An activity-based framework for quantification of knowledge work

Jalil Heidary Dahooie; Abbas Afrazeh; Seyed Mohammad Moathar Hosseini

doi:10.1108/13673271111137411

Login

Welcome:
Guest

Search for:

Browse:

Product Information:

Resources:

Journal of Knowledge Management

ISSN: 1367-3270

Online from: 1997

Subject Area: Information and Knowledge Management

Content: Latest Issue | Latest Issue RSS | Previous Issues

Options: To add Favourites and Table of Contents Alerts please take a Emerald profile

An activity-based framework for quantification of knowledge work

Document Information:
Title:	An activity-based framework for quantification of knowledge work
Author(s):	Jalil Heidary Dahooie, (Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Tehran, Iran), Abbas Afrazeh, (Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Tehran, Iran), Seyed Mohammad Moathar Hosseini, (Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Tehran, Iran)
Citation:	Jalil Heidary Dahooie, Abbas Afrazeh, Seyed Mohammad Moathar Hosseini, (2011) "An activity-based framework for quantification of knowledge work", Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 15 Iss: 3, pp.422 - 444
Keywords:	Communication-based activities, Intensity scores, Knowledge work, Knowledge-based activities, Segmentation
Article type:	Research paper
DOI:	10.1108/13673271111137411 (Permanent URL)
Publisher:	Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Acknowledgements:	Special thanks are due to Mohammadreza Ghezel Arsalan who has helped and assisted us with his practical issues. The authors would like to thank Ali Zolghadr Shojai for editing the English text of this article. Finally, they would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their detailed comments, which contributed to a more complete discussion of the subject.Received: 8 July 2010Accepted: 18 December 2010
Abstract:	Purpose – This study attempts to identify the different types of activities that comprise a worker's job, and provide a framework for quantitative definition and segmentation of knowledge works (KWs). Design/methodology/approach – Every KW has two main parts: working with knowledge and establishing communication. Thus, in order to provide an exact definition for the KW it is necessary to calculate the knowledge intensity score of a job (JKIS) and communication intensity score of a job (JCIS). For determining these two parameters precisely, jobs were broken hierarchically to tasks and then activities. To identify these activities, an initial list of activities mentioned in the literature was created and then completed with generalized work activities of ONET. A six-step framework for calculating of JKIS and JCIS was proposed and finally, different groups of knowledge workers (KWrs) with respect to JKIS and JCIS were identified by using a clustering method. Findings* – This article shows how KW can be defined and segmented based on two dimensions (i.e. knowledge intensity score of a job (JKIS) and communication intensity score of a job (JCIS)). The proposed framework was used to analyze 133 jobs in 11 organizations. Practicality and validity of framework were examined based on this empirical study. Research limitations/implications – This study is a base for the identification of appropriate managerial frameworks corresponding to each discovered group of KWrs. Using more data can improve the results obtained in this study. Practical implications – This work emphasizes the importance of defining and clustering KW and proposes a practical method for this aim. Originality/value – A new framework for the quantification of KW is proposed. This framework is supported by five principles inferred from the literature.