Knowledge Workers and

Knowledge Work

A Knowledge Economy Programme Report

Prepared by Ian Brinkley, Rebecca Fauth, Michelle Mahdon and Sotiria Theodoropoulou
Contents

Acknowledgements 2
List of Figures and Tables 3
Executive summary 4
1. The knowledge economy and knowledge work: A review of the existing
definitions and measures 9
2. Redefining knowledge work and knowledge workers 19
3. Knowledge work across industries and regions 41
4. The changing nature of work roles and the returns to knowledge 49
5. The job characteristics of knowledge workers 54
6. Organisational culture in the knowledge economy: preferences
and reality 61
7. Conclusion and recommendations 68
Appendix A. Work-related tasks and activities by factor 76
Appendix B: Sample demographic and background characteristics 82
Appendix C: Description of organisational variables 83
Appendix D: Composition of workforce in the distribution and repairs and
in the hotels and restaurants sectors 84
References 85

Acknowledgements

This report has drawn on some of the initial research work and discussions from The Work
Foundation’s three year Knowledge Economy Programme, to be completed in April 2009.
However the views set out here are entirely those of The Work Foundation and do not represent
those of the sponsoring organisations.

We would like to thank Alana McVerry and Sezis Okut for their contributions to this paper.

2 Knowledge Workers and Knowledge Work

List of Figures and Tables

Figure 1: The 30-30-40 knowledge economy workforce 5

Figure 1.1: Growth of knowledge based service industries in Europe and UK 1970-2005 10
Figure 1.2: Shares of graduates and workers with only basic schooling in UK workforce, 1970-2006 14
Figure 2.1: What work tasks are most common across the workforce? 23
Figure 2.2: Number of different computer uses and how often computers are used each week 28
Figure 2.3: Share of workers that frequently perform at least one specialist computer task 29
Figure 2.4: Importance of ‘teach others’ task for different clusters 31
Figure 2.5: Perceived complexity of tasks performed by surveyed workers 32
Figure 2.6: The 30-30-40 knowledge workforce 34
Figure 2.7: Share of women in jobs by knowledge content 36
Figure 2.8: Share of jobs in the top three occupational groups by knowledge content 38
Figure 2.9: Share of graduates by knowledge intensity of the job 39
Figure 3.1: Share of jobs in knowledge industries by knowledge intensity 42
Figure 3.2: Composition of the knowledge-intensive services sector 43
Figure 3.3: Workforce composition in the health and welfare industry by worker cluster 44
Figure 3.4: Employment in knowledge intensive and more traditional services compared 45
Figure 3.5: Composition of the manufacturing sector 46
Figure 3.6: Regional composition of the workforce 47
Figure 4.1: Percentage earning more than median wages by worker cluster 53
Figure 5.1: Percentage of workers in the same job for more than 10 years by worker cluster 56
Figure 5.2: Percentage of workers working day shifts by worker cluster 57
Figure 5.3: Percentage of workers doing weekend work at least once/month by worker cluster 58
Figure 5.4: Percentage of workers with flexibility in choosing work schedule by worker cluster 59
Figure 6.1: Percentage prefer innovative firms by worker cluster 67

Table 2.1: Task factors with sample items 22

Table 2.2: Number of methods used to acquire new information and learn new tasks 30
Table 2.3: Prevalence of methods used for sharing and capturing knowledge 32
Table 3.1: Regional concentration of knowledge workers in the UK 47
Table 4.1: Job-skills/experience match by worker cluster 52
Table 4.2: Shares of women and men earning above the median wage 53
Table 6.1: Perceived organisational characteristics by worker cluster 63
Table 6.2: Preferred organisational characteristics 64

Knowledge Workers and Knowledge Work 3

Executive summary

The purpose of this report is to provide a portrait of work and the workforce in the knowledge
economy. We wanted to find out who the knowledge workers are, what they do in their
jobs, where they are employed and what employment structures, job characteristics and
organisational structures look like in the knowledge economy.

Knowledge work and knowledge workers are terms often used but seldom defined. When
knowledge work is defined it is usually by broad measures such by job title or by education
level. At best this gives us a partial and simplistic view of knowledge work in the UK.

This report takes a new approach. In a large and unique survey, we have asked people what
they actually do at work and how often they perform particular tasks. We have used that
information to assess the knowledge content of their jobs. The key test was the cognitive
complexity required for each task – the use of high level ‘tacit’ knowledge that resides in
people’s minds rather than being written down (or codified) in manuals, guides, lists and
procedures.

We then grouped the workforce into seven distinct clusters of jobs ranging from ‘expert thinkers,
innovators and leaders’ (the most knowledge intensive groups) to ‘assistants and clerks’ (the
least knowledge intensive)1. We describe the two highest knowledge groups as our ‘core’
knowledge worker.

With this measure we estimated that we have a 30-30-40 workforce – 30 per cent in jobs with
high knowledge content, 30 per cent in jobs with some knowledge content, and 40 per cent in
jobs with less knowledge content.

Within our 30 per cent ‘core’ knowledge worker group, the highest group of all (‘leaders and
innovators’) constituted just 11 per cent of the workforce. These high intensity knowledge jobs
combined high level cognitive activity with high level management tasks.

These high knowledge intensive jobs are, we suspect, what some of the more excitable
accounts of knowledge work we have in mind. The reality is that even after 40 years
uninterrupted growth in knowledge based industries and occupations, such jobs account for only
one in ten of those in work today.

1
These groupings are described in more detail on page 24

4 Knowledge Workers and Knowledge Work

 Executive summary

The 30-30-40 knowledge economy workforce

Many knowledge
tasks, 33%
Few knowledge
tasks, 40%

Some knowledge
tasks, 27%

We confirmed that knowledge work cannot be adequately described simply by looking at job
titles or education levels. About 20 per cent of people engaged in jobs with high knowledge
content – our core group of knowledge workers – were not graduates.

