Search results

The purpose of this paper is to ask: what are the temporal realities of female knowledge workers? It especially focusses on women’s possibilities of using working-time autonomy, and the work and non-work practices that shape their possibility to use work-hour autonomy. In knowledge work, working-time autonomy is usually high, but exercising autonomy is not always possible. The study was carried out in Finland, where full-time work is common also among women, even if they have small children.

The data include 19 semi-structured interviews of women who have knowledge-intensive work. The method of analysis is problem-driven content analysis.

Female knowledge workers intertwine several temporal realities. The utilisation of working-time autonomy is restricted by unpredictability, continuous interruptions, hurriedness and ineffective work practices. The temporal realities of family life, such as taking children to the daycare or school, other everyday routines and a spouse’s working-time autonomy have an effect on women’s possibilities to use working-time autonomy. The line between work and non-work blurs.

This study sheds light on working-time autonomy among female knowledge workers. It adds an understanding to the temporal realities of work and outside work that influence the use of work-hour autonomy. This information is needed to understand time demands arising from work, which play a role in work-family research in particular.

The purpose of this paper is to shed light upon the reasons why knowledge workers are offered considerable autonomy, and the extent to which they are given the freedom to determine how and when they work.

In order to examine the level of flexibility available to knowledge workers, a large consultancy firm was investigated using a case‐study approach.

The results obtained from the case‐study firm demonstrate the reasons why consultants are afforded temporal and locational flexibility and the degree of flexibility available to them. Contrary to the claims of “futurists”, many knowledge workers are not able to exercise greater control over their working arrangements than traditional employees, as their temporal/locational flexibility is restricted by the needs of their employer(s), client demands and expectations, “professionalism”, network relations and personal career ambitions.

The role played by knowledge workers in the new knowledge economy and the extent to which they are able to extract concessions from their employers have become key areas of interest for organisations, academics and policy makers. Consultancy characterises many of the changes that are being elicited with the emergence of a knowledge‐based economy, and an analysis of the working arrangements available to consultants provides an insight into the degree to which they are given freedom to determine how and when they work and the extent to which they may be defined as “free workers”.

This study aims to explore the effects of remote work on employee productivity and innovation and how these effects are moderated by knowledge sharing and digital business intensity.

The study draws on survey data from a random sample of 231 remote workers across the USA. The analysis and empirical validation of the research model used partial least square.

The results demonstrate a positive association between remote work and employee productivity. In addition, the findings present empirical support for hitherto anecdotal evidence regarding the impact of remote work on innovation. In particular, the study notes that knowledge sharing and digital business intensity amplified the positive relationship between remote work and employee productivity. The results further revealed that the positive link between remote work and innovation was stronger in the presence of knowledge sharing.

The study contributes to the ongoing inquiry into remote work by drawing on the knowledge-based view as an underlying lens to understand the consequence of remote work. Identifying knowledge sharing and digital business intensity as moderators of the linkage between remote work and employee productivity is an important contribution, especially when researchers and practitioners are trying to understand the business value of working remotely. Furthermore, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to identify knowledge sharing as a key mechanism that strengthens innovation outcomes in a remote work environment.

Wonders whether companies actually have employees best interests at heart across physical, mental and spiritual spheres. Posits that most organizations ignore their workforce – not even, in many cases, describing workers as assets! Describes many studies to back up this claim in theis work based on the 2002 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference, in Cardiff, Wales.

In this paper the concept of knowledge production is used as a framework to study Dutch corporate universities. Knowledge production serves not simply as a desirable aim of corporate universities, as the concept also offers guidelines for the design of corporate universities. The purpose is to clarify the extent to which corporate universities fulfil this aim of knowledge production and the way they produce new knowledge.

From different theoretical perspectives 11 design characteristics have been extracted that help corporate universities to be knowledge‐productive. Two empirical studies were carried out to find out to what extent corporate universities meet those features required for knowledge production. The first study implies an exploration of opinions of key actors within 12 Dutch corporate universities, in which data were gathered through interviews and analysis of documents. The second study can be characterised as a case study of a concrete training practice within one corporate university. Data were gathered by interviews, evaluative questionnaires, and observation.

Results reveal that knowledge production is viewed as important, but that concrete measures to stimulate it are often absent. Moreover, corporate universities need to pay more attention to the working environment of their employees in order to achieve their own goals.

Analysing the corporate university from the perspective of knowledge production may stimulate corporate universities to rethink their own goals as well as their position within the organisation.

“New ways of working” refers to non‐traditional work practices, settings and locations with information and communication technologies (ICT) to supplement or replace traditional ways of working. They are being deployed in knowledge work context in order to increase employees working motivation, job satisfaction and productivity. However, these benefits are not self‐evident. This paper aims to examine the task of measuring the expected benefits.

This paper synthesizes the existing literature on measurement of knowledge work productivity and identifies some key prerequisites and restrictions that should be taken into account when measuring the impacts of organizational change.

The paper proposes a measurement approach for evaluating the impacts of a new ways of working initiative in a knowledge work context.

