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The knowledge worker productivity problem from the perspective of retaining and investing in knowledge workers.
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Low knowledge worker productivity is an important problem that needs to be addressed. Current research addressing this problem is fragmented and deals with different isolated elements of the problem. There is a need for a holistic approach to knowledge worker productivity. This paper takes the first steps of a holistic approach to knowledge worker...
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Citations
... A detailed description of the problem situation can then be developed and presented as a meaningful diagram. A rich picture is used to illustrate the situation, including the organizational units of interest, the relationships between them, and the obvious key roles, problems, and areas of conflict [26]. There is no formal method to develop rich pictures, but they are usually presented visually as overview maps or mind maps. ...
This paper aims to use Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) to develop the steel industry's energy management framework. It proposes a soft system approach to analyze the complex situation of developing a support system for energy management. This approach consists of identifying the system scope, discovering underlying problems within, deriving a conceptual model from the complex situation, and identifying possible actors and activities to bring the conceptual model closer to reality. The identified activities could serve as a guideline for designing and developing an effective energy management framework in the steel industry. The result might also be further developed to drive the feasible, desirable changes into real implementation strategies and action plans. Currently, there is very limited SSM academic research in energy management. Hence the researchers sincerely hope that this study might help to drive the SSM methodology application in this field, in conjunction with the body of knowledge of Industrial and Systems Engineering (IISE).
... The first is the focus on how individuals deal with their own productivity and the second is the limited presence of leadership and management. The knowledge worker is largely responsible for their own productivity Oddsson 2017, #2235) (Óskarsdóttir and Oddsson 2017). The individual faces a two-folded challenge; what causes or impacts productivity and how to deal with it. ...
The purpose of this research was to portray productivity in a larger context than has previously been presented, using system analysis. The result was a single causal loop diagram describing productivity in a work setting. Information on the components affecting productivity and how they interact was gathered from the industrial and organizational psychology (I-O psychology) literature as researchers in that field have spent a great deal of effort on shedding light on the subject. Articles from well-known I-O psychology journals were selected for further analysis through a systematic literature search. From these articles, 45 causal loop diagrams (CLDs) were constructed based on the causalities described in their theoretical background sections and results. These CLDs were subsequently synthesized in two steps to create a single CLD describing productivity. The resulting CLD provides an opportunity to view productivity in the workplace in a wider context.
... There is an extensive amount of research in various fields that explore relevant factors to KWP, making this a difficult endeavor. Óskarsdóttir and Oddsson (2017) and Óskarsdóttir et al. (2021) suggest a holistic approach to KWP using soft systems methodology (SSM) to aid in descriptive theory building. According to Carlile and Christensen (2005), descriptive theory building consists of three steps: observation, categorization and association, which are iterated to formulate a theory that can be applied and improved in normative theory building. ...
... Wicked problems have many competing viewpoints, which change depending on new experiences or knowledge of individuals or groups. SSM was formulated by Checkland (2011) to explore these kinds of problems in industry, but Óskarsdóttir and Oddsson (2017) and Óskarsdóttir et al. (2021) are attempting to use the methodology to explore the problem situation of managing and improving KWP based on findings from previous research. ...
... SSM consists of four activities: (1) finding out about a problem situation, (2) formulating purposeful activity models (PAMs), (3) debating the situation and (4) taking action for improvement. Óskarsdóttir and Oddsson (2017) executed the first activity and analyzed the problem situation of managing and improving KWP using extensive literature reviews on KWP challenges from both the perspective of the organization and the individual KW. Based on the review, they identified four problems from the perspective of the organization: information needs and knowledge interdependence; motivation, work engagement and health; organizational structure and changes; the nature of knowledge work. ...
