Knowledge worker is a term that was first introduced by Peter Drucker in 1959 in his book Landmarks of Tomorrow. It means that the importance of a workforce will shift from physical labor towards individuals or groups who have extensive skills, information and knowledge. Such skills will be very important in order to figure solutions about problems that we will face in future.
The importance of knowledge workers is that the burden of further development and innovation will be put on them. Having said this there are many characteristics that these workers have or need to have in order to be distinguished from others. Such characteristics according to the article KnowledgeWorker Productivity: challenges, issues, solutions of GSA (General Services Administration): ” …
“…knowledge work is less standardized and structured…”
- knowledge workers are used to a certain level of autonomy
- before certain ends result it may be difficult to know whether knowledge workers are working or not
- knowledge workers basically own their key production mean – brains
5. knowledge workers need to be committed to and enjoy their jobs
(KnowledgeWorker Productivity, 1)
As we can see the outcome of these workers will be measured differently and in a longer periods of time. While the work of classic workers could have been measured and controlled closely even daily, the knowledge workers will have a duty to see broader and have a vision for future.
Why are knowledge workers related very closely to their intuition and art? As we see above knowledge workers need to really enjoy what they are doing in order for them to keep bringing ideas and keep up their creativity. According to the article What Peter Drucker Knew about 2012 published in Harvard Business Review, Drucker is cited:
“What motivates – and especially what motivates knowledge workers – is what motivates volunteers,” also
“they need to know the organization’s mission and to believe in it.”
Always according to this article the companies will be depended on these workers and such companies will have to do this as Drucker said:
“It will have to be done by satisfying their values.”
As we see the future will bring more importance than ever to the information and knowledge and less to the physical labor and physical stamina. The uniqueness usage of such information and knowledge will give these special workers the privilege to work in companies and the demand for them will be higher and higher. Since we are still in school, aiming to graduate, this saying by Stephen Covey an author and educator:
Works cited
https://timothysiburg.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/druckerknowledgeworker.jpg
http://www.gsa.gov/graphics/admin/KnowledgeWorkerProductivity_Final6811.pdf
https://hbr.org/2014/10/what-peter-drucker-knew-about-2020
