Running head: Influencing, Motivating And Leading The Knowledge Worker 1

Essay Three Assignment

Influencing, Motivating and Leading the Knowledge Worker

Ardavan A. Shahroodi

Northeastern University

LDR 7980---Master’s Project Capstone

Professor Courtland Booth

Sunday, May 29, 2015

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Introduction

In an eternal search to promote organizational viability and market based

competitiveness, companies are incrementally altering some aspects of their employee relations

strategies. Here, cutting edge and not easily imitable knowledge and those workers who hold

such increasingly scarce commodities are regarded as direct sources of competitive advantage

offering the rationale to gradually discard or revise age old command and control organizational

processes. In spite of such inclinations, the underdeveloped science of estimating the value of

human capital casts a shadow of uncertainty on the exact direction and nature of such efforts.

Analysis

Knowledge workers are described as those “employees who contribute to the company

not through manual labor, but through what they know about customers or a special body of

knowledge” (Noe et al, 2013, p. 21). These employees are also observed as possessing “the

intellectual means of producing a product or service” (Noe et al, 2013, p. 21). In this light,

“knowledge workers are highly educated and motivated by the prospect of being engaged and

making a difference” (Vaughan-Smith, 2013) and are increasingly regarded as “the main source

of competitive and economic value” (Vaughan-Smith, 2013). Drucker (1988) envisions that in

the still evolving “information-based organization” (Drucker, 1988), knowledge workers will

potentially be those “specialists who direct and discipline their own performance through

organized feedback from colleagues, customers, and headquarters” (Drucker, 1988).

Normally, the basic ingredients of a “company’s value” (Noe et al, 2013, p. 20) are

comprised of “three types of assets that are critical for the company to provide goods and

services” (p. 20). These are “financial assets (cash and securities), physical assets (property,

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plant, equipment), and intangible assets” (p. 20). Here, intangible assets “include human capital,

customer capital, social capital, and intellectual capital” (Noe et al, 2013, p. 20) that are

increasingly “more valuable than financial and physical assets but they are difficult to duplicate

or imitate” (p. 20). In some estimates, “up to 75 percent of the source of value in a company is

in intangible assets” (Noe et al, 2013, p. 20). Nevertheless, as Davidson (2013) asserts, in

relation to human capital that strongly influences and is strongly influenced by other intangible

assets, “we have no idea how to measure the financial value of ideas and the people who come

up with them”. As one economist has observed, “compared with the mid-1900s, goods

production is not as important a part of our economy, but we continue to devote about 90 percent

of our statistical resources to measuring it (as cited in Davidson, 2013).

In essence, contemporary organizational processes and structures are woefully ineffective

in understanding and evaluating and thereby competently mobilizing/energizing, empowering

and rewarding the deep reservoir of their human capital embedded in the “productivity”

(Davidson, 2013) rates and innovation oriented creativity of their knowledge workers.

Principally, this is a question of leadership where classically organized institutional procedures

and practices inhibit the recognition of the “Whole-Person Paradigm” (Vaughan-Smith, 2013)

acknowledging “individuals as being made up of body, heart, mind and spirit” (Vaughan-Smith,

2013) and ensuring that “leaders see them as whole people and manage and lead accordingly”

(Vaughan-Smith, 2013). This also implies a transformational leadership movement from

“industrial age shackles” (Vaughan-Smith, 2013) to an organizational mind set where “leaders

are guided to spend more time and effort creating an environment where people want to stay and

are enabled to give their best” (Vaughan-Smith, 2013).

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A perfect example of an archaic practice and indeed a debilitating influence on the

potential contributions of knowledge workers is the traditional “performance review” (DiDonato,

2014) (PR) process in the overwhelming majority of organizations. The PR system may have

been initially created in order to positively incentivize employee behavior by “stamping out

mediocrity, motivating employees, and boosting performance” (DiDonato, 2014) in addition to

“the legal necessity of creating paper trails” (DiDonato, 2014). However, in reality, the PR

process leads to the creation of a “blame-oriented culture…reinforce [s] hierarchy, undermine

collegiality, work against cooperative problem solving, discourage straight talk, and too easily

become politicized. They’re self-defeating and demoralizing for all concerned” (DiDonato,

2014). Here, in an alternative PR model occurring during “quarterly sessions” (DiDonato, 2014)

where “employees talk to their supervisors about their past and future work, with a focus on

gaining new skills and mitigating weaknesses” (DiDonato, 2014) there exists “no connection to

decisions on pay” (DiDonato, 2014) and “high performance” (DiDonato, 2014) is promoted and

facilitated “through honest feedback” (DiDonato, 2014).

In describing the characteristics of an information-based organization (IBO) employing

numerous specialists or knowledge workers, Drucker (1988) observes that “information is data

endowed with relevance and purpose. Converting data into information thus requires

knowledge. And knowledge, by definition, is specialized”. In this light, an IBO “requires far

more specialists overall than the command-and-control companies…specialists are found in

operations, not at corporate headquarters” (Drucker, 1988). This is precisely why Drucker

(1988) proposes that an IBO “is far more likely to resemble…the hospital, the university, the

symphony orchestra” and similarly “knowledge-based, an organization composed largely of

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specialists”. In a brilliant analysis of the needed leadership approach in an IBO, Drucker (1988)

argues that,

“Because the players in an information-based organization are specialists,

they cannot be told how to do their work. There are few orchestra conductors

[leaders] who could coax even one note out of a French horn, let alone show the

horn player how to do it. But the conductor can focus the horn player’s skill and

knowledge on the musician’s joint performance [leadership]. And this focus is

what the leaders of an information-based business must be able to achieve”.

