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Since the subject matters of human resources activities on knowledge intensive firms have been changed by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, this study aims to analyze the impact of stock options on talent retention (knowledge worker retention) and knowledge productivity (innovation) in terms of patents, which directly affect the financial performance of knowledge intensive firms.

Drawing on agency and contingency theory to design the causality model, this study analyzes the data obtained from 227 publicly traded knowledge intensive firms in information technology (IT) and healthcare sectors. Panel data analysis is used to determine the long run causal relationship between firm innovation, knowledge worker retention and financial performance, in addition to ANOVA for evaluating firm size as a lurking variable on the effect of stock options.

The results of this study demonstrate that, when firm size is taken into account, (1) stock options significantly affect knowledge worker retention and firms' financial performance, and this impact is stronger in a during-pandemic situation than in a pre-pandemic situation (2) firm innovation significantly affects firms' financial performance and this impact is stronger in a during-pandemic situation than in a pre-pandemic situation; (3) knowledge worker retention doesn't have a significant impact on firm innovation and firms' financial performance. Moreover, random effect regression analysis for long-term relationships also depicts the same results: knowledge worker retention has non-significant impact on firm innovation and financial performance, but firm innovation significantly affects financial performance.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, the authors are the first to compare the effects of stock options, knowledge worker retention and firm innovation in both pre- and during-pandemic scenarios where firm size is taken into consideration.

Enhancing the innovative behaviour of knowledge workers is a main task in knowledge management. The pay-for-performance policy is one of the management practices for innovative behaviour enhancement and has been gaining popularity in the knowledge-intensive context. However, it is still uncertain whether such practice really enhances the innovative behaviour of knowledge workers. To address this issue, this paper aims to propose and verify a conceptual framework incorporating kernel notions of social exchange, psychological empowerment and work engagement rooted in the social cognition paradigm.

The current study conducts a survey on 608 knowledge workers and their supervisors, validating the model structure and causal path pattern of the proposed framework. The causality is delineated from social exchange attributes of financial incentive, psychological empowerment and work engagement to innovative behaviour of knowledge workers.

Perceived organisational support and perceived pay equity are primary antecedents of symbolic incentive meaning reflected in the financial incentive of the pay-for-performance policy. Symbolic incentive meaning comprising dimensions of relative position, control and personal importance relates positively to innovative behaviour of knowledge workers. Psychological empowerment and work engagement are partial mediators of the positive relationship.

The current study explicates why and how social exchange attributes of the financial incentive provided by the pay-for-performance policy may enhance innovative behaviour of knowledge workers. Implications are supplied to knowledge management scholars and practitioners to optimise the pay-for-performance policy for innovative behaviour enhancement.

The high turnover rate of knowledge workers presents a challenge to both organizational and personal knowledge management. Although personal knowledge management plays an important role in organizational knowledge management, empirical research on the practices for its application is underdeveloped. This study aims to examine the role of idiosyncratic job-design practices (i.e. job definition, job autonomy, innovation as a job requirement and lifelong learning orientation) in cultivating personal knowledge management among knowledge workers in organizations, to increase their productivity and safeguard the organization against knowledge loss arising from knowledge workers’ interfirm mobility.

Data were collected from 221 knowledge workers pursuing various knowledge-intensive jobs through a questionnaire survey and were analysed using partial least squares modelling.

The results demonstrated that three job-design practices (job definition, innovation as a job requirement and lifelong learning orientation) have a positive impact on personal knowledge management among knowledge workers and thus improve their productivity. However, job autonomy can affect personal knowledge management negatively.

The findings are confined to a specific context and should be replicated across different contexts for better generalizability in future research.

Organizational managers should pay attention to (re)designing knowledge-intensive jobs to cultivate personal knowledge management by clearly outlining job responsibilities, offering opportunities to add relevant job activities and drop irrelevant ones, and making innovation and lifelong learning a formal job requirement. In addition, job autonomy should be judiciously provided along with sufficient social and network support to avoid lost opportunities in knowledge creation and sharing, and should be linked to job responsibilities and performance appraisals to avoid negative effects.

