Rise of the Knowledge Worker

Rise of the Knowledge Worker

Resources for the Knowledge-Based Economy THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF KNOWLEDGE Dale Neef, G. Anthony Siesfeld, Jacquelyn Cefola THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY Dale Neef KNOWLEDGE IN ORGANIZATIONS Laurence Prusak KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN Paul S. Myers KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT TOOLS Rudy L. Ruggles, I11 RISE OF THE KNOWLEDGE WORKER James W. Cortada THE STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT OF INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL David A. Klein

Rise of the Knowledge Worker James W. Cortada Editor Butterworth-Heinemann Boston Oxford Johannesburg Melbourne New Delhi Singapore

Copyright 0 1998 by Butterworth-Heinemann a A member of the Reed Elsevier group All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Recognizing the importance of preserving what has been written, Butterworth- Heinemann prints its books on acid-free paper whenever possible.,..,,,, Butterworth-Heinemann supports the efforts of American Forests and the Global ReLeaf program in its campaign for the betterment of trees, forests, and our environment. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rise of the knowledge worker / James W. Cortada, editor. p. cm.-(resources for the knowledge-based economy.) Includes bi bliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7506-7058-4 (alk. paper) 1. Knowledge workers. 2. Knowledge management. 3. Intellectual capital. I. Cortada, James W. 11. Series. HD8039.KS9R57 1998 65 8.3'1 24-42 1 9 8-14 157 CIP British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. The publisher offers special discounts on bulk orders of this book. For information, please contact: Manager of Special Sales Butterworth-Heinemann 225 Wildwood Avenue Woburn, MA 01801-2041 Tel: 781-904-2500 Fax: 781-904-2620 For information on all Buttenvorth-Heinemann books available, contact our World Wide Web home page at: http://www.bh.com 10 9 8 76 543 2 1 Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents Introduction to the Series: Why Knowledge, Why Now? vii Laurence Prusak, Series Editor Preface ix Introducing the Knowledge Worker xiii Part One A New Profession Is Born: The Knowledge Worker 1 Where Did Knowledge Workers Come From? 3 James PG! Cortada 2 Gender and the Masculine Business Professions 23 Sharon Hartman Strom 3 The Role of the Librarian 39 James Kendall Hosmer 4 The Middle Class 45 C. Wright Mills Part Two 5 Recognition of the New Professions Personnel Resources in the Social Sciences and Humanities 57 U.S. Department of Labor

vi Table of Contents 6 Knowledge Production and Occupational Structure (1) 69 Fritz Machlup 7 Knowledge Production and Occupational Structure (2) 91 Michael Rogers Rubin and Mary Taylor Huber 8 The Information Economy: Definition and Measurement 101 Marc Uri Porat 9 The New Industrial Society 133 Jorge Reina Schement and Terry Curtis 10 Is the United States Becoming an Information Economy? 151 William I. Baumol, Sue Anne Batey Blackman, and Edward N. Wolff Part Three Social and Personal Consequences 11 Daniel Bell and the Post-industrial Society 167 Malcolm Waters 12 Planning for an Uncertain Future: Socializing Information 183 Simon Nora and Alain Minc 13 Employment in the Information Society 189 European Commission 14 The White-collar Body in History 199 Shoshana Zuboff 15 Toward an Ecology of Knowledge: On Discipline, Context, and History 221 Charles Rosenberg Index 233

Introduction to the Series- Why Knowledge, Why Now? Why is there such an upsurge of interest in knowledge? Every year there are numerous major conferences on the subject; new journals focusing on knowledge (sometimes loosely called intellectual capital or organizational learning ) are published; and many major firms in the United States and Europe are adding positions such as chief knowledge officer, organizational learning officer, and even vice president for intellectual capital! Why the focus on a subject that, at some levels, has been around since the pre-socratic philosophers? Is it yet another one of the multitudinous management enthusiasms that seem to come and go like some random natural phenomena? We don t think so! Many of us doing research on this subject have seen the rise and fall of many of these varied nostrums--each of which attempted to offer firms a new road to achieving a sustainable competitive advantage. However, when the shouting dies down, we conclude that, excluding monopolistic policies and other market irregularities, there is no sustainable advantage other than what a firm knows, how it can utilize what it knows, and how fast it can learn something new! But this still does not answer the questions Why knowledge? and Why now? Let us list some very broad trends that seem to be playing a significant role in the current development of knowledge: a) The globalization of the economy, which is putting terrific pressure on firms for increased adaptability, innovation, and process speed. b) The awareness of the value of specialized knowledge, as embedded in organizational processes and routines, in coping with the pressures of globalization. vii