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The Marks Are on the Knowledge Worker

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The Marks Are on the Knowledge Worker !%?HumanFtic[orsinCompu[ingSystems CM’94* “Cekbn7(i/gh[edepedel)ce” The Marks are on the Knowledge Worker Alison Kidd Hewlett Packard Laboratories, Filton Road, Stoke Gifford Bristol, BS126QZ UK +44-272-228085 [email protected]. com ABSTRACT what he has learned in systematic education, that is, A study of twelve knowledge workers showed that concepts, ideas and theories, rather than the man their defining characteristic is that they are changed who puts to work manual skill or muscle, ” [5]. by the information they process, Their value lies in Unfortunately, Drucker does not characterise the their diversity - companies exploit the fact that these distinguishing behaviour of these workers clearly people make different sense of the same phenomena enough for us to see how to develop computer tools and therefore respond in diverse ways. Knowledge which would make them more effective in their workers do not carry much written information with work. Using Drucker’s description, I therefore them when they travel and rarely consult their filed identified twelve knowledge workers in a range of information when working in their offices, Their U. S, and European companies, Their job functions desks are cluttered and seemingly function as a included: design, advertising, marketing, spatial holding pattern for current inputs and ideas. management consultancy, broadcasting, law, finance My explanation is that once informed (ie, given and research. I interviewed each for 2-3 hours, form) by some written material, these workers have covering the worker’s objectives, value to the no particular need to retain a copy of the informing organisation, work and communication patterns, use source. However, if a piece of written material has of information and paper and use of computer tools, not yet informed them, then they cannot sensibly tile The interviews were all taped and analysed from the it anyway because its subsequent use or role in their point of view of why the workers behaved the way world is still undetermined, I conclude that the they did and how they had an effect on their valuable marks are on the knowledge worker rather organisations, In this paper, I report some of the than on the paper or on the electronic file and main findings of this study, offer an explanation for suggest how computer support for knowledge work the distinctive behaviour of these workers and might be better targeted on the act of informing discuss the ramifications of these results for rather than on passively filing large quantities of computing tools which support knowledge work. information in a “disembodied” form. CHARACTERISTICS OF KEYWORDS: Knowledge workers, information KNOWLEDGE WORKERS appliances, writing, memory. The results of the study suggest that the defining characteristic of knowledge workers is that they are INTRODUCTION themselves changed by the information they Peter Drucker, the distinguished commentator on process.’ So, the workers interviewed saw their organisation and management, has popularised the value to an organisation being to understand a body term “knowledge worker” to describe the role of a of knowledge and generate new information from growing percentage of employees in business this understanding which changed either the organisations: “The manual worker is yesterday..,.. organisation or its customer in a direct way. The basic capital resource, the fundamental Consequently, they all described their personal work investment, but also the cost centre for a developed objectives in direct relation to the objectives of their economy is the knowledge worker who puts to work company. These results seem to validate and refine Permission to copy without fee all or part of this materiel is Drucker’s original concept [5], granted provided that the copies are not mede or distributed for direct commercial advantage, the ACM copyright notice end the Going beyond the work of Drucker, I identified three title of the publication and its date appear, and notice is given particular characteristics of knowledge workers that copying is by permission of the Association for Computing Machinery. To copy otherwise, or to republish, requires a fee which challenge established views on computer andlor specific permission. support for ot%cework. 2 CH194-4/94 Boston, Massachusetts USA 01994 ACM 0-89791 -650 -6/94 /0186 ...$3.50 1 To some extent, this is true of any humsn being, What distinguishes knowledge workers is fhat this is their primary motivation and the job they are paid to do. 2 In the rest of this section, wherever I say “knowledge worker”, I strictly mean only the small set I sampled. However, I am choosing to take the 186 Boston,MassachusettsUSA* April24-28,1994 HumanFactorsinComputingSystems %?! Diversity of Output personal information storage have naturally Companies value knowledge workers for their followed. Meanwhile, even the latest notepad diversity, Faced with the same phenomena, each computers offer relatively poor surfaces (in knowledge worker provides a different output and it comparison with paper) for easy note-taking or is this variation which is their key benefit to the scribbling. We may have been fooled into thinking that knowledge workers write things down because company. As one person expressed it: “I guess I am the product in our business - -it’s a bit like oil they need an external memory store, whereas in painting really, my colleagues use different paints many cases, it may be the graphological act itself and get different effects - but we ‘re all doing which is important [4, 14]. essentially the same job...”. Knowledge workers solve problems and generate outputs largely by resort Importance of Spatial Layout and to structures internal to themselves rather than by Materials resort to external rules or procedures. In other words, Many knowledge workers have extremely cluttered each knowledge worker develops a different internal desks and floors and yet are seriously disrupted by “contlguration” based on changes wrought in their changes made to this apparent “muddle” or by thinking and outlook by the situations they have needing to move offices regularly. This supports encountered, the information they have absorbed and earlier studies of otllce work [10, 11]. It seems that the particular way they have made sense of these - this apparent “muddle” plays a number of important “You can ‘t train someone to do this job - you have to roles for them in their work:- learn it through experience. ” They are highly motivated (and indeed are often paid) actively to As a Holding Pattern:- learn and change their thinking throughout their It seems that knowledge workers use physical space, careers. This means that if the individual doing a job such as desks or floors, as a temporary holding changes, then the company gets a different product pattern for inputs and ideas which they cannot yet as a result. This is not true for other kinds of categorise or even decide how they might use [12]. workers. Filing is uncomfortable for them because they cannot reliably say when they will want to use a particular Unfortunately, many corporate software programs piece of information or to which of their fhture aim to level or standardise the differences between outputs it will relate - “1 can cover as much f7at individual workers. In supporting knowledge space as there is, to be honest, I think it’s because I workers, we should be careful to provide tools which don ‘t want to decide up front what to do with it, but I enable diversification of individuals’ outputs. don ‘t want it to disappear ... if I had acres of desk to Word-processors satisfi this criterion; tools which wander around, I could spot a bit of information and embed a model of a knowledge worker’s task in the think ‘ah, I could use that,. I think it’s a visual software do not. thing. ” Once they have finished a report or developing an idea, then they might file the inputs or Low Dependence on Filed possibly simply throw them away. Filing is certainly Information not their goal. Knowledge workers do not carry much written information with them when they travel. Most of In designing electronic notebooks for portability, the those interviewed carried simply a diary, an A4 displays are getting ever smaller. Unfortunately, notepad and a few selected papers or brochures small displays force you to classify your notes relevant to the current business. They claimed that immediately you receive or generate them. The study most of what they needed on such visits was in their suggests that knowledge workers may be heads. Knowledge workers also rarely consult their uncomfortable with these devices as note-takers filed information when in their oftlces. They do except for non-prima~ aspects of their work such as make a lot of notes, both in meetings and when noting a telephone number, a diary date or a short trying to sort out their thinking on their own but message for a colleague. In these cases, users can many of these notes are discarded once the ideas classify the note’s subsequent use before they start to have been worked out or translated into a proper write it. In contrast, if knowledge workers are using report. A typical comment was: “I take a great many such a notebook to jot down an idea they have just notes but I very seldom use them. It helps me heard, they will be forced to classi~ the inherently understand what’s going on to rephrase and “unclassifiable” and it is unlikely to inform them condense what I hear. ” Another study of 28 research later as it will have disappeared for ever into the workers reported that, whilst 640/. kept their notes bowels of the device. Maybe this is why the A4 pad for years, 44% of these claimed that they rarely or notebook is an old-favourite of knowledge workers referred back to any of them [9].
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