Many jobs today are predominantly knowledge work. This makes organizations dependent on value created by knowledge workers (KWs). Many of the initiatives to improve and manage knowledge worker productivity (KWP) give unpredictable results depending on factors that are often hidden and unknown. It is important to find a holistic approach to improve and manage KWP that gives consistent results across many different organizations. This paper takes us a step closer towards that objective by mapping insights gained from a systematic literature review to activities in a purposeful activity model of the individual KW at work and, based on the findings, proposing a draft of a holistic KWP framework. The main components of the framework are the state of the individual KW, work done and outcome. The systematic literature review searched for papers with topics that touched on approaches, frameworks, tools, or models which aim to tackle the productivity, performance, effectiveness, efficiency, or management of KWs. Relevant concepts were extracted from each paper and categorized into groups. Twelve groups were formed of which six consisted of concepts relevant to individual KWs and their work: organizational commitment and engagement, communication and relationships, personal characteristics and development, personal knowledge management, well-being and job satisfaction and task approach.
... The workers in these jobs are called knowledge workers (KWs). KWs have high degrees of expertise, education, or experience and use this to acquire, create, share, or apply knowledge in their jobs (Óskarsdóttir and Oddsson 2017). We are dependent on KWs not only to maintain and keep our economy strong, but also for innovations that will change the world. ...
... This will cause a mismatch in the individual KW's perception of his/her productivity and the organization's perception of his/her productivity. Óskarsdóttir and Oddsson (2017) found two factions of current research that view the problem of managing and improving KWP from the ideas of their solutions. Both factions assume that effectively working with knowledge is the main factor influencing KWP. ...
... If managing and improving KWP is looked at from the viewpoint of the individual knowledge worker, both the problem description and solutions change. Óskarsdóttir and Oddsson (2017) detected in a literature review of a proxy for industry that individual knowledge workers experience the following challenges as influential to their productivity: too much demand and insufficient resources, choosing what to do and how to do it, self-development, self-awareness, successful relationships, tapping into their full potential, collaboration, the productivity of their thinking, and motivation. Solutions to these challenges have been proposed and used with varying degrees of success. ...
This research attempted to find and define holistic systems that affect the productivity of the knowledge worker (KW), using the soft systems methodology (SSM). It is not enough to look at the management and improvement of knowledge worker productivity (KWP) from the viewpoint of the organization. The viewpoint of the individual KW needs to be considered as well. The KW owns the means of production; they carry their knowledge in their heads and take it with them when changing jobs. This paper proposes a conceptual framework that describes the process in which the KW uses resources to execute actions to create tangible or intangible artifacts with the intention of generating value. It was based on interpretations and inferences made from an extensive literature review using the snowballing method. This paper highlights what implications the lessons learned from the conceptual framework have on managing and improving KWP and delves deeper into four key concepts: value in knowledge work, knowledge, personal resources, and competencies.
... Consequently, their knowledge is impenetrable, distinctive, and nonsubstitutable, and most of their naturally tacit skills are difficult to normalize [39]. Indeed, their work is expert [65] and is mostly unpredictable, multidisciplinary, creative, non-repetitive, and nonroutine [62,64,[66][67][68]. Indisputably, they are the core of a contemporary enterprise's personnel [69][70][71], and they can occupy a variety of positions and functions in organizations. ...
... Knowledge workers are the most valuable and at the same time the most peculiar component of a contemporary organization's human capital, and supporting their productivity is the main challenge for contemporary management [41,67,76,79]. Their behaviors and attitudes are specific; therefore, they should be managed in a unique and sophisticated manner [62,64], and it is worth investigating the fundamental aspects of their social and organizational activities. ...
... The IT sector, dominated by services and based on information and knowledge, is recognized as an emanation of the knowledge-based economy [70,77,110]. In this sector, the main source of sustainable competitive advantage is the specialist knowledge of highly qualified experts (professionals) understood as knowledge workers [48,59,64,67,70,72]. Hence, its main attribute is the high demand for specialist employees whose knowledge is the foundation for both the competitiveness of both the individual and the organization for which the individual works. ...
