintaining match with the work environment are basic motives of human work behavior ® When the individual achieves correspondence, he or she can continue with future opportunities with the firm 12

Chapter 15: Managing Knowledge Workers Work Adjustment Model Correspondence (match) Abilities Job requirements Satisfactoriness (satisfactory employee) Promote Transfer Individua l Jo b Fire Retain Vocational needs Reinforcers Correspondence (match) Job Satisfaction (satisfied employee) TENURE option Quit NEW JOB Remain 13

Chapter 15: Managing Knowledge Workers Smart Leadership Requirements ® Assessing core competency of the firm ® Response to the firm’s internal shortcomings ® Vivid knowledge of the external market and the tricky nature of the competition in the marketplace ® Online response to the company’s external environment ® Measuring the return on time 14

Chapter 15: Managing Knowledge Workers Technology and the Knowledge Worker ® IT contributes to knowledge capture, information distribution, and information interpretation ® Ultimate goal of technology is to serve organizational memory and create a working environment that provides these conditions ® Knowledge worker expect to have technical know-how to access, update, and disseminate information from databases and knowledge bases 15

Chapter 15: Managing Knowledge Workers Knowledge Worker’s Skills ® Technical skills and abilities ® Professional experience ® Soft traits such as a sense of cultural, political, and personal aspects of knowledge in the business ® Personal attributes ® Communication skills ® Educational background and college degree 16

Chapter 15: Managing Knowledge Workers Role of Ergonomics ® Environmental issues ® Hardware issues ® Knowledge worker-system interface that emphasizes: ® Minimum worker effort and memory ® Best use of human patterns ® Prompt problem notification ® Maximum task support 17

Chapter 15: Managing Knowledge Workers Role of the CKO ® Maximize returns on investment in knowledge —people, processes, and technology ® Share best practices and reinforce goods of knowledge sharing among employees ® Promote company innovations and commercialization of new ideas ® Minimize “brain drain” or knowledge loss at all levels of the business 18

Chapter 15: Managing Knowledge Workers Role of the CKO (cont’d) ® Agent of change ® Investigator ® Linking pin ® Listener ® Politician 19

Chapter 15: Managing Knowledge Workers CKO’s Technical Skills ® Broad knowledge of business practice and ability to translate technical information at employee level ® Making effective use of technical and nontechnical elements in KM design ® Knowledge of information technology, information systems, and how information is transformed into knowledge 20

Chapter 15: Managing Knowledge Workers Key CKO Attributes ® Teaching and selling ® Communicating—speaking the language of the user, mediate, and working with management at all levels ® Understanding—e. g. , identifying problem areas and determining their impact 21

Chapter 15: Managing Knowledge Workers Factors Change Leaders Consider ® Focus less on problems and more on successes and opportunities ® Adopt an attitude that views challenges as opportunities ® Work on creating tomorrow’s business instead of hammering on yesterday’s problems 22

Chapter 15: Managing Knowledge Workers The Soft Side Always Wins ® Encourage every team member to create new knowledge in the interest of the project ® Help knowledge workers do their jobs ® Allow knowledge workers to participate in major company decisions, which can pay off in intrinsic and extrinsic benefits for the company and employees alike ® Encourage knowledge workers and employees to learn as they earn a living on a regular basis 23

Chapter 15: Managing Knowledge Workers Incentives and Motivation ® Link incentives to a team approach, where team performance will determine size and nature of the incentive ® Use awards for teams as well as individuals for unique contributions ® Flextime allows the team to decide on when to work, when to quit, and so forth ® Monetary rewards, bonuses, and special prizes can be a hit with the winning team ® Publicize success throughout the firm 24

MANAGING KNOWLEDGE WORKERS CHAPTER 15