Workplace Employment Relations

University Degree Business and Administrative studies

The information revolution, allied with the continuous automation of low-skilled work, has meant two things – knowledge workers are now a more significant proportion of the workforce, and knowledge and knowledge workers are now a mainstream resource and a basis for competitive differentiation. The term "knowledge worker" was coined by Peter Drucker some thirty years ago to describe someone, who adds value by processing existing information to create new information which could be used to define and solve problems, and they are not labour, they are capital. Generally defined, knowledge work is dominated by cognitive effort to use, generate, and extract value from knowledge (Mosco & McKercher 2008).

Conceptual definitions of knowledge work

Several experts have outlined different definitions of knowledge work. For example, Drucker focused on the differences between ‘manual worker productivity’ and ‘knowledge worker productivity.’ The key enablers of the latter include abstractly defined tasks, flexible application of knowledge, workers’ autonomy, continuous innovation and learning into job roles, assessment based on quality of output and perceiving workers as organisational assets (Drucker 2007a). As for the manual worker, efficiency is key, that is, the ability to do things right rather than the ability to get the right things done. The manual worker can be judged in terms of the quantity and quality of a definable and discrete output.

While Frenkel, Korczynski and Tam (2002) state that knowledge workers can be distinguished from professional workers, Reed (Noon & Blyton 2007) defines them as a new type of professional, typically financial and business consultants, project engineers, computer analysts and media experts. These people he calls ‘entrepreneurial professionals’, are well suited to globalised capitalism and the commercialisation of the public sector (Reed 1996). Additionally, Frenkel, Korczynski and Tam (2002) emphasized the uniqueness of knowledge workers in their ability to solve complex problems based on their multi-skills and acquaintance with different discipline and bodies of knowledge as compared with professionals.

Scarborough develops Reed’s work further. Unlike traditional professionals he says they have not got a body of knowledge to draw upon, but instead have scarcity value. They are more dependent on employers because to create knowledge they must interact within the firm using its information and communications technology (ICT) networks. Lastly they are more instrumental than traditional professional workers, emphasising knowledge related to its commercial value rather than its intrinsic value (Alvesson 2004).

Knowledge can be divided into tacit and explicit knowledge. Tacit knowledge is tied to an individual and is very difficult if not impossible to articulate. As knowledge is explored, put into action, and socially justified, tacit knowledge is being made explicit through codification resulting in it being converted into messages that can be processed as information. Cortada (1998) identified tacit knowledge as the most strategic resource of firms since tacit knowledge is difficult to imitate and immobile. Thus, it can constitute the basis of competitive advantage. In differentiating knowledge workers from professionals, stated that in addition to tacit knowledge and its formal body, knowledge workers encompass the strategic power of marketization.

The knowledge work paradigm implies that the share of jobs involving autonomy and external contacts will increase as an economy becomes more knowledge-intensive. This applies to knowledge work as the term is commonly understood, referring to workers who have a high level of education and, very importantly, who own the means of production in a knowledge-based organisation (Drucker 2007b). Not only is the proportion of knowledge workers larger in a knowledge-based economy (KBE) than in the economy that preceded it, but the knowledge requirements to be met by other, non-knowledge workers are larger as well.

The comparison of knowledge work with established professions is frequently made. Typically, the established professions are seen as either constituting one of the categories of knowledge workers or as a related category that distinguishes itself from other knowledge-intensive work categories because of its officially recognized practices. In both cases, it is possible to compare the established professions with other categories of knowledge-intensive work – a comparison that leads to some noticeable observations: knowledge-based occupations are expanding employment categories, while professions, as a category, are experiencing a reduction in autonomy or a weakening of their abilities to act as self-regulating ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Implications of knowledge workers

Drucker (2007a) has also raised an issue regarding the management control of knowledge workers. He suggests that knowledge workers, who are mostly external specialists and experts, are more likely to be contingent workers. Although this does not equate to organisational commitment and loyalty, such flexibility does deliver performance. The contingent workforce acts as a variable workforce for companies to select from to perform specific projects or complete specialized projects. Also as organisations make efforts to be more agile and to quickly respond to change in order to be more competitive, they turn to the contingent workforce to have on-demand access to professionals and experts (McFarlane 2008).

