Knowledge Workers In Organizations Research Articles

Balancing Affordances and Constraints: Designing Enterprise Social Media for Organizational Knowledge Work

Enterprise social media (ESM) is changing how knowledge workers interact and share information; however, a debate persists as to whether ESM is an adequate knowledge management system. ESM provides a rich set of affordances for organizational knowledge work, such as improved organizational memory, but also constrains knowledge work performance because of digital interruptions. Extending and complementing existing scholarship, this study asks the following research question: How can organizations design ESM to realize its knowledge work benefits? Using a computational agent-based model that incorporates the design features of ESM, workers’ attitudes, and resulting ESM-use affordances and constraints, this study shows how ESM-use outcomes are contingent both on the design of and users’ attitudes toward ESM. Specifically, the negative effects of ESM interactivity are mitigated when employees have a low transparency preference and access ESM without posting as much. The study further unpacks asymmetric engagement as the mechanism that leads low transparency configurations to be more resilient to the negative effects of interruptions driven by ESM interactivity. Asymmetric engagement—learning from posted content without interacting often—enables the gradual creation of organizational memory while maintaining a broad user base by minimizing interruptions. These results ultimately contribute a multilevel model of ESM use and knowledge work outcomes, enhancing the theoretical understanding of previously studied mechanisms such as communication visibility and providing implications for organizations designing ESM.

The challenges for knowledge workers in organizations to carry out sustainable organizational development

In the last decades, we have witnessed important changes in production processes due to the intensified use of technologies and automation that impact social and environmental activities in society. This is the context in which the Knowledge Workers are inserted. This study aimed to analyze these workers’ competencies and how they contribute to the changes in the organizations, aiming at their sustainable development. The method used was the Systematic Literature Review. Searches were conducted in the Brazilian databases BDTD, CAPES, and SciELO with the terms Knowledge Workers’ competencies; social intelligence; collective intelligence; organizational intelligence, and sustainability in the Portuguese language and published between 2018 and 2022. Three hundred seventy-seven publications were found. With the application of the delimiters: date, title, abstract, and keywords, only 11 were aligned to the research question and were read in full. From this, 3 (three) categories of analysis were generated: social/corporate responsibility, sustainable development, and information management that support the results of this RSL. The final consideration is that the knowledge worker can transform data and information into value-added knowledge. Individual competencies are linked to the company’s values, beliefs, and purpose, which relates to social and organizational intelligence. This work can contribute to public or private organizations forming workers focused on sustainability and the common good.

The role of creativity in knowledge workers’ entrepreneurial intentions: The moderating effect of general self-efficacy

ABSTRACT This study investigated the role of creativity and general self-efficacy as factors that give rise to organizational knowledge workers’ entrepreneurial intentions. It also examined the interaction effect of creativity and general self-efficacy in relation to entrepreneurial intention. The research model was tested by applying partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to a dataset collected from 303 knowledge workers in Finland. The empirical results supported our hypothesis and showed that creativity was significantly and positively related to knowledge workers’ entrepreneurial intentions, whereas the impact of general self-efficacy on entrepreneurial intentions was not supported in the main model. In addition, our findings revealed that general self-efficacy moderated the relationship between creativity and entrepreneurial intention. The moderation was positive, meaning that the higher the general self-efficacy, the stronger the relationship between creativity and entrepreneurial intention.

Role of creativity and resilience in contemporary and entrepreneurial knowledge work

In the contemporary economy, knowledge work is entrepreneurial whether it takes place in organizations or in any form of entrepreneurship. In this paper, we investigated individual creativity in contemporary knowledge work among organisational and platform knowledge workers. Specifically, we investigated what role creativity and resilience play in knowledge work and how creativity and resilience are related. We conducted a mixed-method study, collecting qualitative data (N=15) from platform knowledge workers to build understanding regarding the nature of contemporary knowledge work. Based on the findings of the qualitative study, we created a research model in which we linked creativity and resilience and tested the proposed model with the data collected from 419 organisational knowledge workers. We found that knowledge worker creativity and resilience are bidirectionally linked in the context of organizational knowledge work. We discuss the implications of our study for research on knowledge work and creativity in knowledge work as well as for practitioners in the field of contemporary knowledge work.

