Managing Knowledge
Experts, Agencies and Organisations

This book examines how the emergence of 'knowledge workers' affects traditional work and organisation patterns.

Steven Albert (Author), Keith Bradley (Author)

9780521598873, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 2 October 1997

228 pages, 8 tables
22.8 x 15.1 x 1.8 cm, 0.51 kg

'At a time when more and more attention is being paid to the role of knowledge in the economy it is timely to have a supply-side account of labour market change that suggests that not all atypical, agency-based work and other casual work arrangements are deleterious to the worker.' David Rooney, Prometheus

Managing Knowledge reverses the status quo argument that organisational change is driven by the specific demands of large companies. Instead of viewing firms as the catalysts for gradual change, Albert and Bradley argue that expert professionals have fuelled a break away from the traditional organisational structure to an organisational structure at the heart of which is an agent and/or an agency system. The authors draw our attention to the growing phenomenon of atypical work manifested in workforce flexibility, mobility, the feminisation of professional employment, and technological changes. They focus upon a group of knowledge-based employees - experts - who increasingly have influence over work and wealth creation. Case studies are developed from companies including AT and T, the Hollywood film industry, London accounting firms, and specialised agencies such as Labforce and Knowledge Net.

Introduction: The supply side in context
Part I. Expert Employees and their New Organisation: 1. Trends in the labour market
2. Adaptations in the labour market and the expert employee
3. From the firm to the agency
4. Expert agency employment as a facilitator of intellectual capital
5. The temporal advantages of agency work for the expert employee
6. Taking stock
Part II. The Labour Market and the Expert Employee: 7. AT & T's special employment policies for expert employees
8. An external temporary agency and expert employees
9. The Hollywood Agency system
10. The internet as an agent
11. Labour market segments re-examined
12. Conclusion
Appendices
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Business & management [KJ]