Knowledge Workers

In the context of knowledge-driven economy and knowledge-intensive organizations one of most important information user communities appears to be “knowledge workers”. What is the information landscape in which knowledge workers operate and what is their personal and organizational information literacy (IL) landscape? What differentiates knowledge workers from other information users? Is IL enough for a knowledge worker or is the term “information fluency” or “knowledge literacy” more relevant in this case? This paper attempts to clarify relations between information literacy and knowledge literacy and answer the title question. Analyzed studies of workplace IL imply the need to broaden the basic definition of IL

A significant recent technological development concerns the automation of knowledge and service work as a result of advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its sub-fields. We use the term Intelligent Automation to describe this phenomenon. This development presents organisations with a new strategic opportunity to increase business value. However, academic research contributions that examine these developments are spread across a wide range of scholarly disciplines resulting in a lack of consensus regarding key findings and implications. We conduct the first interdisciplinary literature review that systematically characterises the intellectual state and development of Intelligent Automation technologies in the knowledge and service sectors. Based on this review, we provide three significant contributions. First, we conceptualise Intelligent Automation and its associated technologies. Second, we provide a business value-based model of Intelligent Automation for knowledge and service work and identify twelve research gaps that hinder a complete understanding of the business value realisation process. Third, we provide a research agenda to address these gaps.

The elusive and intangible nature of the knowledge work represents a major challenge for the management community. Improving their productivity is the next frontier to increase overall productivity. Although all the studies and discussions around this subject throughout the decades, there is still not a definitive approach to address the productivity of knowledge workers. The organization seems to still prefer to rely on traditional performance systems that show inefficient when applying to knowledge workers. This study intends to investigate the relationship between the productivity measurements used in an organization and analyse the results through the compassion against three social players: the organization, the manager and the worker. Using a pragmatic approach, different data collection methods were applied to each social player. The data analyses demonstrated that the organization applies similar productivity measurement across the functional departments, missing hidden opportunities to increase productivity. Based on the literature reviewed, recommendations are suggested that could be used by the organization to develop stronger productivity measurement systems. This research provides further empirical evidence to address the problem of knowledge worker productivity.

Theories of post-industrial society have since their earliest formulations had a questionable relation to actual processes of social change. This article explores why they nonetheless continue to hold influence. Drawing on Mannheim, it argues that theories of post-industrial society were originally formulated as utopia – hopeful speculations about the future. When their core concepts are used to describe present conditions, however, they take on the role of ideology, in
Mannheim’s sense of this term. The ideology of post-industrial society represents a specific world view in relation to work, knowledge and education. It elevates and celebrates ‘knowledge work’ and renders invisible existing forms of industry and workers’ knowledge necessary for practical work. When the present is viewed through the lens of these theories, practical work is cast as the work of yesterday and the people who do it as yesterday’s people.

From the mere presence of plants to window views of nearby nature, contact with nature in the workplace has been associated with increased productivity and creativity, as well as positive emotional and physical health outcomes. Nevertheless, if nature is to be incorporated within or near workplaces effectively, it is important that workers perceive natural spaces to be conducive, and not detrimental, to performance on activities that they may engage in at work or else these changes to the physical environment may not be fully embraced by workers. Thus, in the current research we examine workers’ preferences and perceptions of different natural and constructed (built) environments for different workplace activities. In Study 1, 64 knowledge workers were exposed to images of natural outdoor and constructed indoor workspaces. They selected where they thought they would best and least be able to perform different workplace activities. Natural outdoor spaces were overrepresented as the b...

In this research i set the sight on exmanination in order to find several answers of review questionarie and emphasize the most significant points of the essay which written by Maurizio Lazzarato as a contribution for his article " Radical Thought in Italy: A Potential Politics " published in 1997. In order to simplify the review some desciriptions and pre-examinations would be useful. Understanding the outframe of the Immaterial Labour, could help us on the way of review. Due to this, we will adress some sections from the main article and mentions about the social conditions by the time it's published. Our method and stages shall be ordered as reading, understanding the frame, summarizing and writing the review. As we understand during the classes labour relations was inevitabily changing from the past to the present. We should argue that the momentum of the change was differing based on its' age.