Jointly Predicting Job Performance, Personality, Cognitive Ability, Affect, and Well-Being

Assessment of individuals' job performance, personalized health and psychometric measures are domains where data-driven ubiquitous computing will have a profound impact in the near future. Existing work in these domains focus on techniques that use data extracted from questionnaires, sensors (wearable, computer, etc.), or other traits to assess well-being and cognitive attributes of individuals. However, these techniques can neither predict individuals' well-being and psychological traits in a global manner nor consider the challenges associated with processing the often incomplete and noisy data available. In this paper, we create a benchmark for the predictive analysis of individuals from a perspective that integrates physical and physiological behavior, psychological states and traits, and job performance. We develop a novel data mining framework that can extract meaningful predictors from noisy and incomplete data derived from wearable, mobile and social media sensors to predict nineteen constructs based on twelve standardized and well-validated tests. The framework can be used to build a predictive model of outcomes of interest. We validate the framework using data from 757 knowledge workers in organizations across the United States with varied work roles. Our framework and resulting model provides the first benchmark that combines these various instrument-derived variables in a single framework to understand people's behavior. The results show that our framework is reliable and capable of predicting our chosen variables better than the baselines when prediction includes the noisy and incomplete data.

A different type of disaster response digital volunteer: Looking behind the scenes to reveal coordinating actions of disaster knowledge workers

AbstractResearchers have established the prominent role digital volunteers play during crises and disasters. From self‐organizing to annotating public data, these volunteers are now a fixture in disaster research. However, we know much less about how these volunteers function, behind the public scene, when using private social media as a disaster unfolds and people need to be rescued. This qualitative study identified the emergent helping roles along with the skillsets and abilities that helped volunteers perform these behind‐the‐scene roles during the Hurricane Harvey flooding in 2017. Using in‐depth interviews along with captured images in private social media, we find these volunteers resembled organizational knowledge workers. We identify nine specific communicating and coordinating actions that these disaster knowledge workers performed. The contributions of these findings centre on implications for disaster response and management.

Idiosyncratic job-design practices for cultivating personal knowledge management among knowledge workers in organizations

PurposeThe high turnover rate of knowledge workers presents a challenge to both organizational and personal knowledge management. Although personal knowledge management plays an important role in organizational knowledge management, empirical research on the practices for its application is underdeveloped. This study aims to examine the role of idiosyncratic job-design practices (i.e. job definition, job autonomy, innovation as a job requirement and lifelong learning orientation) in cultivating personal knowledge management among knowledge workers in organizations, to increase their productivity and safeguard the organization against knowledge loss arising from knowledge workers’ interfirm mobility.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 221 knowledge workers pursuing various knowledge-intensive jobs through a questionnaire survey and were analysed using partial least squares modelling.FindingsThe results demonstrated that three job-design practices (job definition, innovation as a job requirement and lifelong learning orientation) have a positive impact on personal knowledge management among knowledge workers and thus improve their productivity. However, job autonomy can affect personal knowledge management negatively.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are confined to a specific context and should be replicated across different contexts for better generalizability in future research.Practical implicationsOrganizational managers should pay attention to (re)designing knowledge-intensive jobs to cultivate personal knowledge management by clearly outlining job responsibilities, offering opportunities to add relevant job activities and drop irrelevant ones, and making innovation and lifelong learning a formal job requirement. In addition, job autonomy should be judiciously provided along with sufficient social and network support to avoid lost opportunities in knowledge creation and sharing, and should be linked to job responsibilities and performance appraisals to avoid negative effects.Originality/valueThe high turnover rate of knowledge workers presents a challenge to both organizational and personal knowledge management. This study contributes to the literature by addressing the research gap in two aspects. Firstly, based on Drucker’s theory, this study identifies four idiosyncratic job-design practices (job definition, job autonomy, innovation as a job requirement and lifelong learning orientation) that reflect the distinctive characteristics of knowledge-intensive work. Secondly, this study examines whether and how these practices can cultivate personal knowledge management among knowledge workers, which can support their productivity.

Acquiring knowledge workers in organizations

Motivation: In modern enterprises, the basic meaning — in connection with the depletion of other capital resources, and especially natural resources — is the knowledge that determines the value of human capital used in organizations. Very often, therefore, we are currently meeting the term economy based on knowledge, which means the ability of the economy to absorb and simultaneously generate processes related to shaping the competencies of human resources. It is extremely important to verify the relationship between the organization and the labor market as a source of knowledge workers acquisition. The importance of knowledge management in contemporary organizations is the result of the appearance of people with such a unique level of knowledge that they usually decide about the success of the organization’s activities. They are known as knowledge workers. Acquiring knowledge workers is now a must for all organizations, and their management. Aim: The main objective of the study is to present the category of knowledge workers in the context of knowledge management and the possibility of acquiring such employees by modern organizations. The method used in the study is a study review of the literature and statistical analysis of databases. Results: The added value of the analysis is the indication of the relationship between the

EXAMINING THE ROLE OF KNOWLEDGE SHARING ON EMPLOYEE CREATIVITY OF THE SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE OF BANDAR IMAM KHOMEINI

Today, despite the fast changes in science and knowledge production processes and organizational knowledge and knowledge work, it can be said that organizations have to use organizational knowledge, do knowledge work and share knowledge to be able to fulfil their tasks. Therefore, a research aimed to examine the role of knowledge sharing on employee creativity of the special economic zone of Bandar Imam Khomeini was performed. The statistical population included 1015 employees. Using Morgan's table, the sample size was selected to be 279. In this research, the data collection tool is a researcher-made questionnaire. For measuring the reliability, the Cronbach's alpha and to determine the questionnaire validity, content validity has been used. To measure the relationship between the variables, Pearson's correlation test using SPSS was used. The results in this research are such that between the dimension of knowledge sharing and creating of employees, a significant relationship exists.

