Essentials of Knowledge Management

3.1. After reading this chapter you will be able to

• Understand the significance of the increased overhead on knowledge workers associated with a Knowledge Management project

• Understand the applicability of Business to Employee (B2E) management in a knowledge-management initiative

• Appreciate the concerns of knowledge workers, including decreased job security

• Appreciate methods of developing and maintaining knowledge worker loyalty

• Understand how to encourage the formation of communities of practice

• Understand the importance of education in enhancing knowledge workers' effectiveness and the value they add to the corporation

In the realm of Knowledge Management (KM), employees and managers who contribute significantly to the intellectual capital of the company are called knowledge workers. In practice, the distinction is a matter of degree, in that even manual laborers bring to their company the knowledge of their trade. What's more, whether employees are valued for the knowledge they bring to the corporation depends on whether their knowledge is recorded or otherwise captured for future use.

So-called knowledge organizations—corporations that take a systematic approach to capturing this information—transform employees and managers to knowledge workers, regardless of their actual job titles or duties. But even the best knowledge organizations don't treat every employee as a knowledge worker.

The typical knowledge worker in corporate America works in marketing, intellectual property, engineering, ...