Knowledge Workers

I am sure much has been talked about knowledge workers. Today i had a chance to listen to a video presentation (dated by a few good years) from a professor in Stanford. It appears that quite a bit of it is still real and valid today.I thought it might be worthwhile to put some of those here.

Organization architectures goes beyond the traditional org. structures (from the value chain of Mr. Porter) to include the IT infrastructure and the physical design of the workplace. Interesting example - Office building in Sun Microsystems at Menlow Park is superwide. The rationale is that Sun wants its people to work in teams and they want the teams to be able to walk the stairs together. A subtle effort to speed up communication.

The traditional parent-child (mentor-mentee) relationship has been replaced by peer-to-peer relationship creating flat organizations. The condition of employee retention hinges on the ability of the individual to being value to the table. Increasingly, authoritative heirarchy is being replaced by accountability style of management. Career advancement that was once seen as vertical progress is now more about moving sideways, being current and innovative. Hiring that once based on efficiency has now moved to effectivity. A cultural fit is more important than a skill fit. This becomes vital with more temporary and contract workers. With organizations experimenting new models, the role of people in hub positions has become markedly critical. These are project managers, consultants who act as synaptic nodes between a variety of stakeholders, wearing different hats. They influence without much authority and create more intangible deliverables.

A few themes for our observation.
Let us move away from uniformity and celebrate diveristy by glueing it together with culture and values. Different people work with different management styles. For some constructive confrontation works and for some other consensus and collaboration is the way to go.
The intensity of the knowledge worker has been mentally working round the clock resulting in a a quicker burnout. People need a escape hatch to recharge themselves.
A high employee churn is not necessarily a negative indicator. Leveraging ex- employee alumni is like creating a brand equity in the lateral workforce market.
In a hub style environment, boundary setting is an abosolute must to facilitate quick decision making and conflict resolution. The C-level needs to be well connected with the ground troops to convert resource and competencies into compettitive advantage.

Getting to know the kinetics of this thought process helps me appreciate the organization transition.