The digital revolution has triggered disproportions resulting from unequal access to knowledge and various related skills, because the constituting new civilization is based on specific, high-context, and personalized professional knowledge. In response to these dependencies, and in line with the sustainability paradigm, the issue of diffusion of knowledge, especially of the professional type, is of particular importance in eliminating the increasing digital inequalities. Therefore, the main challenge is to stimulate the free dispersion of intellectual workers’ knowledge. Their openness and commitment, devoid of opportunistic and knowledge-flow restraining attitudes, are prerequisites for the development of a sustainable society (synonymous with Civilization 5.0 or Humanity 5.0). The article endeavors to verify trust as the leading factor of effective specialist knowledge exchange. Its purpose is to analyze and diagnose the components, enablers, and types of trust that affect the diffusion of specific forms of professional knowledge in different groups of organizational stakeholders treated as knowledge agents. Systematic scientific literature analysis, expert evaluation, and structured questionnaires were used to develop and verify the hypotheses. Direct semistructured individual interviews, focus-group online interviews, computer-assisted telephone interviews, and computer-assisted web interviews were also applied in the paper. The research results confirmed the assumption that reliability-based trust, built on competence-based trust and reinforced by benevolence-based trust, is the foundation of the exchange of professional knowledge. It also supported the hypotheses that this process depends on the group of knowledge agents, the dominant form of trust, as well as its enhancers and types of exchanged knowledge. Conducted explorations constitute a theoretical and practical contribution to the subject of professional knowledge exchange. They fill the research gap regarding vehicles of trust as a factor of specialist knowledge diffusion and provide general, practical guidelines in terms of shaping individual components of competence-, benevolence-, and reliability-based trust due to the type of transferred knowledge and the group of knowledge agents involved in its circulation.
... In the context of the knowledge worker, the role of the organization is no longer to retain the knowledge and supervise the worker task. Instead, the organisation is tasked with communicating how value is perceived by the organization and let the worker add value to the organization through knowledge creation (Oddsson, 2017). This change in management behaviour is not yet reflected in the current management attitude to manage knowledge worker productivity. ...
... Since knowledge worker productivity became a concern, many breakthroughs have been developed on the subject. However, the body of available research is disjointed and addresses different, sequestered elements of the issue (Oddsson, 2017). Perhaps the absence of an agreed definition of the knowledge worker is a factor influencing this situation. ...
... Through the analyses of proxy researches (e.g. Ramírez and Nembhard (2004), Xiao, Nembhard and Dai (2012) and Oddsson (2017)), the author listed the main challenges for the improvement of knowledge worker productivity: ...
The elusive and intangible nature of the knowledge work represents a major challenge for the management community. Improving their productivity is the next frontier to increase overall productivity. Although all the studies and discussions around this subject throughout the decades, there is still not a definitive approach to address the productivity of knowledge workers. The organization seems to still prefer to rely on traditional performance systems that show inefficient when applying to knowledge workers. This study intends to investigate the relationship between the productivity measurements used in an organization and analyse the results through the compassion against three social players: the organization, the manager and the worker. Using a pragmatic approach, different data collection methods were applied to each social player. The data analyses demonstrated that the organization applies similar productivity measurement across the functional departments, missing hidden opportunities to increase productivity. Based on the literature reviewed, recommendations are suggested that could be used by the organization to develop stronger productivity measurement systems. This research provides further empirical evidence to address the problem of knowledge worker productivity.
... These workers are characterized by high levels of education or skill, technological literacy and abstract reasoning. They can observe, combine and interpret data and information, communicate new perspectives, and enable better decision making and solutions [8]. ...
In recent years, high-performance work (HPW), and its effects on other organizational constructs, such as organization performance, have attracted the attention of numerous researchers. This study assesses the association between HPW components and knowledge workers' knowledge sharing, given the mediating role played by managers' information and communications technology (ICT) skills. In terms of methods, the study is descriptive-correlational and its sampling population consists of knowledge workers, employed by the Electric Distribution Company of the Isfahan Province, associated with knowledge repositories. Using Cochran's formula and a questionnaire with a return rate of 82 percent, the sample size is 92 people. To test the study's hypotheses, the structural equations software Smart PLS3 is used. As the results suggest, except for employee empowerment, all other components of HPW, namely hiring and selection, employee training and development, compensation and bonuses, and employment security, have positively meaningful effects on knowledge sharing. Strongly supported is the mediating effect of the managers' ICT skills on the associations between high-performance work and knowledge workers' knowledge sharing. Also discussed are implications for pertinent policymaking and future research.
