KNOWLEDGE WORKER

A worker involved in the production or development of knowledge or in providing expert opinion.

"In the New Economy, an economy where competitive fortunes depend increasingly on technological innovation and information management, knowledge workers are a highly-prized commodity. While skill shortages in technology industries garner widespread attention, the demand for knowledge workers is ubiquitous, extending well beyond the boundaries of visible, high-tech sectors. Skilled workers are integral to all systems of industrial innovation."
(Statistics Canada, Overview and description of publications, 2004, visited 2010-08-12)

"Most organizations employ high-end knowledge workers to fulfill task requirements. The control and coordination of knowledge work is difficult when compared to more traditional work practices for several reasons. First, knowledge workers are experts in their areas and know the intricacies of their work better than anyone else. Second, knowledge work is highly emergent and dynamic rather than being predictable and structured. Third, knowledge workers may enter and leave organizations at their will and in doing so bring and take away knowledge from the organizational fabric posing challenges for issues of assimilation and integration."
(Desouza, K. C., University of Washington, visited 2006-09-12)

Knowledge workers can be defined as participants in the knowledge economy. The knowledge economy involves an economic environment where information and its manipulation are the commodity (in contrast with the industrial economy where workers produce tangible objects with raw production materials and physical goods).

Knowledge occupations are more skill-intensive and require larger investments in education. Many occupations, such as computer programming, engineering, and physical and life sciences are conforming to popular notions of the science (or technology based) knowledge worker. Other occupations, such as the creative and performing arts, teaching, and sales and advertising management, typically garner less attention in studies that examine how skilled workers fuel systems of industrial innovation and growth.

These occupations fall under three general categories of knowledge workers:

• Professional occupations — those with relatively high wages and proportionately large numbers of university graduates
• Technical occupations — those with relatively lower wages but high post-secondary representation
• Management occupations — those with relatively high wages, but with lower levels of post-secondary education

(adapted from Statistics Canada, visited 2006-09-12)

Pressures to increase the role of information and knowledge in national economies have provoked a wide-ranging debate about what kinds of skills young people and adults now need. The workforce is "upskilling," both in terms of the average educational level of workers and the types of jobs that they are performing. White-collar, high-skilled jobs are driving employment growth. This is not just a question of the growth in knowledge sectors. Work is becoming more skilled across industries and within individual occupations. Knowledge workers can be identified as those performing knowledge-rich jobs. Such workers are typically, but not universally, well educated. Some knowledge workers have high levels of literacy and lower levels of education, implying that basic skills obtained beyond education are recognized in the knowledge economy.
(adapted from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Competencies for the Knowledge Economy, 2001, visited 2009-08-12)