Managing Knowledge Work

Citation

Lockyer, C. (2003), "Managing Knowledge Work", Employee Relations, Vol. 25 No. 3, pp. 311-313. https://doi.org/10.1108/er.2003.25.3.311.2

This book is a partially successful attempt by the authors “to step back from the ebb and flow of management fads to set out a coherent account of the management of knowledge work”, although the overall value is weakened by the consequences of trying to aim at a wide readership encompassing those involved “in teaching, studying, practising and managing knowledge work.”

The intellectual core of the book, the introduction, chapters two and five, offer a useful discussion of the historical context of knowledge work, locating it in with the rise of managerialism, the technicisation of work and the widespread changes in the nature of work. Together these three chapters contribute to a partial deflating of some of the uncritical views and definitions of the knowledge society and work, but the more critical analysis of the assertions as to the nature and impact of knowledge work and the knowledge society is missing.

The attempt to develop a “historical grounding of firms’ attempts to manage knowledge in organisations” (p. 8) is, on the one hand an interesting and thought provoking approach, but ignores important debates. The discussion of Taylorism, for example, ignores the labour process contribution and there is no discussion of bureaucracy as the early attempt to formalise and centralise knowledge.

Chapters three and four extend the discussion of knowledge work firstly to teams and then to a broader view of human resource management and knowledge work. Both these chapters draw more heavily on general material related to teams rather than the specific literature on teams in knowledge or, for example, software production (Carmel, 1997; Carmel and Sawyer, 1998; Dube, 1998). Chapter four adopts a conventional approach to human resource management rather than considering linkages between knowledge workers and the psychological contract (Flood et al., 2001) or careers and skills development (O'Riain, 1998).

This broader and wide ranging review is extended in chapters six and seven with a consideration of community approaches to managing knowledge work and managing knowledge for a purpose: knowledge management and innovation. While there is much thoughtful material in these chapters important debates are ignored. The issues of surveillance and control of knowledge would have formed a counter argument to communities of practice. The book concludes with a consideration of issues of job design, a contingency approach to the management of knowledge work, knowledge cultures and knowledge transfer.

The undoubted strength of the book is the wide ranging approach and the presentation of a number of themes to interrogate managing knowledge work, and, as a student text it will provoke discussion and argument.

The main weakness of the text is that the laudable attempt to adopt a broad and wide ranging approach has led to simplistic analyses, generalisations and incorrect assertions. On page 26 we are told that “many skills encompassed within the field of information technology (IT), such as software development, Web page design and so on are skills that are often largely self taught and almost develop intuitively for those with a particular interest in the IT field.” The Labour Force Survey data suggests that in 2000 45.8 per cent of those in computer services were degree or above qualified (44.3 per cent of IT managers, 59.8 per cent of software engineers and 43.4 per cent of computer analysts/programmers). While it is correct that the majority of graduates in ICT do not hold an ICT degree, some 40 per cent hold degrees in maths or computing and a further 21 per cent in engineering/technology.

It would have been helpful to take a stronger critical approach, especially to the arguments of Castells, and to the linkages between knowledge work and the knowledge economy. However, in terms of setting out a wider debate for students which rises above the “ebb and flow” of management fads and fashions it has succeeded.