We have en­t­e­red the first pha­se of the re­volt of the know­ledge class. The pro­tests as­so­cia­ted with the Oc­cu­py mo­ve­ment, Chi­le­an stu­dent pro­tests, the Mon­tre­al pro­tests, Eu­ro­pean anti-aus­te­ri­ty pro­tests, some com­po­n­ents of the pro­tests of the Arab spring, as well as mul­ti­ple on­go­ing and in­ter­mit­tent strikes of teachers, ci­vil ser­vants, and me­di­cal workers all over the world, are pro­tests of tho­se pro­le­ta­ria­ni­zed un­der com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ve ca­pi­ta­lism. The­se are not strugg­les of the multi­tu­de, strugg­les for de­mo­cra­cy, or strugg­les spe­ci­fic to lo­cal con­texts. Nor are they me­rely the de­fen­si­ve strugg­les of a midd­le class fa­c­ing cuts to so­ci­al ser­vices, wage sta­gna­ti­on, un­em­ploy­ment, and de­cli­ning home va­lues. They are fronts in a class war un­der the con­di­ti­ons of glo­bal com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ve ca­pi­ta­lism.

Main­stream me­dia bab­b­le about Face­book and Twit­ter re­vo­lu­ti­ons was right, but for the wrong re­a­sons. It was right to draw our at­ten­ti­on to net­wor­ked me­dia, to sug­gest a link bet­ween the pro­tests and ubi­qui­tous com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on net­works. But it was wrong to think that pro­tests are oc­cur­ring be­cau­se peop­le can ea­si­ly co­or­di­na­te with so­ci­al me­dia, that they are pri­ma­ri­ly strugg­les for de­mo­cra­cy, or that they are in­di­ca­ti­ons of a push for free­dom on the part of net­wor­ked in­di­vi­du­als. The­se re­volts make sen­se as class strugg­le, as the po­li­ti­cal strugg­le of a know­ledge class who­se work is ex­ploi­ted and li­ves are ex­pro­pria­ted by com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ve ca­pi­ta­lism.

Ekonomilerin gittikçe daha fazla bilgiye dayalı hale geldiği, son elli yıldır sıklıkla duyduğumuz argümanlardan birisidir. " Bilgi endüstrisi " , " bilgi ekonomisi " , " post-en-düstriyel toplum " ve " post-kapitalist toplum " gibi farklı kavramların kullanıldığı birçok araştırma ve tartışmadaki temel argüman, 1950-1960'lar sonrasında ekonomide, bilgi-nin temel üretim faktörü haline geldiğidir (bk. Machlup, 1962; Toffler, 1970; Reich, 1991). Post-endüstriyel toplum kavramını kullanan ilk teorisyenlerden olan Daniel Bell, endüstriyel toplumun temel yapısal elemanları sermaye ve emek iken, post-endüstriyel toplumun temel faktörünün bilgi olduğunu iddia etmişti (Bell, 1973, p. xiii). İyi üni-versitelerden mezun olmuş profesyonel uzmanlar ve yöneticiler, bu yeni ekonominin dayandığı bilgi işçilerini oluşturuyordu. 1960'larda büyük oranda gelişmiş Batı ülkeleri için geçerli olan bu argüman ilerleyen zaman içinde bu ülkelerin dışında kalan gelişmek-te olan ülkeler için de kullanılmaya başlandı. 1950'lerin sonunda ünlü işletme gurusu Peter Drucker tarafından ilk kullanıldı-ğından beri " bilgi işçisi " , özellikle işletme alanında çalışmalar yapan akademisyenlerin sürekli kullandıkları bir kavram oldu. Drucker ve bu konuda yazan diğer araştırmacılar, geçmişteki organizasyonların toprak, emek ve sermayeye dayalı olmalarından farklı ola-rak, yeni organizasyonların temel üretim faktörü olan bilgiye dayandığını iddia ettiler. Onların iddialarına göre, bu yeni organizasyonun temel varlıkları, profesyonel nitelikleri ve bilgileri sayesinde karmaşık görevleri yerine getirebilen bilgi işçileriydi. Bu yüzden de bilgi işçilerini en iyi şekilde yönetebilmek ve üretkenliklerini artırabilmek yeni dönemin en önde gelen organizasyonel hedefleriydi. Tam da bu araçsal hedeflerden dolayı bilgi işçisinin nasıl yönetilmesi gerektiği, üretkenliğinin nasıl artırılabileceği ve organizasyo-na ne tür katkılarda bulunacağı işletme literatüründe sıklıkla tartışılan konular olurken

