Managing Knowledge: Experts, Agencies and Organisations

Description

Managing Knowledge reverses the status quo argument that organisational change is driven by the specific demands of large companies. Instead of viewing firms as the catalysts for gradual change, Albert and Bradley argue that expert professionals have fuelled a break away from the traditional organisational structure to an organisational structure at the heart of which is an agent and/or an agency system. The authors draw our attention to the growing phenomenon of atypical work manifested in workforce flexibility, mobility, the feminisation of professional employment, and technological changes. They focus upon a group of knowledge-based employees - experts - who increasingly have influence over work and wealth creation. Case studies are developed from companies including AT and T, the Hollywood film industry, London accounting firms, and specialised agencies such as Labforce and Knowledge Net.

'At a time when more and more attention is being paid to the role of knowledge in the economy it is timely to have a supply-side account of labour market change that suggests that not all atypical, agency-based work and other casual work arrangements are deleterious to the worker.' David Rooney, The University of Queensland, Prometheus