1. Managing an expert workforce
Knowledge-intensive Organization
Knowledge Management Course
class of 28/03/2012
Newell et al. 2002 “managing Knowledge Work”
Case study of chapter 2
3. Knowledge workers
...are people who use their heads more than their
hands to produce value.
Frances Horibe
...one who works primarily with information or one
who develops and uses knowledge in the
workplace.
Peter Drucker 1959
4. Knowledge workers
...have particular skills and expertise not generally
available in the labour force and in post-industrial
and global economy these skills are much in
demand.
Newell
Pag. 24
5. Ed Michaels, Helen Handfield-Jones, Beth Axelrod
The war for talent
Harvard Business school 2001
Importance for firms of high skilled
workers
The Old Reality The New Reality
People need companies Companies need people
Machines, capital and geography are the
competitive advantage
Talented people are the competitive
advantage
Better talent makes some difference Better talent makes a huge difference
Job are scarce Talented people are scarce
Employees are loyal and jobs are sure
People are mobile and their commitment
is short term
People accept they are offered People demand much more
8. Organizational structure
ScienceCo are organized in 7 scientific ‘divisions’,
even if operates primarily for financial reporting
purposes only.
In reality they work in self-forming and self-
managing project teams.
values of
autonomy and egalitarianism Pag. 37
10. Culture
● Absence of hierarchy, rules and formal procedures
● Egalitarian environment where everyone is free to
contribute to decision making and individuals
freedom to be creative
Absence of tough culture that encompassed
particular norms of behaviour
Pag. 42
12. Potential problems
● In range of diverse individuals conflict inevitably
arise....
consultants are trusted to resolve them without the
recourse to management
● Consultants do have different perceptions on what
constitutes organizational reality
however exist an informal hierarchy based on
expertise; but positions are transient!
Pag. 42
14. ● email, calendaring, contacts management, instant
messaging, voice and video conferencing, online
meetings, discussions, forums, blogs, file sharing, micro-
blogs, and office productivity suite (IBM Lotus Symphony)
● additional integrated applications and databases (IBM
Lotus Domino).
Groupware technologies
15. IT usage
Groupware technologies:
collaborative software are occasionally used
by consultants; they prefer work face to face
:( documentation projects are not always
classifying and recording in a consistent
manner in the firm
Pag. 42
23. IT usage
E-mail system:
the principal instrument consultants use to
communicate each other and with clients
:) informal and horizontal
:( perceived as a burden
(100 mail per day)
Pag 41.
24. Recruitment
...process of searching the candidates for
employment and stimulating them to apply for
jobs in the organisation.
Edwin B. Flippo
…process to discover sources of manpower to
meet the requirement of staffing schedule and
to employ effective measures for attracting that
manpower to facilitate effective selection of an
efficient working force.
Dale Yoder
25. How choose the talent
Recruitment strategies:
● Advertisements
● Employment agencies
● College recruiting
● Professional organizations
● Internal job postings
26. How choose the talent
Selection strategies:
● General
● Testing and assessment
● Interviews
27. How choose the talent
Recruitment and selection process by HR manager:
international recruitment agencies
I interview with the HR manager and the
relevant divisional manager
II interview with the HR manager and
consultants from several division
Pag. 38 - 39
28. How choose the talent
Candidate characteristic:
● Higher score on HA intelligent and 16PF
personality test
● PhD in scientific discipline or equivalent
● “openness” and “willingness” to experiment
● Naturally innovative and collaborative (team)
capacity to share knowledge
● Commercial awareness
Pag. 38 - 39
29. How choose the talent
The most important ability of the candidate is
to “fit in” to the SienceCo way of working
Pag. 39
30. Retention
...is a systematic effort by employers to create
and foster an environment that encourages
current employees to remain employed by
having policies and practices in place that
address their divers needs.
Get Les Mckeown's
31. How retain talent in the firm
Retention strategy:
● Assess the organization
● Hold people accountable
● Measure what is important
● Increase employee ownership and involvement
● Build relationships and internal network
32. How retain talent
in the firm
● Performance management
● Training and development
Through the organizational structure and sharing
the culture
Pag. all
33. Performance management
Salary = fixed pay + variable pay
Variable pay depends on the achievement of
certain objectives
Objectives referring to personal or group goal,
they are decided by the management (MbO)
34. Performance management
Salary depends on:
● PRTs → Personal Revenue Targets
if they reach all the PRTs they can achieve a
percentage increase based on their fixed pay
● DRTs → Divisional Revenue Targets
in the firm the have no salary scale (no formal
carrier structure)
Pag.39
35. worst MbO effect
99 people under investigation for selling millions
fake sim cards of Telecom Italia Mobile company.
The incentive system for Telecom retailers, up to
2008, was based on the activation of sim cards.
21/03/2012
www.lastampa.it
37. Performance management
Pag.40
Internal work market:
consultant negotiating with lead consultant the
percentage of the project revenue they will be
allocated
generate:
:) new ideas
:( put pressure on people
38. Training and development
Pag.41
For the professional development ScienceCo
allocate a considerable financial resources, even
the consultants have to do autonomous
The only training offering by the firm is the usage
of software application for project work
39. Conclusion
The adhocracy organizational model bring the
ScienceCo to success.
Anyway, using the adhocracy framework might
arise problems in the organizational environment.