This research, conducted by the author when a Senior Researcher at Newcastle University, UK, was funded by a UK governance organisation to help them assess, integrate and improve their understanding of the governed population.

ABSTRACT: Governance organisations have been urged to develop more holistic evidence-based approaches with partners to better deal with issues affecting the governed population. This presupposes an understanding of the population, yet there has been little research work addressing how governance organisations come to understand their governed population, nor how this understanding can be improved upon within such organisations.

This case study examined in-depth how understanding of a governed population was developed within one UK local governance organisation and it explored how such understanding might be developed and improved through more holistic and evidence-based organisational learning within the organisation and its governance partnerships.

The research methodology involved placement within the governance organisation, participant observations on several projects and innovative initiatives, observations within, across, and outside the organisation, and also interviews with varied key stakeholders.

The study examined:

- stakeholder engagement and networks
- current and varied understandings of the population
- mechanisms actually used for developing understandings
- the influence of context on organisational learning

and analysed these to arrive at a recommendations to improve organisational understanding of the governed population.

In the case studied, significant strengths were found: including innovative past learning trials for development, extensive ongoing networking activities, and many varied and accumulating quantitative datasets available across partnerships.

However, entrenched organisational approaches and practices constrained the development of holistic evidence-based understanding, for instance: the absence of systematic maintained collective learning processes; weak recording and forgetting of understandings; methodological exclusion of stakeholders from the development of understanding; the relative neglect of qualitative data, explanations, investigations, interpretations, and reflexivity; and also implicit organisational acceptance of such limitations and low aspirations.

Nonetheless, untapped opportunities existed to enable change including: latent practitioner knowledge and innovative management champions, the desire for improvement and raised aspirations within learning networks, and the development potential of alterative learning approaches.

It was concluded that more holistic evidence-based understanding was possible, but required new learning approaches beyond those then in use in both local government or academia.   

Recommendations are made to utilise and develop improved organisational learning approaches trialed and reported in the case study.

It is argued that the case study findings, conclusions, and recommendations may be applicable to other similar local governance organisations and partnerships that seek to better understand local populations, services and interventions.

The work was also submitted for, and awarded, an MPhil (at Newcastle University, supervised by Prof. Patsy Healy)