Generally, contingent work is associated with employment relationships that are transactional thus limiting employee engagement to the firm for which they are working. They provide their skills for a monetary reward, but do not become attached to the organization because their tenure is temporary, also their level of engagement may be limited, thus resulting in less discretionary effort provided to a position (Noon & Blyton 2007). Another implication is that contingent knowledge workers typically receive no benefits or training, as the relationship is transactional, the organization has no duty or commitment to such employees, thus contingent knowledge workers may not all necessarily be as current as they should be.

Another implication is that at present, statistics on managerial and professional occupations are the best proxy we have to illustrate the rise of the knowledge worker, but we have to be mindful that not all technical, managerial and professional workers are knowledge workers (McFarlane 2008).

A key defining characteristic of knowledge work is that it is complex. This complexity may be related to the amount or depth of knowledge involved – such as theoretical knowledge in the specialist medicinal field; or the level of interdependence between work components that make it difficult to predict how change in one area will affect other areas (Salisbury 2003). For instance, in the routine work setting of an assembly line, it is easy to foresee the impacts of changes in one sub-assembly area on another. In a more complex work situation, such as designing new rocket systems, the complicated and compound interdependencies can mean that ramifications may not be readily apparent.

The need for knowledge workers

Organisations are now harnessing knowledge as their main driver of growth, selling knowledge as their primary commodity. Any firm trying to bypass this trend, risks extinction. In order to survive, let alone thrive, firms need to ensure that they are effectively developing and managing their knowledge-oriented employees. In recession-hit Asia in particular, knowledge workers are essential as companies, battle to survive in shrinking markets and unpredictable business environments (Anderson Consulting 1998).

Experience has shown that companies who emerge the strongest from severe economies crises are those who not only implement defensive actions, but also use the time of crisis to adopt and implement new forward thinking strategies. Companies therefore need to position themselves for long-term success by adopting appropriate systems to garner the power of their knowledge workers and to strengthen the organisation’s ability to cope with rapid changes in the world of work (Horibe 1999). The immense value of knowledge workers is in their ability to handle uncertainty. The crisis in Asia and its spread to other economies make knowledge workers even more important to achieving competitive advantage and solid growth. Such people have the skills and adaptability needed to cope and thrive in dynamic environments.

The work of professionals and highly-skilled workers is characterised by complex tasks and a high level of uncertainty. The result is not always clear beforehand and the search for new solutions to particular problems makes it difficult to directly control the labour process. Creativity and co-operation are crucial virtues when it comes to finding innovative solutions or ‘translating’ unclear customer requirements into clear product specifications. This makes creativity and co-operation particularly important qualities of knowledge work.

The greater the value of the employee’s tacit knowledge in maintaining the firm’s operations and creating new processes, the greater the loss to the firm when employees leave. Employee turnover translates into lost value to the firm relative to tacit knowledge unless that knowledge had been captured through codification into a new product or process improvement or transmitted to others with whom the employee had worked. Knowledge is becoming a firm’s primary resource and because knowledge is stored in the minds of the individuals who possess it, employee turnover can decrease a firm’s tacit knowledge stores (Horibe 1999).

The economy and competitiveness of the companies will much depend on the skills of its workforce. It is mainly in the mind of high skilled workers that we can find innovative solution and competitive advantage. The knowledge worker is normally grounded in formal education, has a mental and emotional commitment to the job and acts as a ‘knowledge entrepreneur’, being responsible for his own learning and being a leader in the modern knowledge society (Cortada 1998). Hence, the privileged position of the knowledge worker.

The importance of knowledge workers in Singapore

Singapore, a small country with no natural resources, realised from the day it attained independence the critical role productivity would play and that workers, employers, and government had to pool their efforts and strive for continuing increases in productivity and output in all enterprises. Since then, there has been a continuous push for greater efficiency and effectiveness.

The knowledge workers will be the protagonist of the future since their skills will shape innovation and the growth of competitiveness that economies are claiming. Companies need to be prepared for the future changes and need to have sound strategies in place in order to benefit from them. At the same time, the public sector will experience the same challenges, but including also the need to facilitate the establishment of a flexible working environment.