The high turnover rate of knowledge workers presents a challenge to both organizational and personal knowledge management. This study contributes to the literature by addressing the research gap in two aspects. Firstly, based on Drucker’s theory, this study identifies four idiosyncratic job-design practices (job definition, job autonomy, innovation as a job requirement and lifelong learning orientation) that reflect the distinctive characteristics of knowledge-intensive work. Secondly, this study examines whether and how these practices can cultivate personal knowledge management among knowledge workers, which can support their productivity.

The aim of this paper is to show the association which exists among the wide range of knowledge management, knowledge sharing and HRM practices in the knowledge‐intensive firms.

The proposed literature review includes the systematic process of research in the following manner; after identifying the main area of interest, key concepts and words were selected, parameters were set to ensure selection of good quality journals, and availability of articles in full text was also considered.

The study finds that one must keep in view the variable personnel demands and extensive training and development needs of knowledge workers, and highlights the need for attention to be paid to unique scientific practices for managing gold‐collar workers in knowledge‐intensive firms.

The need for further empirical, cross‐case, cross‐cultural and longitudinal studies is highlighted to explore the dimensions of HR practices for managing gold‐collar workers in KIFs.

Perception of gold‐collar workers with reference to the relationship with top managers is discussed through the 30 articles published over the period 2000 to 2006. To manage KIFs, the creation of an original focus on people issues is highlighted. With the help of Chenail's qualitative matrix, the study thematically analyzes the HR antecedents that emerged into four distinctive categories.

The productivity of knowledge workers is crucial not only for organizational innovation and competitiveness but also for sustainable development. In the context of knowledge-intensive firms, implementation of knowledge management is likely to increase knowledge worker productivity. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of knowledge management on knowledge worker productivity.

A research framework on the effects of knowledge management processes on knowledge worker productivity is established and empirically tested with data from 336 knowledge workers at five mobile network operator companies in Pakistan.

The results indicate that knowledge creation and knowledge utilization impact knowledge worker productivity positively and statistically significantly. However, knowledge sharing does not have statistically significant impact on knowledge worker productivity. Demographic factors (gender, managerial position and formal education level) do not moderate the relationship between knowledge management and knowledge worker productivity statistically significantly.

The key limitations are the cross-sectional nature of the data and the geographic limitation to telecom companies in Pakistan.

Irrespective of gender, education and managerial position, implementation of knowledge management can increase knowledge worker productivity. Therefore, knowledge management practices should be implemented to enhance the knowledge worker productivity via fostering the knowledge worker’s engagement in and propensity to knowledge management processes.

This study is among the first to examine the likely influence of knowledge management on the productivity of knowledge workers conclusively while controlling for three individual demographic factors. This study also addresses the effectiveness of knowledge management in the little-explored cultural context of Pakistan.

The objective of this research is to examine the mediating role of employees' well-being in the workplace in the relationship between the dimensions of social capital, namely structural, relational and cognitive social capital and knowledge sharing, as well as the moderating role of enterprise social networks between knowledge sharing and employees' well-being.

A quantitative approach was performed within a sample of 168 middle managers working in knowledge-intensive firms in Tunisia. The Partial Least Squares method was used to analyze the data collected.

Results highlight the importance of the dimensions of social capital as a lever for boosting knowledge sharing. It also reveals that employees' well-being plays a mediating role in the link between structural and relational social capital and knowledge sharing. Moreover, findings show that while enterprise social networks use does not moderate the relationship between employees' well-being and knowledge sharing, it has a positive and significant effect on knowledge sharing.

