Editing Knowledge worker (section)

== History ==

The term 'knowledge work' appeared in ''[[The Landmarks of Tomorrow]]'' (1959) by [[Peter Drucker]].<ref>Drucker, P. F. (1959). ''The Landmarks of Tomorrow'' New York: Harper and Row, p.93.</ref> Drucker later coined the term 'knowledge worker' in ''The Effective Executive''<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Effective Executive|last=Drucker|first=Peter F.|publisher=Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc.|year=1967|location=New York, NY.|ol = 5534723M}}</ref> in 1966.  Later, in 1999, he suggested that "the most valuable asset of a 21st-century institution, whether business or non-business, will be its knowledge workers and their productivity."<ref>Drucker. P.F. (1999). ''Management Challenges for the 21st Century''. Harper Collins.</ref>

[[Paul Alfred Weiss]] (1960)<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Weiss|first1=Paul A.|title=Knowledge a growth process|journal=Science|date=1960|volume=130|issue=3415|pages=1716–1719|doi=10.1126/science.131.3415.1716|pmid=13843743|bibcode=1960Sci...131.1716W}}</ref> said that "[[knowledge]] grows like organisms, with data serving as food to be assimilated rather than merely stored". [[Karl Popper|Popper]] (1963){{full citation needed|date=September 2013}} stated there is always an increasing need for knowledge to grow and progress continually, whether tacit ([[Michael Polanyi|Polanyi]], 1976){{full citation needed|date=September 2013}} or explicit.

[[Alvin Toffler|Toffler]] (1990){{full citation needed|date=September 2013}} observed that typical knowledge workers (especially [[Research and development|R&D]] scientists and engineers) in the age of knowledge economy must have some system at their disposal to ''create, process and enhance'' their own knowledge. In some cases they would also need to manage the knowledge of their co-workers.

[[Ikujiro Nonaka|Nonaka]] (1991)<ref> {{cite journal|last1=Nonaka|first1=I. (1991).|title=The Knowledge-Creating Company.|journal=Harvard Business Review|volume=69|issue=6|page=96}}</ref> described knowledge as the fuel for innovation, but was concerned that many managers failed to understand how knowledge could be leveraged.  Companies are more like living organisms than machines, he argued, and most viewed knowledge as a static input to the corporate machine.  Nonaka advocated a view of knowledge as renewable and changing, and that knowledge workers were the agents for that change.  Knowledge-creating companies, he believed, should be focused primarily on the task of innovation.

This laid the foundation for the new practice of [[knowledge management]], or "KM", which evolved in the 1990s to support knowledge workers with standard tools and processes.

Savage (1995) describes a knowledge-focus as the third wave of human socio-economic development. The first wave was the Agricultural Age with wealth defined as ownership of land.  In the second wave, the Industrial Age, wealth was based on ownership of Capital, i.e. factories.  In the Knowledge Age, wealth is based upon the ownership of knowledge and the ability to use that knowledge to create or improve goods and services.  Product improvements include cost, durability, suitability, timeliness of delivery, and security.  Using data,{{citation needed|date=September 2013|reason=attributed to Ann Andrews, citation? }} in the Knowledge Age, 2% of the working population will work on the land, 10% will work in Industry and the rest will be knowledge workers.<ref>{{cite book |last=Savage |first=Charles |title=Fifth Generation Management: Co-creating through Virtual Enterprising, Dynamic Teaming and Knowledge Networking |location=Boston |publisher=Butterworth-Heinemann |year=1995 |isbn=0-7506-9701-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/fifthgenerationm00sava_0 }}</ref>

=== 21st century ===
Davenport (2005) says that the rise of knowledge work has actually been foreseen for years.<ref name="Davenport2005" />{{rp|4}} He points to the fact that Fritz Machlup did a lot of the early work on both knowledge as well as knowledge work roles and as early as 1958 stated that the sector was growing much faster than the rest of the economy with knowledge workers making up almost a third of the workforce in the United States.<ref name="Davenport2005" />{{rp|4}} "According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (1981), by the beginning of the 1970s around 40 percent of the working population in the USA and Canada were classified to the information sector, whereas in most other OECD countries the figures were still considerably lower."<ref name="Pyöriä2005" />{{rp|118}}

