Where Did Knowledge Workers Come From

Today, management throughout the industrialized world has become wary of new management concepts, calling new ideas “fads” and wondering where it will all end. Into this stew of suspicion many are pouring “knowledge work,” “knowledge management,” and “knowledge workers.” But not all concepts are fads; some have staying power. Knowledge work is one of those-it is not a fad. How do we know? We look to history-rather than to some academic management theorist-for the proof. It turns out knowledge workers have been around for thousands of years, and knowledge work (complete with its tools, such as brushes, tablets, books, pens, and other data handling items) for an even longer period of time. What is very new is the categorization of these people, activities, and tools into a discrete field-knowledge work-binding together practices and professions that were previously considered separately. By clustering these together, we do not create a new fad; rather, we gain the opportunity to learn how different types of people have worked well. One can carry over from one profession or activity to others some of the best practices that allow organizations to exploit information and insight to better run their operations. Again, history helps because this is exactly what successful leaders and organizations have been doing for centuries. We just never gave that set of activities a name until after World War II.