CHAPTER SIX

MANAGING KNOWLEDGE WORKERS

K-Worker
WHAT?
• First introduced by Peter Drucker The Landmark of Tomorrow (1959)
– Defined as high-level workers who apply theoretical and analytical
knowledge, acquired knowledge through formal training to develop products
of service.
– They think for a living, unlike manual labourer
– Able to solve complex problem or develop new product of services in their
level of expertise
– Focus more on quality than quantity

He noted that knowledge workers would be the most valuable assets of a 21st-century
organization because of their high level of productivity and creativity. They include
professionals in information technology fields, such as programmers, web designers, system
analysts, technical writers, and researchers. Knowledge workers are also comprised of
pharmacists, public accountants, engineers, architects, lawyers, physicians, scientists,
financial analysts, and design thinkers.

Knowledge workers are said to think for a living, unlike manual laborers who are paid for
performing physical tasks. Knowledge workers are differentiated from other workers by
their ability to solve complex problems or to develop new products or services in their fields
of expertise. Since the term was coined, the number of knowledge workers has continued to
grow as organizations move toward a collaborative workplace that gives more autonomy to
their employees. Knowledge workers receive high salaries that reflect the complex nature of
their work and their relative independence in relation to the work process. 

Individual who add to a company’s product and services by applying their knowledge.
Individuals who use their head more than their hand to produce value.

WHY

1. Specialized knowledge work toppled the mass production

• Have higher communication skill (speak, write and hold discussion)
and,
• motivation (desire to upgrade their knowledge)
• They provide the Brain not the strength
- Office/work equipment upgraded
• Changes in the way organization is dealing with business
- New Job creation/ Market demand
• Changes in the new skills needed by the organization to do business

1. Fundamentally alters the nature of work & agenda of management

• Able to make decision, solve problem, answer question and generate
ideas based on own analytical reasoning and ability to identify
 important information from large databased on information they
need to be familiar with.
- Rising price of brains because the workers are measured by the result
they achieved.
- Education is the most important
• they undergo years of formal training to master the information
needed to perform certain specialized role

How to manage knowledge worker

Individuality
Knowledge workers have a strong sense of individuality. They often have independent views
and enjoy being different. They want to be treated as individuals.
Such people are often inner-directed, which is a term coined by David Riesman in the 1950s.
They form their opinions by looking within and clarifying their own values.
This is in contrast to people who are other-directed. Those people rely on outside
institutions and authority figures for strong guidance.

Integrity
Knowledge workers have strong values. They believe deeply in the integrity of their art,
science, craft or other field.
Frequently this has huge benefits. They stand for maintaining ethical and professional
standards. They may also act as whistle-blowers if such standards are compromised.
Sometimes there can be downsides. Knowledge workers can be seen as reactionary and
protecting their vested interests.
The phrase ‘doctor knows best’, for example, sums-up both sides of the story. Doctors are
admired for their expertise and ethics. On the other hand, some may refuse to listen to
patients.
Knowledge workers believe in being true to their vocation. They have little time for
organisations that pay lip service to these values. They will then speak out to defend their
professional integrity.

Intelligence
Knowledge workers often have great intelligence in their own field. They love to learn and
stretch themselves. Knowledge is their currency and provides the passport to development.
Such people respect others who have expertise. They may start out by testing newcomers,
however, just to check if the new person knows what they are talking about. On the other
hand, they can be scathing towards those who are superficial or talk in clichés.
Knowledge workers frequently speak their minds, which can be a blessing or a curse. They
bring freshness, but can also be blunt. Managers may sometimes need to manage the
interface between certain knowledge workers and other people in the organisation.

Impact
Knowledge workers like to use their expertise and see that is has a positive impact. They are
like artists, scientists, inventors, designers and those in the problem solving business. One
person said:
“I enjoy developing new ideas, building models and finding solutions that help people.”
Such workers often focus on innovation, implementation and impact. Seeing results is
crucial because, as many of them say, they want ‘to make a difference’.
Organisations that invite them to contribute suggestions must show how some of these
ideas are translated into action. Otherwise knowledge workers may retreat into pursuing
their individual agendas.
Great organisations can co-ordinate the talents of such people to achieve the overall goals.
Knowledge workers are often loyal to their vocation, however, rather than to a particular
organisation. The key is to find win-win solutions that benefit everybody and produces great
work.

