Page 141 -

130 MANAGING KNOWLEDGE WORK AND INNOVATION

to another (Redpath et al., 2007). This form of employment can have some
benefits. ‘Contingent workers’ such as freelance IT experts can sometimes be
paid at significantly higher rates than other staff. They can also get the oppor-
tunity to develop a richer variety of skills due to the range of projects that they
work on. Their working hours and place of work are also more flexible. On the
other hand, contingent worker status also has significant disadvantages due to
the lack of job security, and lack of access to higher levels of the career ladders
within firms.
The impact of these different trends in employment are quite unpredictable
as far as particular groups are concerned. Developments in the marketplace or in
technology can contribute to the rapid de-skilling or upskilling of different groups,
such that no group of knowledge workers can ever be fully confident about their
long-term role and status in the economy (Attewell, 1990; Braverman, 1974). It is
certainly true, as noted above, that codified forms of knowledge work are probably
the most vulnerable to these new patterns of employment and control. However,
in some areas even more tacit and context-dependent forms of knowledge have
become subject to greater market discipline. This applies, for example, even in
specialized arenas such as R&D (Research and Development), where the advent
of Open Innovation, as discussed in Chapter 9, may be indicative of not only a
new mode of innovation, but also of new ways of sourcing and controlling R&D
activities.
Table 6.1 summarizes the characteristics of knowledge workers as discussed
above, and highlights the challenges which these create for HRM policy. As the
table outlines, HRM policies in one area almost invariably have implications for
policies in other areas. One obvious effect of operational autonomy, for example,
is to make it more difficult to control the work practices of knowledge workers.
At the same time, this affects the kind of rewards which can be applied to this
group; the outputs from their work can be complex and hard to measure, so

Table 6.1 The challenges posed by knowledge work for HRM policy

Knowledge worker Challenges for HRM policy
characteristics
Operational autonomy in Gaining knowledge workers’ commitment to the organization.
work practices Controlling knowledge worker behaviour.
Designing work and reward systems that encourage required
knowledge processes.
Labour market power Recruiting and selecting employees to ensure the best fi t with other
staff.
Retaining highly valued employees who are in demand from other
organizations.
High expectations of work Creating work satisfaction through interesting and challenging work.
Developing career systems that enable knowledge workers to gain
promotion and higher level jobs.

6/5/09 7:03:48 AM
9780230_522015_07_cha06.indd 130 6/5/09 7:03:48 AM
9780230_522015_07_cha06.indd 130