On the basis of a socio-technical perspective of knowledge management, this research pioneers the examination of the mediating effect of employees' well-being in the link between dimensions of social capital and knowledge sharing and the moderating role of enterprise social networks use within knowledge-intensive firms. Findings of this study may help managers of knowledge-intensive firms in boosting knowledge sharing within organizations, in improving knowledge workers' well-being and thus in motivating and retaining these talented employees.

The digital economy is based on knowledge and the ultimate objective is the reinforcement of performance. The business strategy has been shifted from the management of tangible assets to intangible resources and the traditional competitive position of business units is based on their capacity for effective action. The main conclusion is that a knowledge and learning management infrastructure is required in order to realize every knowledge organization as a learning organization capable of exploiting the organizational knowledge wealth.

The purpose of this paper is to look at the actions autonomous knowledge workers perform to implement formalized knowledge strategies as part of an accreditation.

Using a strategy-as-practice framework, this paper follows a qualitative approach to study the implementation of a standard in a business school. The data collection was carried out over a 14-month period, with access to interviews, observations, meetings minutes and other institutional information.

Even though faculty members received similar information, the standard was implemented in different and conflicting ways. Three themes explain these differences: different approaches to ambiguous knowledge management practices, enablers and inhibitors of knowledge sharing and different conceptions of continuous improvement.

As this was a single case, findings are not broadly generalizable. The research is based on rich data over a prolonged period, albeit in a very specific setting where unique actor and structural characteristics are not generally representative of the wider business and organizational environment. The nature of the university setting is quite unique. Although possible links to other fields which share some specific similarities with universities are provided, the contextual limitations are acknowledged. Accordingly, the work is presented as a basis for future enquiry when investigating implementation, especially activity-based research within knowledge-intensive organizations.

This paper provides a deep analysis of the actions knowledge workers perform when implementing standards promoted by organizational directives. It exposes tensions and conflicts among knowledge workers when implementing a standard. Our model is the basis for insights on how managers can balance the tensions of creative change and stable structure.

This paper describes how ambiguity and human interactions can reveal a deeper understanding of the different stages of standards implementation. It provides a model that uses the level of ambiguity and structure to explain how knowledge workers interacted in groups and as a whole can implement Assurance of Learning.

The aim of the article is to propose an integrated definition of knowledge-intensive business processes (kiBPs) and a model of business process (BP) knowledge intensity and develop holistic criteria and measures for the assessment of BP knowledge intensity.

A qualitative systematic literature review (SLR) was carried out as a means of evaluating and interpreting all available research relevant to the research topic, in this case, BP knowledge intensity. The SLR is based on the resources of the ProQuest, Springer Nature and ScienceDirect full-text databases. Regarding inclusion criteria, the authors considered peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings published in English in the last 10 years. The results were summarized and synthesized narratively.

Based on the review, the authors classified existing knowledge intensity definitions, starting with knowledge-intensive economy or country, sectors and services, through knowledge-intensive organizations, BPs, to tasks. Then, an integrated definition of kiBPs was proposed and the business process knowledge intensity model encompassing three domains developed. Finally, 12 knowledge intensity criteria with measures were proposed.

The major value of this research is that it presents a novel approach to understanding BP knowledge intensity and kiBPs. By creating the BP knowledge intensity model, supplemented by the assessment criteria and measures, the authors contribute to the more effective management of kiBP, help find similarities and differences between various knowledge-intensive processes, as well as provide important implications for their effective management and research.

This paper aims to examine whether work-related emotional intelligence (W-EI) benefits job performance among knowledge-intensive workers.

Postdoctoral researchers (Study 1) and industry researchers (Study 2) were recruited (total N = 304). These knowledge workers completed an ability-based emotional intelligence (EI) test and characterized their work-related performance. Potential moderators were also assessed.

There were positive relations between W-EI scores and both task performance and creative performance. In addition, these relationships were stronger in the context of higher levels of job negative affect and/or role overload.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, these findings are among the first to demonstrate the value of the EI construct within a knowledge-intensive workforce.