Knowledge Growth Measurement and Formulation for Enhancing Organizational Knowledge Capital

This paper offers a conceptual framework for those details with the main component features for modeling knowledge growth. It has been contributing to important insights to future studies in the field of knowledge management to design a theoretical and operational model of knowledge growth in enhancing organizations’ knowledge capital. This study approach considers three important issues: such as the categories of knowledge for measurement, the elicitation and measurement of organizational knowledge growth by designing a knowledge growth elicitation and measurement tool (KGEMT), and formulating a model for knowledge growth measurement. The review and analyses show that knowledge growth measurement and elicitation is an active research spanning from the concepts that include the stages of knowledge growth; evolutionary theories that involve continuous organizational learning; knowledge growth elicitation to capture the component features of a knowledge growth process from users formulation of knowledge growth; and formation of knowledge capital. From these findings, the study conceptualized a framework for modeling and measuring organizational knowledge growth. The study developed the knowledge elicitation and measurement tool, which captures work episodes of knowledge workers in organizations; organizing the knowledge into explicit and tacit knowledge, and enumerating such knowledge to produce a measure of knowledge growth within the duration of measurement. While the results of the enumeration may be subject to criticism, the tool does provide an indication of the knowledge growth in organizations.

A Study on the Knowledge Implementation Strategy and its influence on the Knowledge Sharing Attitude among Knowledge Workers and Individual Job Performance

Knowledge is asset that empowers individual and organizations to stay competitive in a borderless business world. For organizations that successfully deploy knowledge sharing and reuse, they have claimed to have observed job performance improvement. Even though the success or failure of KM implementation have been aggressively investigated by researchers, nevertheless, besides factors such as culture, business strategy, size, capacity and needs of organizations, KM strategy may vary depending on the organizations’ eco-system. Hence, there is a need to investigate organizations operate in Malaysian to understand influences of KM strategy and its influence to knowledge sharing atttitude among knowledge workers in the organizations. And the effect of KM strategy and knowledge sharing atttitude on individual job performance. The research subjects are IT related companies in Malaysia that practise knowledge sharing. MSC status companies will be invited to participate. Questionnaire will be sent to these companies to solicit responses. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) will be adopted as analysis technique to analyze the responses from research subjects that take part. In this research, a selected group of companies in Kuala Lumpur/Selangor/Klang Valley will be interviewed to collect their views for qualitative analysis. Campbell Job Performance Theory will be used in the research to evaluate performance of knowledge workers in organizations. Questionnaire survey will be circulated to knowledge workers to collect their responses. The outcomes of the research provides a better understanding of the relationships between KM implementation strategy, knowledge sharing attitude, and individual job performance of knowledge workers.

A Hierarchy of Metadata Elements for Business Intelligence Information Resource Retrieval

Effectively managing information resources is an important activity contributing to the competitive advantage of modern organizations. Organizational knowledge workers must be able to search for pertinent information quickly and effectively. This research identifies the relative usefulness of the metadata elements associated with the Dublin Core metadata standard for the effective retrieval of three different information resources – structured business intelligence reports, structured spreadsheet reports, and unstructured reports in formats such as Word and PowerPoint. A survey of knowledge workers was conducted to determine the relative usefulness of the metadata elements for each of the three information resources and to develop a framework outlining where metadata tag requirements differ between such resources. Overall, the study and resulting framework emphasize the need for system developers and database management personnel to be cognizant of the type of information resources being used, and ensure that search metadata elements that are appropriate for these specific resources are in place.

The Organizational Context, Job Embeddedness, And Effectiveness Of Managing Knowledge Work Teams

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">The relationships between organizational context, job embeddedness, and knowledge work team effectiveness are examined in this paper. We proposed a research model and tested the model empirically based on a sample of 144 enterprises from the Taiwanese Information Service Industry. </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">The results show that open-mindedness and organizational commitment are positively related to job embeddedness. Job embeddedness also has strong relationship with knowledge work team effectiveness. However, the link between job autonomy and job embeddedness is not significant. <span style="color: black;"></span></span></span></p>

When High Touch Meets Low Tech: Knowledge Management in a Small Enterprise

In this article, we propose an analytical framework for investigating how control of knowledge and knowledge workers is achieved in a translation agency. The organizational size and an organizational logic of self-management were found to drive control mechanisms into a minimalist style of joint management. On the one hand, the translators managed themselves through (a) the buy-in of an open and sharing culture and a new psychological contract, (b) information from the appraisal results, and (c) conversation and communication with other experts. On the other hand, the managers manage by employing (a) a strategy centered on the dictionary and directory elements of an open and sharing culture, (b) minimalist interventions to induce and structure spontaneous communication, and (c) freelancers to complement expertise within organizational boundaries. Our analysis establishes a prototype for managing individualistic knowledge work in small organizations. Implications of these findings include a configurational approach to KM research, a shift from the concern of rent appropriation to that of rent sharing, and viewing organizations as the context covered with communication channels that craft, groom and enable communication, conversation and mutual learning.

