Knowledge Workers
By: Dr Lynda Kelly, Category: Museullaneous, Date: 20 Sep 2009
Are knowledge workers a way to approach future organisational change?
I'm really interested in the knowledge society and what that means for museums and organisational change. I have been re-visiting my Peter Drucker texts and been re-inspired by that man's foresight and genius! Susan Groundwater-Smith also put me onto this useful piece of work by Gurteen (2006) who suggested the following attributes of a knowledge worker:
- connect people with people
- connect people with ideas
- are good networkers
- do not follow the rules
- have strong communication skills
- like people
- feel good about themselves
- motivate others
- are catalysts
- ask for help
- demonstrate integrity
- are self reliant
- open to share
- are not afraid
- are goal oriented
- are able to identify critical knowledge
- add value to the organisation
- have strong subject expertise in a specific area
- network for results
- trustworthy - can be trusted and trusts others
- make decisions
- are not insular
- do not conform
- push the boundaries
- assume authority - ask for forgiveness, not permission
- strong belief in the value of knowledge sharing
- are informal active leaders
- take a holistic view
- are catalysts, facilitators and triggers
- good listeners - they listen first
- do not need praise
- see the wider picture
- work well with others
- do not have a 'knowledge is power' attitude
- walk the talk
- prepared to experiment with technology
- playful
- take calculated risks
The Gurteen Knowledge Website is useful too.
What do you think - are these attributes of the 21st century worker??