This dissertation explores the development of a human capital concept that is here referred to as “green footprint competence” among workers and members of organizations that position themselves as “green”, “organic”, or “environmental solutions providers”. The research
contributes to the studies of social and environmental change by analysing three aspects of this change: a) the institutionalisation of the global green and low-carbon discourses as values, norms, and discursive practices within organizations in Kyrgyzstan and China; b) the
emergence of the green organizational identity; c) and the development of the new competences for the climate change adaptation and mitigation along with the “green identity” of workers and members of greening organizations. The key argument formed as a result of this research is that the development of standards for measuring and reporting of the Personal and Organizational consumption of Earth Resources (i.e.,. personal and organizational carbon and/or ecological footprints), requires a more democratic and inherently more participative approach through developing green competences of organizations’ workers. Would the democratization of the carbon emissions
MRV (measurement, reporting, and verification) make the emissions figures (reported and used in investment and trade decisions) more reliable and grounded? Does not the tendency of organizations to advance performative interpretations of their environmental and social
responsibilities in the quest of staying competitive and enact greenness actually prevent environmental conduct that reduces carbon? Often the organizational infrastructure and incentives are set in such a way that it discourages the pursuit of de-carbonization. Instead “being green” becomes a negotiable and a transient state, in which reported greenness is a result of a multitude of interpretations and data bending in order to fit in the new green economy club or to become if not the leader of de-carbonization then at least a member of a supply chain of a “green” industry leader. The genuine belief in the virtues of being green and acting green becomes negligible in value as company leaders face the large suppliers or partners in the value chain. The large members of value chains had negotiated their “greenness” through an enactment of the environmental conduct in Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting and Carbon compliance reporting to fit the bill of the global financial communities. While at the top of this “green” pyramid are the global development and investment banks that are in a rush to reap the benefits of the emerging green economy trough formulating “green” or “sustainable” requirements and regulation, within their global “business and economy clubs”.

In the context of rising global mobility, managers and policy makers need to understand the complexity of cultural adjustment issues experienced by educational and professional sojourners, taking into account the context-specific nature and purpose of sojourn and re-acculturation to the home country. The thesis examines the cultural adjustment challenges in the context of an Australian aid-funded PhD-level higher education program and relates these challenges to existing scholarly literature and conceptual models that seek to explain the nature of sojourner cultural adjustment, including inter-cultural relations and identity change. The study offers a new conceptual framework to understand issues of cultural adjustment, including reentry adjustment, which is under-researched in both the international student and expatriate management literature. The in-depth qualitative study investigates the lived experiences of 41 PhD Australian Development Scholarship awardees, including 27 returned Indonesian academics. The thesis contributes empirical and novel, context-specific findings to existing scholarly international management, international education and intercultural literature. The study extends existing conceptual frameworks to take into account the hybrid and specific nature of these sojourners as both international students and knowledge workers. The study builds on theoretical insights related to adjustment, including motivation, expectancy violations, culture-learning and inter-cultural identity. The findings provide insights that can assist foreign aid and higher education policy makers to enhance the development and educational effectiveness of international higher education programs.

Metal sektörü, demir-çelik, beyaz eşya, otomotiv, elektronik, makine, silah sanayi (gemi yapımı, demiryolları, uzay ve havacılık da aslında metal sektörüne dahildir) gibi alt dallarıyla, 20. yüzyılda, dünya çapında sanayi sermayesinin lider sektörü oldu. Demir Çelik ve otomotiv, yüksek olduğu kadar kütlesel artı-değer üretkenliği ve ileri geri bağlantılarıyla tüm sanayi ve ekonomiye (tarım, turizm, nakliyat, petro-kimya, lastik, inşaat, yol yapım vd) üretkenlik artışı aktaran 20. yüzyılın hegemon/kontrol sanayidir. Tekelci metal sanayinin geliştiği her ülkede de, büyük modern metal fabrikası işçileri işçi sınıfı hareketinin lokomotif gücünü oluşturdu. Her iki düşman sınıfın en yüksek donanımlı güçlerinin karşı karşıya geldiği metal sektörü, böylelikle 20. yüzyıl boyunca sınıf savaşımının ağırlık merkezinde yer aldı. Rusya'da Ekim devrimini gerçekleştiren işçi sınıfı hareketinin sembolü ve amiral gemisi olan Putilov fabrikası, 40 bin işçinin çalıştığı bir metal (silah) fabrikasıydı. Aynı dönemde Almanya'daki işçi hareketinin lokomotifi ve işçi konseylerinin merkezi yine dev silah ve diğer metal fabrikalarıydı. Almanya'da SDP'nin sosyal şovenizm ve ihanetine karşın emperyalist savaşa karşı çıkan ve kendi burjuvazisine karşı en net tutumu alarak Rosa ve Liebknecht'in Enternasyonal Grubunu (Spartakistler) destekleyen sınıfın en ileri kesimi de yine metal işçileriydi. İtalya'da 1919-20 ve 1977′de iki kez oluşan devrimci fabrika konseylerinin lokomotifi ve ağırlık merkezi başta Fiat olmak üzere otomotiv ve metal fabrikalarıydı. 20. yüzyılda dünya çapında güçlü işçi komiteleri, işçi konseyleri, militan fabrika işgalleri, 10-20 yıl gibi sürelere yayılan uzun soluklu grev dalgaları deneyimlerinin yaklaşık yarısı ile üçte biri arasında bir kısmı büyük metal fabrikalarında gerçekleşti ya da metal sektöründen başlayıp yaygınlaştı.