CHIEF KNOWLEDGE OFFICER

More and more organizations and major corporations are hiring Chief Knowledge Officers,
or are designating someone in their ranks to take on the job. However, it is rare that to find
a CKO coming from outside the organization, because CEOs are skeptical about how
management consultants can help with learning curves the way they are. One thing that is
certain is that companies are creating the position to initiate, organize, and coordinate
knowledge management programs.

In the future, governments will need to have highly-trained CKOs in their departments to
help with the creation of new knowledge and its capture; to develop and expand the lines of
communications within a system; and to encourage employees to contribute to the
knowledge base. Governments will be no different from big business in their need for
advanced information systems.

Chief knowledge officer (CKO) is a corporate title for the person responsible for
overseeing knowledge management within an organization. The CKO position is related to,
but broader than, the CIO position. The CKO's job is to ensure that the company profits from
the effective use of knowledge resources. Investments in knowledge may include
employees, processes and intellectual property; a CKO can help an organization maximize
the return on investment (ROI) on those investments.
Furthermore, a CKO can help an organization to:
 Maximize the return on investment (ROI) in knowledge.
 Maximize benefits from intangible assets, such as branding and customer
relationships.
 Repeat successes and analyze and learn from failures.
 Promote best practices.
 Foster innovation.
 Avoid the loss of knowledge that can result from loss of personnel.

What Activities Do They Perform?

• The primary task of a first-generation CKO is to articulate a knowledge management
program.
• This task is twofold:
– making employees aware of the nature and value potential of knowledge;
– and selling the concept of knowledge management to both corporate and
line local management.
The role of the CKO is so new that there is no job description. Different corporations are
likely to have different expectations of it. So CKOs have had first to work out an agenda for
themselves, and usually have no clearly defined mission or mandate. However, CKOs are
often hired because their CEOs realize that there are inherent corporate deficiencies that
need to be corrected:

1. Inability to learn from past failures and successes in strategic decision-making.

2. Inattention to the explicit or formal management of knowledge in ongoing operations.
3. Failure to leverage the hidden value of corporate knowledge in business development.
4. Not creating value or making money from knowledge embedded in products or held by
employees.

What Activities Do They Perform?

CKOs spend a lot of time walking around the organization looking for their knowledge
champions:

• Must have knowledge partners

• Must have ideas and projects
• Must get people to commit to any major behavior change or to a knowledge
management project

While walking around the organization they look for those who are excited about a
particular knowledge management idea or project they would like to develop. Those who
have already identified where improvement is possible and are likely to want to try
something new.
They also seek to identify from the senior executives those who are interested in knowledge
management, identify with the concept, and will make public statements about it. These are
potential knowledge sponsors who will invest in and support knowledge management
projects.

As well, CKOs must spend part of their time searching for those who are hostile to
knowledge management and/or to their own the appointment as CKO. These are the people
who can prevent a knowledge management system from ever getting off the ground
because of undermining tactics. Of course, there will always be skeptics and reactionaries
who must be converted to the cause.

Finally, the CKO, once he or she has initiated a project of any substance, will need allies in
implementation. These are typically IT executives and HR professionals. These are the
knowledge partners.

CKOs need to engage senior executives one on one to understand possible individual or
local knowledge gaps or opportunities and to initiate customized knowledge management
projects. Unless they can persuade people that knowledge management is not just for the
benefit of other people, they have no hope of persuading them to buy into it. Otherwise it
just comes across as the latest form of corporate manipulation. They must have good ideas.
Getting employees to commit to any major behavior change or to a knowledge management
project requires a clear proposition about business value. What's in it, for them?
CKOs must be prepared to spend considerable time and effort identifying current business
concerns and possible value-creation initiatives and then be able to connect knowledge
propositions to them. It really doesn't matter what a CKO thinks, or what her strategic
objectives may be. In truth, the only thing that does matter is what real, direct, practical
effects someone has on the profit-and-loss statements. Ultimately, a CKO survives if she can
show examples of how KM either reduces expenses (by avoiding the purchase of knowledge
elsewhere) or uses knowledge to enable someone else within the organization to do their
job more efficiently.

So the CKO needs to be flexible, opportunistic, and creative.