As of 2016, an average of 1.9 million knowledge worker positions had been added every year since 1980, more than any other type of role.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2016/05/04/the-rise-of-knowledge-workers-is-accelerating-despite-the-threat-of-automation/|title=The Rise of Knowledge Workers Is Accelerating Despite the Threat of Automation|last=Zumbrun|first=Josh|date=2016-05-04|website=WSJ|language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-20}}</ref>

Tapscott (2006) sees a strong, on-going linkage between knowledge workers and innovation, but the pace and manner of interaction have become more advanced.  He describes [[social media]] tools on the [[internet]] that now drive more powerful forms of [[collaboration]].  Knowledge workers engage in ''peer-to-peer'' [[knowledge sharing]] across organizational and company boundaries, forming networks of expertise.  Some of these are open to the public.  While he echoes concern over [[copyright]] and [[intellectual property]] law being challenged in the marketplace, he feels strongly that businesses must engage in collaboration to survive.  He sees on-going alliance of public (government) and private (commercial) teams to solve problems, referencing the [[Open-source software|open source]] [[Linux]] operating system along with the [[Human Genome Project]] as examples where knowledge is being freely exchanged, with commercial value being realized.

Palmer (2014)<ref>Palmer, Nathaniel (2014). ''[https://www.amazon.com/dp/0984976477/ Empowering Knowledge Workers.]''Future Strategies Inc. {{ISBN|978-0-984976478}}. "Where is ACM Today?"</ref> researched knowledge worker productivity and work patterns. Part of this research has involved the analysis of how an average knowledge worker spends their day. He notes that effective and efficient knowledge work relies on the smooth navigation of unstructured processes and the elaboration of custom and one-off procedures. "As we move to the 21st century business model, the focus must be on equipping knowledge workers with tools and infrastructure that enable communication and information sharing, such as networking, e-mail, content management and increasingly, social media." Palmer points to the emergence of Adaptive Case Management (also known as Dynamic or [[Advanced case management]]) representing the paradigm shift triggered by the appearance from adapting business practices to the design of IT systems, to building systems that reflect how work is actually performed.

Due to the rapid global expansion of information-based transactions and interactions being conducted via the [[Internet]], there has been an ever-increasing demand for a workforce that is capable of performing these activities. Knowledge Workers are now estimated to outnumber all other workers in North America by at least a four to one margin.<ref name="Haag et al., 2006">{{cite book |last1=Haag |first1=S. |last2=Cummings |first2=M. |last3=McCubbrey |first3=D. |last4=Pinsonneault |first4=A. |last5=Donovan |first5=R. |year=2006 |title=Management Information Systems for the Information Age |edition=3rd Canadian |location=Canada |publisher=McGraw Hill Ryerson |isbn=0-07-095569-7 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/managementinform0000unse_n7i0 }}</ref>{{rp|4}}

While knowledge worker roles overlap heavily with professions that require college degrees, the comprehensive nature of knowledge work in today's connected workplace requires virtually all workers to obtain these skills at some level. To that end, the [[public education]] and [[community college]] systems have become increasingly focused on [[lifelong learning]] to ensure students receive skills necessary to be productive knowledge workers in the 21st century.

Many of the knowledge workers currently entering the workforce are from the generation X demographic.{{vague|date=December 2022}} These new knowledge workers value lifelong learning over lifelong employment.<ref name="Bogdanowitz and Bailey, 2002" /> "They seek employability over employment [and] value career over self-reliance" (Elsdon and Iyer, 1999){{full citation needed|date=September 2013}}. Where baby boomers are proficient in specified knowledge regarding a specific firm, generation X knowledge workers acquire knowledge from many firms and take that knowledge with them from company to company (2002).<ref name="Bogdanowitz and Bailey, 2002">{{cite journal |last1=Bogdanowicz |first1=Maureen S. |first2=Elaine K. |last2=Bailey |title=The Value of Knowledge and the Values of the New Knowledge Worker: Generation X in the New Economy |journal=Journal of European Industrial Training |volume=26 |issue=2–4 |year=2002 |pages=125–129 |doi=10.1108/03090590210422003 }}</ref>