Knowledge is most important asset for any organization. It recognized as resource and the personwno involve in creation, storage and dissemination of knowledge are called knowledge workers. If an organization wants to be successful, its mangers, must find out an efficient and effective way to manage knowledge worker The knowledge worker's knowledge helps the organization to achieve their expected objectives and itcan successfully achieve only through proper HRM practices. Knowledge is an intellectual thing and cannot~ fulfilling without human brain. Therefore, HRM play important role in KM.

Ce rapport, issu d'une recherche menée en 2011, en convention avec la Fonda, porte sur les travailleurs intellectuels précaires. Cette notion pointe vers une zone de l'espace social où les catégories instituées jouent et pourraient se reconfigurer en des formes nouvelles. Comment statuer sur la réalité même de cette population ? Renvoie-t-elle à un phénomène statistiquement observable et, si oui, quels sont les résultats de cette observation en termes de composition sociale objective ? Comment les expériences sociales correspondantes sont-elles décrites et évaluées par les premiers intéressés ?
Pour répondre à ces questions, ce rapport comporte trois parties qui correspondent aux trois chantiers de recherche que nous avons mis en œuvre.
Premièrement, un bilan de la littérature française et internationale montre que plusieurs monographies professionnelles se rapportent à notre objet, mais que celui-ci doit aussi être resitué parmi une série d'hypothèses quant aux groupes sociaux en cours d'émergence. Les travaux les plus stimulants d'un point de vue empirique sont ceux consacrés, dans plusieurs pays européens, au « creative work ».
Deuxièmement, une exploitation inédite d'une source statistique existante, l'enquête sur l’emploi de l'Insee, aboutit à une estimation tout à la fois minoritaire et non marginale des « travailleurs intellectuels précaires ». On repère une population large qui englobe un coeur de professions correspondant aux figures sociales qui leur sont usuellement associées. Néanmoins, les frontières de cet objet restent floues et en partie poreuses avec des situations de déclassement social ou scolaire. L'analyse statistique souligne des traits communs à la population investiguée et en même temps différentes façons d'être un intellectuel précaire.
Cette hétérogénéité est confirmée par l'enquête qualitative qui, à partir de soixante-dix entretiens réalisés en région parisienne, met en lumière la diversité des situations professionnelles parmi les actifs exerçant une (ou plusieurs) activité(s) intellectuelle(s) sans emploi stable. La multiplicité inter- et intra-individuelle des ressources économiques utilisées dans cette population semble un frein à la constitution d'un « commun », même si un tel processus relève sans doute davantage de mobilisations politiques que de conditions objectives et d’expériences personnelles.