Previous literature has focused on studying whether facilities and ICT solutions are appropriate from the viewpoint of an individual knowledge worker. However, there is a lack of studies focused on the actual business impacts of different working arrangements.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the drivers that allow for enhanced personal productivity of knowledge-based workers in Central London focusing on the physical and social environment as well as worker’s individual preferences.

A closed-ended questionnaire was sent to employees of eight professional companies (Consultancy, Financial and Media Services) based in Central London. Of the 500 questionnaires sent, 213 were successfully completed and returned, representing a response rate of 42.6 per cent.

The findings from this trial study show that comfort, convenience, IT connectivity, good design and working to a specific time scale were strong drivers of personal productivity. Knowledge workers prefer a flexible range of office settings that enable both a stimulating open and connected work environment, knowledge sharing, collaboration, as well as quiet concentration locations, free of distractions and noise. It was also found that moves of knowledge workers into open-plan office space (and especially fee earners) is normally met with initial resistance. However, there is normally greater acceptance of open space after experiencing an actual move into open-plan, with benefits improving teamwork and communication being highlighted. The research also stresses that office design considerations need to be closer aligned with knowledge worker’s overall well-being and individual psychological needs.

Limited to Central London offices and self-assessed evaluation of productivity drivers within the knowledge worker’s office environment.

Corporate real estate managers and office occupiers, designers and facilities managers can use the findings as part of their workplace strategy by providing a range of flexible workplaces that allow the knowledge worker a place for greater personal productivity through the provision of a well-designed collaborative office environment alongside private and quiet working spaces. Developers and landlords should also be aware of these requirements when taking their decisions.

This paper focuses specifically on the high-productivity knowledge-based work environment, demonstrating that there is a need to consider the collaborative physical and social environment and the individual preferences of knowledge workers to ensure enhanced personal productivity and well-being within the office. This can be achieved through the provision of a well-designed office space that allows for open, connected and comfortable work environments, as well as opportunities to use dedicated concentration spaces that are free of distraction. It was also shown that hot-desking was unanimously disliked by knowledge workers.

This study aims to identify knowledge-related tensions in remote work in higher education institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic and increase understanding of how such tensions can be managed.

The research was conducted as an inductive, qualitative study in the field of higher education in Finland. The data were collected using semi-structured interviews of 34 managers in two higher education institutions and analyzed using an inductive and interpretive analysis method.

The findings demonstrate that the knowledge-related challenges and opportunities during the remote work period of the COVID-19 pandemic in Finnish higher education institutions can be conceptualized as tensions involved in knowledge codification, knowledge silos and creating new knowledge. The study contributes to research by presenting a framework for managing knowledge-related tensions in remote work arrangements to benefit remote and hybrid work in knowledge-intensive organizations.

This paper increases the understanding of the tensions in remote work arrangements; the results can help managers understand the challenges and opportunities of remote knowledge work concerning their organization and thereby assist them in management and decision-making in complex operational environments.

This study adopted the little-used perspective of tensions to examine knowledge management issues. By examining the various affordances that remote work may allow for knowledge-intensive work and higher education institutions, the study contributes to a deepened understanding of knowledge work in remote contexts, the related tensions and their management.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact the workplace can have on knowledge working for a multi‐generational workforce.

A case study analysis is undertaken of Leeds City Council (LCC) workplace in the UK.

The findings from the study show that in the context of LCC there are some key differences between the generations regarding knowledge working preferences for formal/informal meeting spaces. In other aspects, such as knowledge sharing, the generations appear to agree on key aspects such as mentoring and team‐based working environments.

Corporate real estate managers can use the research findings to assist them in providing a range of workplace settings to enhance multi‐generational interaction.

This paper fills a gap in current research by evaluating workplace preferences based on generational differences.

New Ways of Working (NewWoW) refers to a novel approach for improving the performance of knowledge work. The purpose of this paper is to seek innovative solutions concerning facilities, information technology tools and work practices in order to be able to “work smarter, not harder.” In order to develop work practices toward the NewWoW mode there is a need for an analytical management tool that would help assess the status of the organization’s current work practices and demonstrate the impacts of development initiatives. This paper introduces such a tool.

Constructive research approach was chosen to guide the development of the Smart ways of working (SmartWoW) tool. The tool was designed on the basis of previous knowledge work performance literature as well as on interviews in two knowledge-intensive organizations. The usefulness of the tool was verified by applying it in four organizations.

SmartWoW is a compact questionnaire tool for analyzing and measuring knowledge work at the individual level. The questionnaire consists of four areas: work environment, personal work practices, well-being at work and productivity. As SmartWoW is a standardized tool its results are comparable between organizations.

SmartWoW was designed a pragmatic managerial tool. It is considered possible that it can be valuable as a research instrument as well but the current limited amount of collected data does not yet facilitate determining its usefulness from that perspective.

This paper makes a contribution to the existing literature on knowledge work measurement and management by introducing an analytical tool which takes into account the NewWoW perspective.