Specifically, Vaughan-Smith (2013) holds that the aforementioned knowledge

worker focused approach to leadership must be able to “inspire trust, clarify purpose,

align systems [and ] unleash talent”. Here, trust is incumbent upon the “credibility”

(Vaughan-Smith, 2013) of the leader and her or his ability to “make a promise and keep

it” (Vaughan-Smith, 2013) and “a willingness to follow through with commitments”

(Vaughan-Smith, 2013). A second quality of this type of leadership is in placing

emphasis on defining “a clear and compelling purpose that knowledge workers will want

to achieve” (Vaughan-Smith, 2013) and clarifying “its link to the wider mission and

strategy” (Vaughan-Smith, 2013).

In addition, knowledge worker focused leadership endeavors to establish “robust,

enduring systems that successfully support the purpose and goals of an organization,

enabling people to do their best work and operate independently” (Vaughan-Smith,

2013). Furthermore, such an approach to leadership recognizes that “knowledge workers

respond to those who lead by example” (Vaughan-Smith, 2013) where “leaders establish

and reinforce culture…through individual conversations in which they help individuals

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understand their potential, clarify expectations or provide support to enable people to

succeed” (Vaughan-Smith, 2013).

Personal Observations

Professor Booth has observed, “Manual laborers are more than two hands. When

they are informed and included in the enterprise they do bring their creative abilities to

the job”. I have always believed in the aforementioned assumption and practiced

leadership according to its basic tenets. As I stated in my first essay in this course, I

whole heartedly accept the premise that “All humans have a capacity for leadership”. In

that spirit, I also accept the premise that “All humans have the capacity to be knowledge

workers”. This indeed must be regarded as one of the most fundamental organizing

principles that form the character of organizations in a democratic and egalitarian

society. This is a God-given capacity for greatness that has been inculcated in the soul

and persona of all human beings.

Our attempts to enlighten employers as to the limitless untapped potential

embedded in the intellectual capacity of their knowledge workers must be balanced with

a deep recognition that all employees, properly motivated, sufficiently empowered and

adequately nurtured possess the ability to travel far beyond the call of duty. As I have

always reiterated, the leadership model that I followed during my years in the Hospitality

and Tourism Industries was based intrinsically on the three attributes of honesty, fairness

and service. On the basis of a continuous and ceaseless application of those leadership

characteristics, I accumulated the type of credibility that would allow me to promote team

work, empowerment and quality.

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In this understanding of leadership, all employees are considered as knowledge

workers beholding of the potential to learn and excel in the performance of their duties.

Relatively speaking, those who are employed in the Hospitality and Tourism Industries

may not be considered as knowledge workers in comparison to other more specialized

professions. However, these so called unskilled or less skilled potential knowledge

workers (a probable contradiction in terms) could make an incredible difference in the

life of the guests, customers and patrons of the organization. In the final analysis, we

may be poised to enter an era when organizations will learn to treat all stakeholders

including knowledge workers as custodians of good will and sustainable value. In such

an environment, knowledge workers must not be the sole beneficiaries of an

organization’s support and respect.

Conclusion

The so called rational organization of the modern era has been constructed on the

ability to evaluate, measure and understand the capacity to improve its “productivity”

(Davidson, 2013). This may have been a sufficient mantra in an era when “goods

production” (Davidson, 2013) remained an “important…part of our economy”

(Davidson, 2013). However, the existing competitive environment is increasingly

influenced by highly elusive concepts such as human capital and their accompanying

knowledge workers. The resulting uncertainty and complexity embedded in the inability

to thoroughly evaluate the contributions of knowledge workers as a source for upholding

the prosperity of the firm has resulted in the evolution of the type of organizational

modalities not characterized by resiliency and institutional longevity.

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Resources

Davidson, A. (2013, July 29). What’s an idea worth? It’s The Economy. The New York

Times Magazine. Retrieved May 26, 2015 from

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/04/magazine/whats-an-idea-worth.html?

pagewanted=al&_r=1.

DiDonato, T. (2014, January 10). Stop basing pay on performance reviews. Harvard

Business Review. Retrieved May 26, 2015 from https://hbr.org/2014/01/stop-

basing-pay-on-performance-reviews.

Drucker, P. F. (1988, January). The coming of the new organization. Harvard Business

Review. Retrieved May 26, 2015 from https://hbr.org/1988/01/the-coming-of-the-

new-organization.

Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M. (2013). Human resource

management: Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: The McGraw-

Hill Companies, Inc.

Vaughan-Smith, K (2013, July 19). Leadership for the knowledge worker age.

HRZone.com. Retrieved May 26, 2015 from

http://www.hrzone.com/perform/people/leadership-for-the-knowldge-worker-age.

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