— Safety management is associated with the policies, objectives, procedures, methods, roles and functions that aim at controlling hazard and risk in socio-technical systems. Companies that have implemented effective OSH Management system have reported benefit from increase operational efficiency, reduction in insurance cost and improve in workers retention and satisfaction. Many accidents that occur at construction site are due inadequate adherence of workers to work procedures. The awareness and perception of workers toward safety, health and their working environment are important aspect to enhance the building construction to the better condition to the workers. Workers play an important role in accomplishment of the building construction. All these supporting evidence reflects on the needs to study building construction workers knowledge of safety management system. The study is a criteria – based study, in which 24 construction companies were selected for the study The respondent samples used in the study were drawn from the total population of permanent construction workers in the 24 construction companies selected. The total numbers of permanent construction workers in the 24 construction companies are 750 while 254 were selected for the study. The research questionnaires were administered on 254 permanent construction workers within the 24 construction companies in Abuja. The analysis of the questionnaires survey data was undertaken using the statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 20. A reliability test was conducted on the data in order to control error within the data. The Cronbach's Alpha of the two variable data are .853 and .863 respectively and make the data reliable. Correlation analysis was conducted in order to determine the relationship between worker's general knowledge and worker's safety management knowledge and the result was found to be significant (P<0.005). This relationship was modelled using simple linear regression and from the model the result shows that improvement on the worker's safety management system knowledge practice on sites will improves general knowledge among construction workers. Therefore, workers' knowledge of safety management systems significantly influences the overall benefits of safety management system on the construction sites. As such there is need for potential improvement on the knowledge or awareness of the workers to safety management system as perceived from the analysis in order to bring about the expected high performance standard on construction sites.

The rising global demand for professional, specialized and skilled people has resulted in the exodus of employees from many organizations in search of higher rewards. Powertel, a wholly owned subsidiary of ZESA Holdings (Private) Limited has been experiencing high labour turnover in the last decade, so much that in 2009, retention of critical staff became a topical issue in strategic management meetings as Powertel sought ways to reverse the high number of critical employee exits. The overall purpose of the research was to evaluate the effectiveness of strategies employed by Powertel to retain its critical staff. The researchers conducted an extensive literature review regarding strategies that an organisation can utilize to retain its critical employees. The views of current Powertel employees on retention strategies were assessed and data was gathered through questionnaires and in-depth interviews with management. Secondary data in the form of exit interviews was also used to complement primary data. A case study approach was used so as to get a comprehensive understanding of the phenomena under study. From a population of forty (40) employees working under the Operations Department, a sample of fifteen (15) people was drawn comprising three (3) managerial engineers and twelve (12) non-managerial engineering employees. Research findings revealed that communication within Powertel was not accurate and timeous, engineers were dissatisfied with their jobs, performance appraisal system was not fair and consistent and the majority of respondents felt that although training and development was existent in the organisation, there was no career progression, no promotion available or acknowledgement of skills and abilities of the employees. These findings were presented using descriptive statistics.Recommendations from the research findings were that there must be provision of clear career paths for trained and skilled employees, speedy dissemination of information, creation of effective teams and scientific selection of employees for staff retention.

Purpose – The purpose of this study was to understand if productivity and turnover of the female millennial knowledge workers was influenced by participative management theory. Developing a greater understanding
for maximizing the productivity and minimizing turnover risks associated with the significant population of female millennial knowledge workers could contribute towards business success.
Design/methodology/approach – This qualitative embedded single-case study used triangulation to develop a more complete look at the female millennial knowledge worker within an organization while utilizing a method that allowed for maximizing the understanding of a common case.
Findings – While triangulating across three modes of data collection “employee development” was identified in connection with both productivity and turnover. “Timely communication” was associated with productivity, and both “feedback” and “working environment” triangulated with turnover.
Research limitations/implications – This study extends existing participative management theory, limited by a majority focus, to include the female millennial knowledge worker.
Practical implications – The results of this study showed that managers should provide development opportunities and timely feedback to female millennial knowledge workers in support of their productivity. In
addition, employee development, timely feedback and a positive work environment could be used by managers to minimize turnover in this population.
Originality/value – The risk of alienating the population of female millennial knowledge workers could result in turnover and productivity challenges for businesses. The results of this study showed that managers should engage in employee development, timely feedback and cultivate a positive work environment to minimize turnover and increase the productivity of this population.