... A suitable tool for doing this is Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), which is mainly used to tackle complex problems in organisations [3], and which puts its primary emphasis on problem formulation rather than problem solution [4,5,6,7,8,9]. Reference [10] stated that real world problems were typically ill-defined or messy and could not be answered satisfactorily by 'hard' systems approaches focusing on machines and structures, but rather required a 'soft' systems approach, which put central emphasis on human values and purposes [10,11,12,13,14]. ...
... Owner(s) could be anyone who has the power to start up or shut down the system. Environment refers to external resources and rules that the system takes as given [9]. ...
The study at hand reports a partial use of Soft Systems Methodology SSM in an analysis of the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) system in the Egyptian banking industry. It was suggested that the central stages of SSM-formulation of root definitions and conceptual models-can be usefully deployed as an analytic toolset in a broader investigation, without going through the preliminary immersive phase, and without necessarily offering the conceptual models as a base for an organizational change project. The study developed root definitions and conceptual models, not from immersion but from imagining how different stakeholders might see the ATM system, and by working from general knowledge, a review of the literature, and rational analysis. Conceptual models developed in this way were then used pragmatically as the research proceeded: they could be modified, merged or discarded, or new ones might emerge. One of the main outcomes of the research was a consolidated combined conceptual model, which brought together different perspectives on the ATM system from different stakeholders, and brought to light some of the tensions and contradictions in the development of a national ATM network. The research reported here suggests that the central stages of SSM can be used independently of the other stages in the investigation of sociotechnical change. Such use may be appropriate where the full use of SSM is for one reason or another not feasible, or where the researcher's interest is primarily analytic and not tied to particular organisational change projects or consultancy work.
Contemporary organizations are interested in their knowledge makers, as they are an
important and essential component in building the organizations’ Ingenious capabilities and their
contribution to relative stability. The study of this research came to reveal the role of knowledge
makers in the extent to which they enhance the capabilities of the skilled organizations at the
University of Maisan, based on two main hypotheses revolving around the dimensions of Implicit
to the main variables, by applying it to senior administrative leaders using the measurement tool
(questionnaire) and the programs (SMART PLS, SPSS) and using the descriptive analytical
approach. The research reached important conclusions, including that there is a positive and direct
correlation and a moral impact relationship between knowledge makers and Ingenious
organizations. This is explained by the fact that interest in knowledge makers leads to an increase
in enhancing the capabilities of Ingenious organizations through attention to intellectual
capabilities, searching for and analyzing information, creativity, and innovation, and there were
several recommendations. The most important of which is the need to enhance the awareness of
the senior leadership at the University of Maisan of the importance of Ingenious organizations and
their dimensions, including contextual prowess and immediate prowess, and to explore
opportunities to enhance these capabilities and reach an Ingenious organization that focuses on
what is new, organizes the organizational components in the university and relies on flexibility and
speed in detecting and exploiting available opportunities
The growing importance of creative knowledge workers as a resource of particular significance for the growth of organizations is becoming one of the greatest challenges of the knowledge-based economy. An organization that employs knowledge workers, is an organization that can develop itself. One characteristic of knowledge workers is that they are creative and always driven by a desire for change. Therefore, wherever they see an opportunity to develop or a problem that can be solved implicating a lower cost it represents an opportunity for the organization. In the end, if the organization knows how to cherish its knowledge workers, will have an advantage on the market that it activates, but also, will be easier for it to attract more knowledge workers. The purpose of the paper is to familiarized the readers with all these concepts, how can be influenced and stimulated knowledge worker productivity, for better understanding of their importance for modern organizations. We are aware that only the presentation of the theory of a complex economic concept is not enough, that s why we realized and present in the paper a case study about how much employees know about knowledge worker, employee satisfaction and employee productivity, constructed using information gathered from people around the globe throughout a survey.
