Regarding the exchange between Ken Miller and Rick Dove
regarding knowledge management, history, etc...
The shift to knowledge work (roughly 1920-1980) upset the
management control applecart.
One of two key differences between knowledge workers and
other kinds of workers is that knowledge workers work ON
information and knowledge. Both knowledge workers and other
workers use their heads as well as their hands (and
sometimes backs) but other workers can be seen (literally)
to be working ON materials. So, although all workers use
and work with knowledge and information, only the knowledge
worker works ON them.
A second key difference is that most knowledge workers are
required to CONFIGURE their responses to a given situation
whereas most other workers carry out PREFIGURED responses
(i.e., work routines that have been figured by others, most
notably, industrial engineers, etc.).
The "old" management practices, if I can call them that,
worked reasonably well for the era of materials-based work
and working. Why? Because the interactions of interest
were physical; they could be observed, studied, and improved
upon in systematic ways. That, in essence, is what Fred
Taylor did. Human beings were essentially cogs in the
industrial machinery (a fact which Charlie Chaplin
obligingly pointed out).
The shift to knowledge work disrupted the chain-of-command
that served to tie the brawn of workers to the mind of
management. What matters now are the minds of the workers,
not their muscles. That, in a nutshell, is what knowledge
work, knowledge workers, and knowledge management are all
about.
However, there is still plenty of the old kind of work still
around and so the question arises, "Why can't we manage
knowledge work and knowledge workers one way, and manage the
rest the old-fashioned way? In a word, the answer is
"equity." It is politically impractical to manage knowledge
workers one way and the rest some other way. The result, if
you could pull it off, would be a caste system much worse
than the one that now separates managers and workers.
So, for political reasons, management has to reinvent the
practice of management. The current emphasis on knowledge
management is one portion of the attempt to do that. So are
some other recent occurrences (e.g., reengineering).
Just some thoughts...
By the way, you can find a 1983 paper of mine about the
shift to knowledge work at the following URL:
http://home.att.net/~nickols/articles.htm
Once there, look for the article about What Is in the World
of Work and Working.
Regards,
Fred Nickols
fnickols@ets.org