For many companies today, the environments in which they operate have changed dramatically over the last decades. The atmosphere of corporate environment relies heavily on aspects concerning its workers and in particular its knowledge workers.
Companies worldwide, in order to stay competitive, have started shifting their approach and outlook on how business should be conducted and as to what knowledge aspects are important. Knowledge sharing behavior varies within and between organizations. There are a number of factors that either motivate or hinder such a behavior. However; how these factors influence employees' motivation for knowledge sharing has not been carefully tested within Lebanese organizations.

Objectives: Given the increasing importance of knowledge capital and deployment of information technology to facilitate knowledge transfer in organizations, this paper aims:
1) To examine knowledge sharing attitudes within Lebanese organizations so as to study the factors that influence motivation for knowledge sharing; 2) To analyze how organizational and human factors influence the knowledge sharing behavior within these organizations.

Method: Mixed method approach. A qualitative approach was adopted to review current secondary data and information to prepare a background for the research in question. A quantitative approach using a questionnaire survey was used to collect data from a sample of 148 Lebanese employees in order to assess and validate the research model in question.

Results: A relationship has been proved to exist between knowledge sharing and trust, management’s support, culture and psychological ownership of knowledge, indicating the importance of such factors as prerequisites of the success of knowledge sharing.

Conclusions: The results of this study have implications for staff and managers in
organizations. Organizations have to create a culture that is pro-knowledge sharing, where knowledge sharing is valued by everyone, and strategies that are more knowledge friendly are implemented; this is done through the mentoring programs, creating communities, conferences and through generating a vision that emphasizes knowledge and its importance.

ABSTRACT The extant research on organizational control builds on the assumption of vertical control – managers are thought to develop orders, rules and norms to control the operating core. Yet it is claimed that work becomes increasingly “knowledge intensive” and that organizations rely heavily for their productivity on the knowledge and creativity of their work force. When analyzing this type of “knowledge work”, the strong focus on vertical control creates theoretical limitations because it fails to account for the important operative and horizontal interactions upon which many contemporary organizations depend. Drawing on practice theory and an ethnographic study of engineering work, this paper theorizes control as a form of work that does not only belong to formal management, but is dispersed among various work activities, including horizontal ones. The article introduces the idea of control work as a key practice in contemporary organizations, and the concepts of constructive disobedience, translation, and peer reviewing as ways of understanding how control work is exercised at the operative level. Our conceptual framework thereby offers a complement to traditional theories of control by bringing out how expert knowledge and local interactions play a central role in the control of work.

Knowledge workers adalah kunci inovasi dan pertumbuhan dalam organisasi pada saat ini, dimana mereka menemukan produk dan layanan, merancang program pemasaran, dan membuat strategi. Industri yang sedang berkembang umumnya cenderung merupakan industridengan proporsi pekerja berpengetahuan tinggi. Dalam organisasi, knowledge work cenderung selaras dengan prospek pertumbuhan organisasi. Banyak knowledge workers akan melihat pendekatan proses formal sebagai gangguan birokrasi dan prosedural. Kemungkinan yang jauh lebih menarik adalah bahwa orientasi proses bermanfaat bagi mereka, mereka akan mendapat manfaat dari disiplin dan struktur yang dibawa oleh suatu proses, sambil tetap bebas untuk menjadi kreatif dan berimprovisasi bila perlu dan diinginkan. Dengan kata lain, suatu proses dapat dipandang sebagai seni dari pada sains.

As corporations continue to migrate to a knowledge-centric structure, planning, leadership, board and executive management support becomes crucial. However, most often, knowledge management (KM) is not easily plugged into a return of investment (ROI) equation. In addition, the past few years, since 2008, characterized by an economic downturn never seen since the information-driven economy emerged in the early 1990s, have shown that a knowledge worker's performance should no longer be measured by results only, but by goals as well. Until recently, the business-critical value of knowledge management investment was all but assumed, and experts on the subject all realized that their assumptions were wrong. Many predicted, and are still predicting, that knowledge management and its derived career paths are doomed to extinction. In fact, ten years ago, during the spring of 2001, CIO magazine commented that knowledge management systems didn't work, in particular due to the fact that no one in the organization would use or support such systems, beginning with upper management. And they were right!

