Thinking for a Living: The Coming Age of Knowledge Work

by Kenneth A. Megill

Overview

Providing a philosophical framework, a consultant seeks to transform business cultures by viewing employees as knowledge workers and utilizing technology. Megill pilot-tested his ideas at the US Air Force Integrated Digital Environment Project. (Project details are appended.) These ideas include regarding all employees as potential knowledge workers; extending the Japanese concept of ba (community) to the workplace; and adopting the "spiral" thinking used in software development, i.e., parallel evolution of a problem and its understanding. The volume, which includes a glossary and annotated bibliography, is distributed by Gale. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783598116384
Publisher:	De Gruyter
Publication date:	04/21/2004
Pages:	207
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.40(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Kenneth A. Megill, Knowledge Application Services, Washington, USA.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgements	xi
	Introduction	1
	Knowledge and Management	1
	The Role of the Intellectual	5
	Tow Truck Operators	6
	Information Technology	7
	Transformation	7
Section I	Work Transforming	9
Chapter 1	Workers Become Professionals	13
	From Menials to Professionals	14
	The Airplane Mechanic	15
	Retail/Service Industry	16
	Forms Management and Data Capture	20
	Manufacturing: From Assembly Line to Quality Circles	22
	Education--From the Box to the Team	24
	Military--Network Centric Warfare	26
	Medicine--the End of the Super Doctor	29
	Many More	30
Chapter 2	Professionals Become Workers	31
	Making Thinking into Work and Work into Thinking Work	32
	The Life of the Intellectual	34
	The Thinking Machine	36
	Professionals--the modern thinkers	37
	"Freetime"--From Vocation to a Job	38
	"De-Professionalization"	39
	Professional Associations	40
	Universities Straddle Conflicting Missions	42
	The Production of Knowledge	42
	The Commodity Relationship	43
	Patents and Copyrights	44
	Buying and Selling Professional Time	45
	Management	46
	Knowing More and More About Less and Less	48
	Manual and Intellectual Labor	49
Chapter 3	From Cooperation to Collaboration	51
	Beliefs That Underlie the New Work Culture	51
	Information Sharing	52
	The Fourth Wave	54
	Consciously Changing a Work Culture	56
	Work Cultures Old and New	58
	Moving From Cooperation to Collaboration	59
	Measuring Work	64
	Overcoming Bad Habits	65
Section II	New Ways to Think About Work	67
Chapter 4	Knowledge Work	71
	Knowledge: Justified True Belief	73
	Knowledge, Information and Data--some distinctions	76
	Wisdom--the Other Side of Knowledge	77
	Inherently Democratic	78
	Work and Activity	80
	An Answer to a Question	81
	Going to Work	82
	Playing Office is not Work	86
	The Magic of Understanding	87
	Creativity	89
	The Interconnectivity of Knowledge	90
	Knowledge Management	90
	Knowledge Marshaling	93
Chapter 5	Integrated Digital Environment	95
	Principles of an Integrated Digital Environment	97
	Working collaboratively on line	99
	The Power of Working in a Web Environment	100
	It Takes Toys to Play in Today's Sandbox	102
	Working in a Digital Environment	103
Chapter 6	Communities of Practice	107
	Community	110
	Ba	112
	Practice/Praxis	113
	Technology Scaffold	116
	Cultivating a Community of Practice	118
Section III	The Work of Changing	121
Chapter 7	Work Becomes Play	125
Chapter 8	The Nature of Knowledge Work: Thinking Spirally	129
	Software Development	130
	Failures	131
	We Don't Know the End	132
	Agility	133
	Designing for Flexibility	134
	Three Philosophical Theories for Knowledge Work	135
	Back to Understanding (Hermeneutics)	136
	Abduction	137
	The Community of Scientific Inquirers	139
	Faceting	140
	Toward a New Theory	144
Chapter 9	The Practice of Transformation: A Three Step Plan	147
	Leadership from Above: Change from Below	148
	The Transformation Steps	150
	How do I do a work process analysis--How do I analyze the work and the work processes?	152
	A Work in Progress	156
	Change Agents	157
	There is No Road Map	158
	A Spiral Process	159
Chapter 10	One Person at a Time	161
	Accepting the Call	164
	Start Where You Are	165
Appendix	The Air Force Project: From computers and wires to a culture change	167
	How it came about	168
	The Role of Leadership	172
	Glossary	177
	For Further Information	183
	Other books by Kenneth Megill	190
	Index	191