Coming to Content Management: Inventing Infrastructure for Organizational Knowledge Work

Two project profiles depict content management as inquiry-driven practice. The first profile reflects on a project for a national professional organization that began with a deceptively simple request to improve the organization's website, but ended with recommendations that ran to the very core mission of the organization. The second profile focuses on an organization's current authoring practices and tools in order to prepare for a significant change: allowing users to develop and organize content.

Rapid knowledge work visualization for organizations

Purpose – The purpose of this contribution is to motivate a new, rapid approach to modeling knowledge work in organizational settings and to introduce a software tool that demonstrates the viability of the envisioned concept.Design/methodology/approach – Based on existing modeling structures, the KnowFlow toolset that aids knowledge analysts in rapidly conducting interviews and in conducting multi‐perspective analysis of organizational knowledge work is introduced.Findings – This article demonstrates how rapid knowledge work visualization can be conducted largely without human modelers by developing an interview structure that allows for self‐service interviews. Two application scenarios illustrate the pressing need for and the potentials of rapid knowledge work visualizations in organizational settings.Research limitations/implications – The efforts necessary for traditional modeling approaches in the area of knowledge management are often prohibitive. This contribution argues that future research needs ...

Enhancing Performance Through Knowledge Management

Knowledge management (KM) has gained increasing attention since the mid-1990s. A KM strategy involves consciously helping people share and put knowledge into action. However, before an organization can realize the promise of KM, a fundamental question needs to be asked: What performance goal(s) is the organization trying to achieve? In this paper, we develop and offer a framework that provides a holistic view of the performance environment surrounding organizational knowledge work. We illustrate the KM framework using two organizational case studies. Then, based on the KM framework and further insights drawn from our case studies, we offer a series of steps that may guide and assist organizations and practitioners as they undertake KM initiatives. We further demonstrate the applicability of these steps by examining KM initiatives within a global software development company. We conclude with a discussion of implications for organizational practice and directions for future research.

Informational Influence in Organizations: An Integrated Approach to Knowledge Adoption

This research investigates how knowledge workers are influenced to adopt the advice that they receive in mediated contexts. The research integrates the Technology Acceptance Model (Davis 1989) with dual-process models of informational influence (e.g., Petty and Cacioppo 1986, Chaiken and Eagly 1976) to build a theoretical model of information adoption. This model highlights the assessment of information usefulness as a mediator of the information adoption process. Importantly, the model draws on the dual-process models to make predictions about the antecedents of informational usefulness under different processing conditions. The model is investigated qualitatively first, using interviews of a sample of 40 consultants, and then quantitatively on another sample of 63 consultants from the same international consulting organization. Data reflect participants' perceptions of actual e-mails they received from colleagues consisting of advice or recommendations. Results support the model, suggesting that the process models used to understand information adoption can be generalized to the field of knowledge management, and that usefulness serves a mediating role between influence processes and information adoption. Organizational knowledge work is becoming increasingly global. This research offers a model for understanding knowledge transfer using computer-mediated communication.

Sensemaking on the Shop Floor: Narratives of Knowledge in Organizations*

ABSTRACTThis paper explores the role of narratives in organizational inquiry and knowledge work. Following the tenets of the phenomenological method, the paper digs into the ‘life world’ of organizations in order to capture the taken for granted stream of everyday routines, interaction, and events that constitute both individual and social practices. An empirical case study examines the narrative‐based processes of sensemaking and knowledge acquisition in the setting of a traditional pressing plant at Fiat Auto, Italy. The focus of analysis is on how a best performing team engages in the resolution of disruptive occurrences on the shop floor. Through the deconstruction of narratives underlying problem‐solving activities, the case identifies a distinctive mode of investigation conceptualized as ‘detective stories’. The detective's method highlights the interplay between time and narrative in shaping the interconnected processes of organizational knowledge creation, utilization, and institutionalization. More generally, the findings of the paper stress the importance of conjectural knowledge and common‐sensical wisdom in the everyday life of organizations.

Managing Knowledge and Knowledge Workers in Organizations

(2000). Managing Knowledge and Knowledge Workers in Organizations. Administration in Social Work: Vol. 24, No. 4, pp. 75-92.