This research was funded by, and implemented within, a UK national research organisation, while the author was the KE and Impact Evaluation Manager responsible for assessing impact on a £15m UK government-funded research programme.

This work was also submitted as the authors MBA dissertation which was accepted and awarded in 2009.

ABSTRACT: A methodology and methods ‘toolbox’ is proposed for conducting impact research and assessment from within research programmes. The emphasis is upon how to clarify and assess the wider impacts from the early stages onwards.

The approach explicitly acknowledges, and attempts to address, the known issues and challenges of impact assessment while drawing upon the resources and opportunities available to research managers and researchers within such programmes.

The study has two triangulating foundations. Firstly, it examines the academic literature to help identify and design the pilot methodology and methods. Secondly it trials these in a real programme to both test and improve them.

The study was conducted over one year within one leading UK research organisation, where two research programmes (and around 60 research projects of £15m total value) were being assessed for their impacts. The study draws upon actual impact management experience and reflection, prospective (ex ante) and retrospective (ex post) assessments, participatory contributions from leading researchers undergoing assessment, and consultation with external users. The findings of this study outline the pilot and its first iteration. Recommendations are made for improvement to the methodology and methods.

A subsequent follow-on bid to UK government incorporating the impacts identified from implementing this methodology, successfully led to a further £15m of government funding.

It is expected the pilot methodology and methods will be applicable to other organisations, conducting and funding such research programmes, required to research and assess the wider research impacts.

Although primary focus of implemetation trials was upon research in physical sciences, technology, high-tech engineering, computing/IT, and environment, the wider literature study, the methodology design and justification, the methods proposed and used, and the resulting general recommendations and lessons are expected to apply more broadly to many other research areas, where the impact is to be found more widely in the society, economy, government or public sector or within organizations, policies, professions or the public.

Interest in this work is expected from research programme managers, impact managers and assessors, management consultants advising in this area, and government funding managers, all seeking to embed a developing approach to understand, capture, and enhance wider impact.

Abstract  This paper reconstructs the history of the social movements of Knowledge Workers that have taken place in Italy over the past thirty years, looking particularly at the red thread that connects, even biographically, the social, musical and cultural innovation of the Eighties and Nineties to the more recent “precariat movements”. It pays particular attention to the Fifth Estate of independent researchers and autonomous knowledge workers that were established after 2001.
Keywords:  Social movements. Knowledge workers. Independent researchers. Fifth Estate.
Sommario  1 Precari frammenti di insubordinati e indisciplinate. – 2 Archeologia del trentennio perduto: non si esce vivi dagli anni Ottanta? – 3 Il nostro 1989: Play It Again, Joe Strummer! – 4 La Pantera: brindo al talento della mia generazione! – 5 Anni Zero: torri d’avorio che crollavano. – 6 Fantasmagoria cognitaria e quintaria, dieci anni fa.
https://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/it/edizioni/libri/978-88-6969-137-9/alle-origini-di-un-trentennio-insubordinato/ 
http://doi.org/10.14277/6969-136-2/CultLav-4-7
https://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/media/pdf/books/978-88-6969-137-9/978-88-6969-137-9-ch-07.pdf

The idea of the knowledge economy has brought with it a new paradigm of work that espouses the professionalization of all work. This new paradigm is now affecting the organization of work throughout the economy. However, not all work is knowledge work, whatever definition is used. The number of &#39;professionals&#39; may rise, but many workers still face rather traditional working conditions. Moreover, we argue, the expected growth in the share of knowledge work may be less than expected: along with the forces pushing for an increase in knowledge work, there are also forces counteracting these. We develop a simple typology of work that takes autonomy and frequency of external contacts as dimensions. Workplaces with high autonomy and frequent external contacts (with customers and other stakeholders) are considered &#39;paradigmatic&#39; for knowledge work. Using data from the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS), we analyze the distribution of the European workforce across diff...