Knowledge Worker Case Study

Is the knowledge worker the key to sustainable development and competitive advantage?

INTRODUCTION

The business environment of today, i.e. all external forces, impacting on the operations of businesses are largely, if not totally, external and beyond the control of individual industrial enterprises and their managements. This environment can be described as being highly competitive. Social Scientist Schumpeter and Porter attempted to move the comprehension of the environment from a static model to one that examines the interdependence of forces as being dynamic. This dynamism, they postulated is often driven by innovation. To this end, the competitiveness has often given rise to the classification of the environment as ever changing, as time elapses. In such an environment, businesses can’t compete solely on the basis of product alone anymore, there must be some defining criteria that distinguish the businesses at varying levels. As such, this environment is the basis for the knowledge worker. Moreover, the benchmark by which the business competitive edge can be evaluated. Is how well you manage your knowledge worker. Further, what competitive advantage can the knowledge worker bring to

This knowledge is then utilized to make their organisation more effective a (Tannenbaum and Alliger 2000, O'Dell, Grayson jr. and Essaides 1998) and possibly advanced some measure of distinctive competence. Further, the term ‘Knowledge Worker’ was created by management erudite, Peter Drucker as far back as in the 1950s. (Drucker 1968) advanced that ‘Today the centre is the knowledge worker, the man or woman who applies to productive work ideas, concepts and information rather than manual skill or brawn…. Knowledge is now the main cost, the main investment and the main product of the advanced economy and the livelihood of the largest group in the