Typical CKO Profile Attributes

• CKO's outlook or mindset needs to be broad.
• Almost all the CKOs are in their forties or early fifties; many are female. None are
approaching retirement.
• CKOs usually have a visible and successful track record of achievement in
organizational reputation and credibility. have a high level of enthusiasm for what
they are trying to achieve
• highly curious about knowledge
• driven and extremely motivated to prove that knowledge management is both
practicable and can improve corporate performance.

CKOs appointed to date come from a variety of backgrounds and have often worked in
various roles. The professional backgrounds seem to include everything from finance, legal,
marketing, HR, and IT through journalism, academe, and consulting to being a CEO of a
small company or a business unit. In general, CKOs are not single career-track people.

Typical CKO Profile Attributes

• Goal-oriented and interested in change, yet neither naive nor driven by self-
glorification.
• They have a mission but are balanced.
• CKOs need to be sociable and energetic, yet tolerant and pragmatic.
• Career experience and familiarity with the organization.
• Even-tempered, optimistic, moderate, and more able to deal with stress and
sensitive situations than average and are not likely to dwell on problems in a
detrimental way.

Length of experience in the organization probably helps give credibility to the

entrepreneurial and building aspects of the job, particularly if there is a visible record of past
success. Knowing the organization, its culture, and its key players probably renders
acceptability and yields advantages in the consulting and influencing aspects of the job.

Typical CKO Profile Attributes

• Tolerant and consider issues on their own terms rather than adhering to fixed
standards.
• Modest, yet able to promote their own interests, and sympathetic, but without
being taken advantage of.
 • Receptive to their own and others' feelings and enjoy abstract or imaginative
thinking.
• Honest and considerate of others, with appropriate consideration to the needs of
the individual.
• Willingness to try new things or different approaches.

What Resources and Support Does a CKO Require?

• A CEO or executive team needs to understand the level and nature of resources that
a CKO requires to do his or her job.
• Current CKO budgets are small for three reasons

What Support and Resources Does a CKO Need?

1. A CEO or executive team needs to understand the level and nature of resources
that a CKO requires to do his or her job. Currently, CKOs' budgets and staffs are
modest, although, in the longer term, their expenditures may grow. High-level
sponsorship is essential, partly because the need for some slack resources is
becoming apparent.
Current CKO budgets are small for three reasons:
1. because any knowledge management project is corporately funded if enterprise-wide and
locally funded if at the business unit or individual level. Thus, discretionary funds for the
CKO are necessary only for seed projects, experiments, special studies, and new ideas.
The CKO needs time to understand the scope of what he/she needs to do before any
huge amount of money is spent.
2. because most CKOs have small staffs, usually between three and twelve people only, often
working as specialist consultants, such as those in IT. This is particularly true since CKOs
usually have no ambition to create a permanent function or capability that requires
ongoing maintenance, and view their role as finite. They have no real need to pull
together big departments that add to the bureaucracy and subtract from the bottom
dollar.
3. and, finally because at this stage in the game when even the term knowledge
management itself has no set definition, both budget and staff levels are largely
determined by the current needs and progress of the corporate knowledge management
program. Full momentum is probably still distant. Most CKOs would not know what to do
with a large staff or big pot, at this point. However, several CKOs envisage needing
substantially greater resources in the future as more knowledge management projects
are initiated, and as investments in wider and richer communications technologies are
found necessary. And as more people in their organizations step forward and ask for
help.
What Resources and Support Does a CKO Require?
• Top-level sponsorship is by far the most important resource
• It is the quality, rather than quantity, of resources that CKOs stress
• appointing their own staff members
• value of hand-picking their own teams.
• Small teams are optimal because small groups prompt teamwork, and
they generate collective learning.
• Leverage virtual teams that comprise people who can be brought in
for consultation on particular projects.

The most important resource is CEO support and sponsorship. Why? Not only because CKOs
believe that such a new, pretentious, and ambiguous role needs the sponsorship, but also
because CEOs have appointed them, and without their subsequent visible support, the
CKO's position can become vulnerable, and undermined. And for more subtle reasons: at
least in the beginning, a CKO needs some organizational slack; as with all creative and
important projects there is a great need for time to think, dream, talk, and sell.

It is the Quality, rather than Quantity:

A CKO relishes the luxury of appointing their own staff members, emphasizing the
importance and value of hand-picking their own teams. Small teams are optimal because
small groups prompt teamwork, and they generate collective learning. CKOs also take
advantage of larger virtual teams that comprise people who can be brought in for
consultation on particular projects.

