MIS423/523 -Chapter 1 Knowledge Work, Knowledge Workers, and Productivity
- Knowledge Work - human mental work performed to generate useful information (results and processes)
Knowledge Work Activities:
- Scanning information sources
- Searching for information
- Planning Activities and resource use
- Organizing resonsibilities and events
- Authoring knowledge work outputs
- Performing evaluations
- Analyzing alternatives
- Choosing among alternatives
- Formulating plans of action
- Presenting the results of an analysis
Supplemental Activities:
- keyboarding
- formatting documents
- filing
- entering database queries
- retrieving filed information
Knowledge work can be described in terms of:
- type of work
- objectives (generative useful information)
- process characteristics
- accessing data
- using knowledge
- employing mental models
- applying significant concentration and attention
- Knowledge Workers (financial analysts, systems analysts, managers, accountants, and lawyers)
Tools:
- word processor
- spreadsheet
- e-mail and web browser
- presentation graphics
- statistics
- database package
- Data and Information in Knowledge Work
data - representation of events, people, resources, or conditions (raw facts & figures)
- Information Concepts and Definitions
Information is data that produces one of the following results:
- builds or adds to representations
- corrects or confirms previous information
- tells something that the user did not know or could not predict
- reduces uncertainty
- changes the probabilities of expected outcomes
- Benefits of Information
- used to align organizational objectives
- used to coordinate activities
- use to design organizational processes and procedures
- used to analyze alternatives
- used to make decisions
- Knowledge in Knowledge Work
knowledge - high-level, value-added information
Types:
- formal (declarative) - gneral knowledge of problem solving and definitions,general principles, concepts, and procedures related to a domain of work (important in skill development)
- procedural - knowledge about how to do something
- meta - kowledge about knowledge (concerns knowing how knowledge and expertise are organized and how to locate and access knowledge)
- impressionistic - hidden (creative expertise or intuitive)
- Mental Models - mental representations of methods, processes, and procedures individuals employ to obtain data and process it to produce information outputs [part of the the expertise and procedural knowledge of individuals]
- Concentration, Attention, and Automatic Processing
- Attention - focusing one's mind on a task
- Concentration - centering time and effort on a task and eliminating distrations
- Automatic Processing - opposite of attention and concentration
- Information Technology[includes computer and communication technologies]
- Knowledge Work Productivity [productivity consists of the resources required to produce one unit of a product]
Can you measure productivity in knowledge work?
- Expansion and conservation of knowledge work resouces
- work effectiveness [quality and usefulness of the knowledge work outputs]
- work efficiency [measure of resources expended for a specified output]
- Improved Productivity by Expanding and Conserving Knowledge Work Resources
- Expanding Knowledge Work Mental Energy Through Improved Motivation
- task design with feedback
- task design with frequent completion
- effective scheduling
- Conserving Scarce Knowledge Work Resources by Scheduling and Communications
- Conserving Scarce Attentional Resources by Automatic Processing
- Compensating for Limitations on Human Information Processing
need aids [Post-Its, computers, etc.]
information overload!!!!
- Improving Productivity Through More Effective Knowledge Work
- Expertise and Creativity
- More Extensive and Intensive Knowledge Work
- More Complete and Timely Knowledge Work
- Work Activities Not Feasible Without Computers
- Improving Productivity Through Efficiency in Knowledge Work Processes and Procedures
- Reducing Time and Effort
- Reusing Processes and Procedures
- process - sequence of actions to accomplish a desired result
- procedure set of steps to conduct an action
- Eliminating Process Redundancy and Delay
- Minimizing Errors and Bias
- errors - incorrect data or analyses
- bias - systematic exclusion of certain data or systematic failure to donsider alternatives
- Investing in Knowledge Work Productivity Improvement
- information technology infrastructures
- processes, procedures, and methods for performing knowledge work activities
- investment in initial training plus practice and learning to achieve appropriate expertise, useful level of automatic processing, and added procedural knowledge
