Page 136 -

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND KNOWLEDGE WORK 125

>> INTRODUCTION
One recurring feature of all the chapters in this book – even those chapters deal-
ing with more technical issues – is the central role played by human activity and
potential in the development of knowledge work. Put simply, knowledge work
depends on the capacity, motivation and performance of knowledge workers. This
chapter will explore this human dimension further by highlighting the ‘worker’
aspect of knowledge work – the fact that most of those doing knowledge work are
employees of organizations. Now, as we will show, in some settings knowledge
workers are a distinctive group who are treated differently from other groups
of employees. Nonetheless, setting aside the self-employed ranks of freelance
workers, consultants and partners, most knowledge workers are still employees. As
such, an important strand in the way they are managed comes from the Human
Resource Management policies and practices of their employing organization.
These not only influence the recruitment, selection and training of knowledge
workers, but also the rewards provided to motivate good performance and the
development of career tracks designed to retain them within the firm.
This aspect of knowledge work is sometimes neglected in existing debates
because there is understandably much more interest, in what is new and dif-
ferent about knowledge workers. This deflects attention away from what they
share with other groups, namely, their status as employees who are hired by
an employer to do a particular job. Of course, the employment relationship is
only one of the ways in which firms can access the services of knowledge work-
ers. Indeed, other ways of contracting for such services – as, for example, in
‘outsourcing’ arrangements – are discussed later in this chapter. However, the
employment relationship remains dominant and can be highly flexible, giving
the employer the ability to direct knowledge workers’ expertise according to
the shifting needs created by customer demand, technological innovation and
market requirements. As such, it still has many advantages, especially for forms
of knowledge work which are difficult to specify in a formal contract, such as
team-based skills and non-standardized or tacit forms of knowledge.
The management function which is principally responsible for designing and
regulating the employment relationship is often labeled the ‘Human Resource
Management’ or HRM function. The label itself reflects some of the effects
which the increasing number of knowledge workers is having on organizations.
The term ‘HRM’ was to a significant extent spawned by high-tech organizations
in the United States, notably firms such as IBM, Xerox and Hewlett Packard
(Guest, 1990). These companies had found that previous labels used to des-
ignate the management of employees – ‘Personnel’ or ‘Labour Relations’, for
instance – did not do justice to the role which a new group of knowledge work-
ers played in the organization. Previous approaches tended to define the role of
employees essentially in terms of their effort or labour – just ‘pairs of hands’ as
Henry Ford famously put it. However, as these firms discovered, the role played
by knowledge workers extended some way beyond this description. Where other
workers were seen as labour costs to be minimized, knowledge workers were

6/5/09 7:03:48 AM
9780230_522015_07_cha06.indd 125 6/5/09 7:03:48 AM
9780230_522015_07_cha06.indd 125