Singapore has no choice but to join the network. The nations that can ride the fast-moving waves of information technology are the ones that will succeed. The Republic’s President, His Excellency S. R. Nathan in his address at the opening of the second session of the ninth parliament, Singapore legislative body, in 1999 said, ‘the new millennium brings exciting challenges. In the last four decades we have laid a firm foundation for the future. Now we have to build on it; we have to respond creatively to the challenges of globalization and the knowledge-based economy’ (Bawany 2002).

According to a survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (2010), despite the current downturn, 99% of CEOs in the Asia-Pacific region still believe that attracting and retaining key talent is critical to sustaining long-term growth for any business. The Singapore Human Resources Institute (SHRI) has also reported that the demand for knowledge workers will remain throughout the region (SHRI 2010).

Then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in an interview with the Far Eastern Economic Review in 1998 said, ‘given the small geographical size of Singapore and the competition that we face in the region, we just have to emphasise on upgrading the human resources. There will be more emphasis on education, skill upgrading, and preparing Singapore for a more intensely knowledge-based economy’ (Bawany 2002). Similarly Dr Tony Tan, then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence delivered a speech in 1999 at The Business Week President’s Forum, where he spelt out the Singapore Government efforts in the transition of Singapore into a knowledge-based economy. Dr Tan stated, ‘in a knowledge-based economy, the key resource of a country is skilled people and the products of a knowledge-based economy are directly based on the production, distribution and use of knowledge and information. Intellectual Capital becomes the key source of competitive advantage for a nation’ (Bawany 2002).

Essentially, it refers to a transformed economy where investment in knowledge based assets such as R&D, design, software, and human and organisational capital has become the dominant form of investment compared with investment in physical assets – machines, equipment, buildings and vehicles. Thus, the term KBE captures the subsequently changed industrial structure, ways of working, and the basis on which organisations compete and excel. According to a labour force survery (refer to Appendix A) done by Ministry of Manpower (MOM) Singapore, the professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) form a total of 64.2% of the nations employments, and has been rising at a steady rate since the late 1990s (refer to Appendix B).

With human capital as its only resource, Singapore has depended on education and training as critical cornerstones of its productivity strategy. The Skills Development Fund, Institute for Productivity Training, on-the-job training (Ministry of Trade and Industry 2010), and critical enabling skills training are only a few of the initiatives developed to equip workers with the foundation and technical and managerial skills to enable them to perform better. The aim is to develop workers who are not just highly skilled but multi-skilled and not just passive technicians but knowledge workers who are able to think, use information, and be innovative.

With the knowledge content of all work increasing steadily, all workers will require more knowledge to perform their jobs. Jobs at the lower end will need higher minimum skills than before. At the higher end, managers must be able to manage knowledge better in the organization. Facilitating infrastructure and systems must be put in place to ensure that the skill requirements are met and to provide organizations with a systematic process for reviewing their human resources practices and developing people to achieve better business results. Associate Professor Thomas Menkhoff of the Lee Kong Chian School of Business said, ‘there are opportunities for local companies to specialise in knowledge-intensive services, whether it's in the health industry or port maintenance industry. There are many fields where Singapore has gained lots of experiences which could be captured and brought to those who need it’ (ChannelNewsAsia 2010).

Experts said Singapore is in a good position to share its soft skills to help knowledge-based development among its ASEAN neighbours. Dr Derek Chen, Economist, World Bank Institute, stated, ‘many of them are not really able to create new knowledge so we need to show them how to use existing knowledge to develop its own economy’ (ChannelNewsAsia 2010).

It can be concluded that knowledge workers do occupy a privileged position in today’s economy, and evidently, Singapore is no exception. The push towards knowledge-based industries is set to sustain Singapore's economic growth in the next five to ten years, according to experts at a knowledge governance conference organised by Singapore Management University (SMU). Knowledge-based development has become the driving force behind modern economies and Singapore is among those making the push towards knowledge-based industries and higher research and development (Barney 2002). In order to become a KBE, Singapore will need human and intellectual capital to create, absorb, process and apply knowledge, a strong technological capability, an entrepreneurial culture, an open cosmopolitan society attractive to global talent, and connections to other global knowledge nodes. In short, success increasingly depends on individual and collective abilities to produce and use knowledge, and knowledge workers are a key factor in helping to realise this vision.

