Knowledge Worker Work

The knowing-learning-doing nexus

Dr Kate Andrews

Partner, Intellectual Capital

BDO Kendalls

kandrews@bdokendalls.com.au

Overview

▪ The Project Methodology

▪ Insights

▪ The knowing-learning-doing nexus: implications

Project Methodology

Review of Knowledge Literature

Knowledge Worker Interviews

Discussion Paper: Capabilities for the Knowledge Era

Assumptions and Key Questions

Commissioned Thought Pieces

Expert 1

Expert 2

Expert 3

Discussion Paper: Models for PD in the Knowledge Era

ANTA-funded research 2003

New Models for PD that take into account how knowledge workers maintain and upgrade their skills

Expert4

Literature Review

Distinguishing characteristics of the knowledge era:

▪ Knowledge as a strategic variable

▪ Time span of discretion

▪ Complex relationships

▪ Pervasive ICT

Literature Review

Knowledge Worker Capabilities

▪ Problem-solving and sense-making

▪ Pattern recognition to manage information overload

▪ Productive, creative and committed to learning

▪ Flexibility and tolerance for ambiguity

Knowledge Worker InterviewsKnowledge Worker Capabilities

▪ Think deeply about their work and organisation in the broadest context

▪ Scavenge for development opportunities – hyper-vigilant

▪ Work with ambiguity and clarity: each is appropriate

Knowledge Worker InterviewsMaintaining and developing capability

1. Self-motivated learning

2. Exposure to new ideas

3. Learning by doing

4. Networking

5. Challenge

6. Consolidation of learning

Thought Piece Prompts

  The purpose of your paper is to describe groundbreaking approaches to professional development in the knowledge era.

▪ Context: How will the world of knowledge be different in 2013?

▪ Based on your theoretical perspective, present your two or three challenging / groundbreaking ideas for professional development of knowledge workers in 2013

Thought Piece - Poell

Put learning explicitly on the agendas of organisations and individual knowledge workers

▪ Improving the knowledge worker’s learning repertoire

▪ Improving the knowledge worker’s learning environment

Thought Piece - Sveiby

▪ Management of knowledge workers and their knowledge is very poor

▪ HR’s contribution to knowledge worker development needs to be strengthened

▪ Desperate need for physical spaces that promote knowledge flows

Thought Piece - Woog▪ Knowledge is emergent rather than

constructed

▪ Insight, intuition and improvisation

▪ Value insightful knowledge

▪ Importance of communicative understanding

▪ Others need to understand the patterns

▪ Relationships as the critical factor

▪ Design a richer learning environment

Thought Piece: Granville

▪ Focus on knowing – the activity of knowing

▪ Conversations establish shared meanings

▪ Generosity and trust

▪ Knowledge workers as ‘designers’ – producing something new

The Essence of Knowledge Work

▪ Knowledge work is a new way of knowing

▪ Outcomes are emergent expressions of originality supported by contextual understanding

▪ Knowledge workers are designers, working with complexity, imprecision, ambiguity and potential conflict

Implications for Managing Knowledge worker PD is multi-

faceted and the integration of working and learning is definitional

▪ Active learning and relationships

▪ Challenge, novelty and conversations

▪ Catalysts for intrinsic motivation

Full PapersWorking and Learning in Vocational Education and Training in the Knowledge Era

▪ Review of selected knowledge-focussed literature

▪ Capabilities for the knowledge era

▪ Contemporary models for professional development in the knowledge era

▪ Thought pieces responding to key prompts

▪ Robert Poell (systems thinking); Karl-Erik Sveiby (knowledge management); Robert Woog (chaos and complexity); Ranulph Glanville (learning systems)

▪ All at http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/projects/pdfuture.htm#report

Related Article

Whicker, L.M. & Andrews, K.M. (2004). Human Resource Management in the knowledge economy. Asia-Pacific Journal of Human Resources 42, 2, 156 - 165