CKO vs. CIO?

How Does a CKO Differ From a CIO?

1. CIOs are oriented toward directing a function, rather than initiating and leading a team in
transition.
2. CIOs have distinct responsibilities - IT strategy, IT operations, and managing the IT
function - and so far, have not formally taken on the full range of knowledge management
activities. Where a CKO exists, there is also likely to be a CIO, but the corollary is not true.
Current movements in intellectual and information management and organizational
learning are closely related to knowledge management, but these are not always
conceptualized or put into practice the way knowledge management is. They may be the
same, but not necessarily. Therefore, the corporate executives leading such initiatives may
they have different titles, such as director of intellectual capital or vice president of
organizational learning. The much commoner and well-established role of chief information
officer, or CIO is sometimes thought to be similar to that of CKO, but is actually quite
different.

3. Most CIOs are swamped with work, and should not be expected to add the ambiguities of
the CKO role to their job description.
4. CIOs and CKOs have different strong suits

Obvious ambiguities in the role of CKO:

-- of knowledge as a resource
-- of a new and probably temporary role
-- of having to work through influence not authority

CKOs seem to score high in the areas of entrepreneurship, consulting, environmentalism,

and technology, while most CIOs are more likely to score high on the technology and
consulting dimensions but be less accomplished on the entrepreneur and environmentalist
side of things.

So the primary task of a first-generation CKO is to articulate a knowledge management

program. This is a twofold task that involves evangelizing the nature and value potential of
knowledge and selling not only the concept of knowledge management but also how to sell
it to both corporate and line or local management. In particular, CKOs have found they need
to engage senior executives one on one to understand possible individual or local
knowledge gaps or opportunities and to initiate customized knowledge management
projects. As one CKO explained, “Unless I can persuade people that knowledge management
is not just for the benefit of other people, I haven’t got much hope of persuading them to
buy into it. They have to believe there’s something in it for them and that I care about that
as much as they do. Otherwise it just comes across as the latest form of cynical
manipulation.”

Therefore, CKOs spend a lot of time “walking around the organization.” In particular, they
interact with four types of managers (see Figure 1). They look for those who are excited
about a particular knowledge management idea or project and thus have identified where
improvement is possible and are likely to want to try something new. These are their
knowledge champions. They also seek to identify from the senior executive cadre those who
are enthused by knowledge management, identify with the concept, and make public
statements about it. These are potential knowledge sponsors who will invest in and support
knowledge management projects.
Surprisingly, several CKOs we studied also spent time identifying executives who are hostile
to knowledge management and/or the appointment of a CKO. They sense that in a new and
as yet ill-defined corporate initiative, especially one with the CEO’s personal (or
idiosyncratic) support, there will be doubters and reactionaries who must be converted to
the cause or avoided for now. These are the knowledge skeptics. Finally, the CKO, once he
or she has initiated a project of any substance, will need allies in implementation, typically,
IS executives and HR professionals. These are the knowledge partners.

Rarely, however, do these partners come from outside the organization. For example, CKOs
are skeptical about how management consultants can help, feeling they are lower down the
learning curve than themselves. One interviewee complained, “The consultants who have
woken up to knowledge management as an opportunity and are peddling expertise in this
field actually know less about it than we do.” In a similar vein, CKOs have soon concluded
there is little to be learned from conferences and external contact, as they discover that
knowledge extraction is more common than knowledge sharing!

A common word in the CKO’s vocabulary is “design.” CKOs are designers of knowledge
directories, knowledge-based systems, knowledge-intensive business and management
processes, knowledge exchange events, knowledge-sharing physical spaces, and knowledge
protection policies. Mostly, their designs are conceptual. In other words, they work on an
idea with a champion and contribute design suggestions and inject thinking from emerging
knowl- edge management practice, as a consultant or systems analyst would. They then
enlist the help of relevant partners.

Occasionally, however, CKOs are themselves sponsors. For example, they promote and
contract-manage the construction of meeting, eating, and resting places to encourage
informal social interaction, reflection, and chance conversations. In some organizations,
they are the primary promoters of intranets and videoconferencing (and related groupware)
to facilitate enterprisewide or team-based communication and knowledge sharing. And, in
especially knowledge-intensive firms, such as consultancies, financial services, and science-
based manufacturers, they drive initiatives to both measure and protect intellectual capital.
In other words, corporatewide knowledge management investments often need a high-level
nonfunctional sponsor like the CKO.

