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H.R.
- How to Develop Effective Reward Programs
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INSIGHT
The last decade has witnessed the emergence of the knowledge worker, a new kind of employee paid not to create, produce or manage a tangible product or service, but rather to gather, develop, process and apply information. While a growing number of employers covet the contributions of knowledge workers, few know how to monitor and improve their performance. A. D. Amar's Managing Knowledge Workers is an academic study of techniques that knowledge organizations use to create appropriate work environments. The irony, says Amar, a business professor at Seton Hall University, is that the best structure for knowledge work is no structure at all. "The aim of a knowledge organization should be that, one by one, all factors that constitute work environment are steadily weakened," Amar writes. To create an appropriate environment for knowledge workers, it's important to recognize the following: * Knowledge workers are complex individuals who bring unique skills, intelligence and work methods. This makes it impossible to create a uniform system for encouraging and rewarding creativity. * Knowledge workers place a greater priority on individual goals than group goals. Because of this, says Amar, managers in knowledge organizations must assess and respond to each employee's needs. * Knowledge organizations provide workers with plenty of opportunity for personal and professional growth. The goal is to allow knowledge workers full control over their work environment, so they can tailor it to maximize individual creativity, Amar says. If that's the case, then, what is the role of managers in knowledge organizations? "[They] have to know how to make their employees more innovative, creative and functional," Amar writes. Recruiting and retaining the right knowledge worker represents an ongoing challenge for managers. It's also important to provide continuous opportunity for training. But the biggest challenge identified in Managing Knowledge Workers is
devising systems for providing evaluation and feedback. Knowledge work
is difficult to measure objectively, and, because it is often part of
a long process, it's hard to gauge its effectiveness until a project is
concluded. It can be helpful to divide jobs into manageable assignments
that can be tracked and measured, Amar says.
Book Description
Resource: Society for Human Resource Management Managing
Knowledge Workers By A. D. Amar Quorum, 2002 249 pages A. D. Amar, Ph.D. Professor, Stillman School of Business 650 Kozlowski Hall South Orange, NJ 07079 (973) 761 9684 You may contact Dr. Amar at mailto:amaramar@shu.edu Comments by the Author; "My book, Managing
Knowledge Workers: Unleashing Innovation and Productivity,
has been reviewed by Harvard Business School and included in its Working
Knowledge series Book Recommendations Library." Take a look at
some reviews.
managing workers personnel management managing employees employee management productivity knowledge how to select adapt develop new concepts principles strategies techniques manage management practices tools motivational needs potential teaching learning mentor mentoring innovation managing business empowerment human resources |
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