We also show that current job titles understate the knowledge content of jobs within some
sectors such as manufacturing. When jobs are classified by knowledge content, high tech
manufacturing has as many knowledge intensive jobs, proportionately, as high tech services.

Although our survey did not look in great detail into the geographical distribution of knowledge
workers, there were nevertheless indications that core knowledge workers tend to cluster in
urban areas, particularly in London, the South East and North of England and Scotland. This
is not a surprising finding given that face-to-face contact and the development of relationships
are important for exchanging information and especially tacit knowledge. Cities across the UK
– including Manchester, Leeds, Bristol and Edinburgh outside the South East – also provide

Knowledge Workers and Knowledge Work 5

Executive summary

businesses with access to wider markets and to specialist skills. This result resonates with the
insights of our Ideopolis programme on the growing importance of cities in world economies.

Our results confirm high economic returns to knowledge – the vast majority of those in the most
knowledge intensive jobs enjoyed pay well above the median. But this was not true for those in
jobs with some knowledge content – such as care and welfare work.

The most knowledge intensive jobs were almost equally likely to be held by men and women,
but those jobs with some knowledge content – such as care and welfare workers, information
handlers, and sellers and servers – were overwhelmingly female. Woman have benefitted from
the growth of knowledge work, but the growth of more knowledge intensive work has not, of
itself, overcome the gender pay gap.

Some people have speculated that the growth of knowledge work is weakening the attachment
to permanent and long term employment relations. We find no evidence for this. Those in the
most knowledge intensive jobs are no more likely to be in temporary jobs than those in the least
knowledge intensive jobs and job tenures are also very similar.

Knowledge workers are not spear-heading radical changes in the way we work. As expected,
they do have more flexibility at work than those in less knowledge intensive jobs, but the
differences were not overwhelming. The reality is that less than 50 per cent of all workers
and less than 60 per cent of knowledge workers said they have some flexibility in their work
schedule, and only a very small minority said they can freely determine their own hours.

Perhaps not surprising, attachment to the standard nine to five day is still a central feature of
the labour market for both knowledge workers and non-knowledge workers alike. Knowledge
workers were far more likely to do occasional work at home, although over 60 per cent said they
did no home-working. Weekend working is relatively common across the workforce, but was
much less prevalent among knowledge workers.

We found two big labour market mismatches. The first was between the skills that people
said they had and the demands their current job made of them. The second was between the
organisational culture people perceived they actually worked in and the organisational culture
they would like to work in.

6 Knowledge Workers and Knowledge Work

 Executive summary

Significant minorities of workers reported their current jobs under-used their skills. The gap
was less marked for knowledge workers, but nonetheless significant. About 36 per cent of
knowledge workers said they were in jobs that under-used their skills compared with over 44 per
cent of those in jobs with some or little knowledge content.

Taken at face value, employers are not making the most of knowledge worker skills despite
such workers representing a substantial investment in human capital within the organisation.
However, these mismatches are even worse for jobs with low knowledge content – suggesting
a more general problem with labour utilisation rather than a particular difficulty with knowledge
work.

Some have expressed concern that the economy is producing too many graduates for the
available jobs that require graduate skills, forcing more graduates to accept lower pay jobs and
worsening the prospects for non-graduates.

We found mixed evidence. About 20 per cent of graduates were in low knowledge content
jobs. This is potentially worrying. However, the average job tenure for graduates in such jobs
was much lower than for non-graduates – suggesting graduates spend less time in these jobs.
Moreover, about 44 per cent of graduates in low knowledge content jobs reported that their job
duties corresponded well with their current skills.

Taken with the evidence on returns from knowledge and our previous work on labour market
polarisation2, the overall picture does not strongly support the idea that the UK is producing too
many graduates. The situation may be worse for those who entered the labour market more
recently, but we found little variation in these responses by age.

The vast majority of people in work think their organisation is characterised by formal rules
and policies, but very few say this is the sort of organisation they really want to work for. The
mismatch is even greater for knowledge workers: 65 per cent said their organisations were rule
and policy bound, but only 5 per cent expressed a preference for such organisations.

There is a much better match when it comes to characteristics such as loyalty and mutual trust
for both knowledge and non-knowledge workers. About 50 per cent of all workers said this
was a predominant characteristic of their organisation, and over 60 per cent said it was their
preferred organisational characteristic.

2
Fauth and Brinkley (2006) Polarisation and labour market efficiency, The Work Foundation

Knowledge Workers and Knowledge Work 7

Executive summary

Knowledge workers are more likely to work for organisations that they think are innovative
or achievement orientated – not in itself a surprising result. What is surprising is that neither
feature seems to appeal to them very much. For example, 50 per cent of knowledge workers
said their organisation’s predominant feature was innovation, development and being at the
cutting edge, but only 24 per cent preferred this type of organisation.

Some of the differences in how people characterised their organisation can be partly explained
by whether the organisation was in a public based industry (education, health, public
administration) or in a private market based industry. But such differences between a public
and private based organisational culture did not explain preferences. It seems people reject
rule bound cultures and value loyalty and trust regardless of whether they work in the public or
private based sectors.

The gap between reality and organisational preference was wider in the public sector than in
the private sector. Public service workers were more likely to say they worked in a rules bound
organisation, which is predictable; but they also said they were less likely to be characterised by
mutual rust and loyalty than in the private sector.

These are the first set of findings from our knowledge working survey. We will be publishing
a second set of findings later in 2009 that look more closely at how knowledge work can be
regarded as ‘good work’ and how it relates to health and well-being at work.

8 Knowledge Workers and Knowledge Work