REFERENCE LIST

Alvesson, M 2004, Knowledge work and knowledge-intensive firms, Oxford University Press, Oxfordshire, England.
Anderson Consulting 1998, Knowledge Workers Revealed: New Challenges for Asia, Economist Intelligence Unit, Hong Kong.
Barney, J 2002, ‘Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage’ Journal of Management, vol. 3, no. 17, pp. 99-120.
Bawany, S 2000, ‘Managing In The Knowledge Based-Economy’, Hay Learning Services Asia Business Unit, Singapore, 2 January 2002.
ChannelNewsAsia 2010, Knowledge-based industries set to sustain Singapore's growth, viewed 8 February 2010, <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebusinessnews/view/33959/1/.html>.
Cortada, J 1998, Rise of the knowledge worker: Resources for the knowledge-based economy (Knowledge Reader Series), Butterworth-Heinemann, United Kingdom.
Drucker, P 2007a, Management challenges for the 21st century: The Classic Drucker collection, 2nd edn, Butterworth-Heinemann, United States of America.
Drucker, P 2007b, The essential Drucker: The Classic Drucker Collection Series, 2nd edn, Butterworth-Heinemann, United States of America.
Frenkel, S, Korczynski, M & Tam, Y 2002, ‘Organizational and occupational commitment: Knowledge workers in large corporations’, Journal of Management Studies, vol. 39, no. 6, pp. 775 – 801.
Horibe, F 1999, Managing knowledge workers: new skills and attitudes to unlock the intellectual capital in your organization, John Wiley and Sons, United States of America.
McFarlane, D 2008, ‘Effectively managing the 21st century knowledge worker’, Journal of Knowledge Management Practice, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 456 – 508.
Ministry of Trade and Industry 2010, Mapping Singapore’s Knowledge-based Economy, viewed 28 January 2010, <http://app-stg.mti.gov.sg/data/article/21/doc/NWS_2002Q3_KBE1.pdf>.
Mosco, V & McKercher, C 2008, Knowledge Workers in the Information Society, Lexington Books, Canada.
Noon, M & Blyton, P 2007, The Realities of Work: Experiencing Work and Employment in Contemporary Society, 3rd edn, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, United States of America.
PricewaterhouseCoopers 2010, Asia Pacific M&A Bulletin: Seeking Opportunities in Crisis, viewed 12 February 2010, < http://www.pwchk.com/webmedia/doc/633706608535894076_m&abulletin_ap_ye2008.pdf >.
Reed, M 1996, ‘Expert power and control in late modernity: An empirical review and theoretical syntheses, Journal of Organization Studies, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 573-597.
Salisbury, M 2003, ‘Putting theory into practice to build knowledge management system’, Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 128-141.
SHRI 2010, The New ‘Deals’ For A Globalised Workforce, viewed 12 February 2010, <http://www.shri.org.sg/_pr17Sep08.asp>.
The Work Foundation 2010, Knowledge Work and Knowledge Workers: A Knowledge Economy Programme Report, viewed 5 February 2010, <http://theworkfoundation.com/Assets/Docs/Knowledge%20WorkersMarch%202009.pdf>.

APPENDICES

Appendix A

Table 1 : Share of Employment Change Among Singapore Citizens by Occupation 1997 to 2007 and 2004 to 2007(As at June)

Source: Ministry of Manpower (MOM), Singapore (Labour Force Survey)

<http://www.mom.gov.sg/publish/etc/medialib/mom_library/mrsd/md.Par.95875.File.tmp/mrsd_Quality_of_Employment_Creation_for_SC.pdf>

Appendix B

Chart 1: Share of Employed Singapore Citizens by Occupation, 1997, 2004 and 2007

(As at June)

Source: Ministry of Manpower (MOM), Singapore (Labour Force Survey)

<http://www.mom.gov.sg/publish/etc/medialib/mom_library/mrsd/md.Par.95875.File.tmp/mrsd_Quality_of_Employment_Creation_for_SC.pdf>

Workplace Employment Relations

This is a preview of the whole essay

Document Details

Related Essays

Workplace Employment Relations

Workplace Relations Act 1996.

Is conflict inevitable in the employment relations?

Management of Employment Relations - Training & Development.