The twenty CKOs we studied recognize both the explicit and tacit dimensions of knowledge.
They believe that early opportunities exist to address and improve the capture, codification,
storage, protection, and sharing of explicit knowledge and that this is the area with which
potential champions and sponsors commonly identify. However, some believe that the most
valuable and untapped knowledge is tacit and are concentrating on this area. In particular,
they seek to encourage and facilitate conversations and unplanned or chance encounters.
This is why designing physical meeting spaces is on their agenda. The second best
intervention in the tacit area that CKOs favor is videoconferencing. This augments the same
time/same place interaction of conversation with same time/different place dialogue, yet
retains both verbal and nonverbal messages.
So, most CKOs initiate both social and technological investments. One CKO described
knowledge management as “20 percent technology and 80 percent cultural change.” CKOs
are not therefore monotheistic but are eclectic change agents.

Is the Role of CKO Likely to Endure?

• Or is it a temporary role or a short-term fad?
• Some knowledge projects are certainly long-term, especially those that require
implementing a fairly comprehensive technology infrastructure
• Three to five years seems to be the minimum necessary tenure

Since some knowledge projects are certainly long-term, especially those that require
implementing a fairly comprehensive technology infrastructure, it is likely that CKOs will
have their jobs for longer than they first realize. Even articulating and demonstrating the
benefits of knowledge management and what it might involve across the corporation takes
more than a year. Three to five years seems to be the minimum necessary tenure. And of
course, many CKOs want to stay around long enough to see that the knowledge
management system is proven and self-sustaining.

From conversations with some CKOs, most have no illusions that their stay will be anything
but short-term; actually, their goal and a sign of success for them personally is to go out of
business after they see knowledge management embedded into daily organizational life.
Most CKOs envisage their role as finite. Any special knowledge management initiatives are
transitory because the goal is to achieve embedded knowledge capabilities, and then move
on.

Does Knowledge Management Require a CKO?

• Only if your organization is serious about implementing a knowledge management
program
• Economic realities and competitive edge factors play a large role

If your organization is serious about implementing a knowledge management program, then

appointing a CKO is one way of initiating, and coordinating such a strategy. In this post-
industrial, knowledge economy, no one can forget that knowledge is the most important
resource; forgetting could be fatal. Knowledge, its creation, use, and innovation is the only
real competitive edge when governments are moving from industrial-based economies to
knowledge-intensive ones. The best scenario would be that, like total quality management,
knowledge management will become embedded in organizations and knowledge a source
of value. Of course, in the long-term the goal will see all members of the organization
owning and driving the knowledge management system, and over time, seeing the need for
CKOs decline.

However, today's CKOs are discovering that knowledge management comprises a large
agenda and that making substantial progress takes time. In the beginning, a leader, or
coordinator is imperative for initiating, keeping up the momentum, deciding on software
and systems (with the IT staff), distilling, codifying, and helping others learn to share their
unique or tacit knowledge so that an organization can raise its knowledge capabilities.
Therefore, appointing a CKO is likely the best place to start when embarking on a knowledge
management program, and even if an appointee does not have the title of Chief Knowledge
Officer, he/she should have the requisite profile; perform activities that propel a knowledge
management project forward; have access to the proper resources, and success factors that
will work.

Conclusion
So, what is the job of a Chief Knowledge
Officer?

If you are appointing a CKO, how do you know one when you see one?

It is to nurture those champions in the organization who can envision the strategies needed
for the creation of knowledge. Instead of a company that constantly pushes data,
information, and knowledge up the ladder to top executives, anyone within the organization
can access knowledge, as needed. And instead of becoming overloaded with useless
information, workers get the intellectual capital needed to make strategic decisions.

They help turn intellectual assets into value through innovation while operating on a steep
learning curve, with few resources. Of course, there are lots of road blocks along the way,
not the least of which is the challenge CKOs have of getting the inhouse gatekeepers to
cease and desist hoarding their unique knowledge, and thereby, flattening hierarchies.

How do you know one when you see one?

By making sure they have at least some of the characteristics listed earlier in this
presentation.