New approach needed to support the knowledge worker

Many organisations recognise the value that knowledge and innovation can add to their business. Many more are still struggling with the management of the knowledge-based workforce in the midst of a global business transformation which is fundamentally changing the very nature of work for many people in the technology and other knowledge-based industries.

A large and growing percentage of value creation in the 21st century economy results from "knowledge work" - and businesses need a new approach if they are to make themselves "future-proof", says Frank Naude, SAP Enterprise Portal solution manager at business solutions provider SAP Africa.

"The key to a future-proof business strategy is simple: it may sound old, but it really is all about people, and supporting the knowledge workers in our organisations. The increasing interest in intellectual capital and knowledge workers is a great opportunity for human capital management specialists to manage the strategic use of knowledge in their companies."

While monetary compensation speaks loudly, the focus is increasingly moving away from purely financial rewards and secure employment, says Naude. "The new breed of workers places great store in learning, and actively seek out organisations that offer opportunity for betterment. The new workers want to work for smart, innovative organisations."

Working in a smart, progressive environment is what ensures future employment and other opportunities.

This means an emphasis on collaboration and professionalism. Organisations are becoming more concerned with the knowledge workers' capacity to learn, collaborate, innovate and with their commitment, than the traditional measures of employee worth, such as length of service.

What this means is that the fundamental unit of the new economy will no longer be the corporation but the individual. "For organisations to prosper, we, as individual electronically interconnected knowledge workers, need to learn how to better work together and how to harness our collective knowledge.

"We will not survive if we are not both technically and business literate. Smart collaborative portals are connecting us within our own global organisations and with our external partners and suppliers and to our external customers and clients," says Naude.

But it's not enough to simply create an environment that fosters learning to boost employee retention. While investments in human resources through interventions, such as knowledge management and learning can enhance employee satisfaction and improve workforce performance, alignment of those interventions to the current and future business strategy is key. A clear understanding and measurement of the impact, worth and the future potential of those investments is vital to ensuring a company's ongoing success.

"Many knowledge management researchers and practitioners talk about 'improving knowledge worker productivity', 'embedding knowledge work into daily practices' and importance of answering 'what's in it for me?' questions, but there is generally still not enough understanding about what and how knowledge workers operate," says Naude.

Organisations must focus on the culture and incentives to share knowledge, not just the ability to do so. Structural arrangements and communication mechanisms are not enough to ensure the transfer of knowledge. Much more attention needs to be given to the organisational culture and motivation of employees to collaborate and share.

Naude says traditional people management and development policies should be reshaped to take account of the new priority given to the creation, transfer, application and retention of knowledge. HR specialists will find the selection criteria for knowledge workers may need to be changed, to take account, in particular, the greater importance of continuous learning and teamwork.

Approaches to career development will need to reflect the importance of knowledge retention by creating career paths that motivate key workers, and performance appraisals must prioritise the development of strategically aligned knowledge skills and if employees are to believe that the organisation takes these seriously. This highlights the need to develop metrics in this area, including the measurement of the application of knowledge work in non-traditional organisational structures such as communities of practice.

Naude makes the point that given the high proportion of knowledge work involved in its activities, knowledge management is at least as important for the public sector as for private companies. He also makes the point that most schools and education institutions in SA and the rest of the world, have never taught the thinking skills required to innovate. Individuals and groups need to learn to think and collaborate better. He fully supports the views of Edward de Bono, the father of lateral and parallel thinking, who maintains that our schools should be teaching our children to think creatively. "Then," says Naude, "we will have a whole new generation of truly innovative knowledge workers that can give our country the edge we need and deserve."