Creative Working in the Knowledge Economy

Sai Loo

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781315453071
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Betriebswirtschaft
• Subtopic: Business allgemein

There is a growing interest in the knowledge economy, and the new types of job and ways of working associated with it. This book analyses how a particular group – creative knowledge workers – carry out their jobs and learn within it. Using empirical research from advertising and software development in Europe, Singapore and Japan, it develops a new conceptual framework to analyse the complexities of creative knowledge work.

Focussing uniquely on the human element of working in the knowledge economy, it explores the real world of how people work in this emerging phenomenon and examines relationships between knowledge and creative dimensions to provide new frameworks for learning and working. It offers critical insights into how these workers apply their creative knowledge work capacities towards the production of innovative products and services, as well as using their creative abilities and knowledge to fashion both digital and tangible goods in the knowledge economy.

Adding significantly to the on-going debate around knowledge work and creativity, this comprehensive examination will be of interest to researchers and educators in organisational learning, management and HRM and to anyone involved in devising ways to develop and support workers in lifelong and flexible creative work practices.

1
Introduction

Setting the Context

According to Reich (2001), there are two types of creative workers with distinct personalities and talents. He says:

The demand for creative workers—for geeks and shrinks, as I have called them—will continue to grow because they are the masters of innovation, and innovation lies at the heart of the new economy.

(Reich, 2001, p. 64)

This investigation draws on Reich’s description of creative workers who produce innovative goods in the knowledge economy. The roles played by these creative workers in the knowledge economy are the main focus of this study. The study was inspired by my personal life and professional work experiences. Drawing on Fuller’s (1984) justification, this research was designed on the basis of my biography, although my industrial experiences were not specifically in the sectors of advertising and information technology software. As Fuller explains:

Since what I wanted to research and how I wanted to do the research are themselves linked to my professional, personal and political biography up to that point.

(Fuller, 1984, p. 98)

My interest in workers in the knowledge economy was stimulated by living in Malaysia and the UK, working as a Chartered Accountant and my academic interests. The experience of living in different parts of the world made me curious about the similarities and differences between them and led me to carrying out research on three countries: England, Japan, and Singapore. After completing a degree in Economics and a professional qualification in accountancy, I worked as a Chartered Accountant. This made me curious about the varied nature of work and how creativity influenced it, especially in advertising and IT software. As an academic in the higher education sector, I was exposed to teaching on a variety of programmes and researching, and this practice made me query perspectives of learning and working.

A preliminary literature review made it clear that existing research on creativity was largely confined to the areas of psychology (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988; Gardner, 1993 & 1999; Sternberg, Kaufman and Pretz, 2004) and concentrated in the creative arts (Lash and Urry, 1994; National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education, 1999; DCMS, 2001). It was concluded that the emphasis on creativity by these scholars was not entirely applicable or relevant to the research questions, which this investigation hoped to answer—i.e., that of creativity in commercial environments in the contexts of a developing knowledge economy.

This realization prompted a further literature review from documentary sources (including journals, books, and reports), which linked creativity directly to work in the new economy using knowledge. Lash and Urry’s (1994) research provided a connection between art-related disciplines and researchers from economics and management by Zuboff (1988), Drucker (1993), Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) and Reich (2001) provided insights into connections of new adaptive and creative styles of working in the new economy. From psychology, Csikszentmihalyi (1988), Gardner (1999) and Sternberg et al. (2004) offered creative descriptions of knowledge work. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 discuss these creativity and workplace connections in the knowledge economy, which lead into Chapter 5 which explains the development of the theoretical framework. In fine-tuning this framework, the research of Lury (2004), von Hippel (2006), Knorr Cetina (2005a and 2005b) and Nerland (2008) were relied on. There were difficulties accessing the literature due to various reasons. These included knowing which disciplines to investigate, finding the relevant search engines to gain access to the relevant literature, and understanding the relevance and assessing the credibility of the literature to this study. These issues are illustrated by two writers. Knorr Cetina’s (1997) idea of a protracted timeframe for knowledge cultures is relevant here. She argues that a new culture of creative knowledge working takes time to develop and gain acceptance by society. Similarly, Csikszentmihalyi (1988) noted that a creative idea was not a flash of inspiration but one that required time for gestation. Equally, with this investigation, it took time to seek and make connections of extant information relating to creative applications of knowledge in the new economy.

This research included a literature review as indicated above by making connections between existing information on creativity to creative knowledge work, and not investigating them separately. In order to investigate creative knowledge work as a connected area, it was suggested that a combined interdisciplinary and relational approach such as that of Guile (2010) could be more appropriate because it was more comprehensive as it drew on economics, management, psychology, and sociology. It defined the focus of the research, which was to understand how creative workers in the knowledge economy contributed towards the production of innovative goods, with an emphasis on creative styles of working. This included investigating the innovative application of knowledge by creative workers in the production of state-of-the-art goods in the knowledge economy.

The term knowledge economy has many definitions, but this investigation adapted the following: it is an emerging economy where information technologies such as the Internet are increasingly important in the production of goods and services, which are knowledge-based such as computer software (Quah, 1999; Castells, 2000; Reich, 2001). The justification for using this definition lay in the fact that it enabled a thorough and meaningful exploration of the abilities, skills, and personalities of creative professionals in the knowledge economy.

In order to investigate which creative abilities and knowledge were used in the production of goods in a knowledge economy, two sectors were chosen. They were chosen because the researcher wished to ascertain whether there were any variations of creativity within and between the sectors. This sectoral approach formed the main focus of the research. Three countries, England, Japan, and Singapore, were selected for investigation as it was believed that a significant characteristic of the new economy was that it was global and networked and while there could be cultural variations between countries, these were insignificant in the context of this particular research (Castells, 2000; Reich, 2001). Consequently, the selection was only relevant in so far it was important to ascertain cultural variations within the two creative work sectors.

The first professional sector, advertising, was chosen on the basis of a preliminary literature review of creativity where it was suggested that this activity embodied the essence of artistic endeavours. This was argued by scholars such as MacKinnon (1962) and Barron (1983) who had carried out studies in related areas including business, which they associated with a “conventional notion of creativity.” Quah (1999), Howkins (2001) and Reich (2001) also included advertising on their lists of important sectors in the knowledge economy. Quah (1999) identifies it as an integral part of his ‘intellectual property’ typology, which is one of the four elements in his ‘weightless economy’ where goods, such as digital advertisements on the Internet, play an increasingly prominent role and have the same characteristics as knowledge. Howkins (2001) views advertising as part of an ‘intangible industry’ in his ‘creative economy’ where creative people and businesses use this intellectual property to increase product value. Reich (2001) argues that advertising executives add value to the marketplace by identifying and delivering possibilities for others. In his ‘new economy’ workers use their creativity to produce goods such as advertising campaigns.

The second professional sector selected was IT software because of its close relation with the knowledge economy. Academics who acknowledged its relevance and importance include Quah (1999), Castells (2000) and Reich (2001). For Quah (1999), IT is a key element in his ‘weightless economy’ where there is a connection between producers and consumers and where digital products, including software, are knowledge. Castells views this sector as an integral part of the infrastructure where information and communication technologies are “amplifiers and extensions of the human mind” (2000, p. 31) in the production of goods in a global and networked market. Reich (2001) argues that software engineers add value to products by identifying and developing new possibilities.

The choice of advertising and IT software as two sectors for investigation may prima facie appear unrelated because their working styles are quite different. Advertising is associated with the arts and creativity (Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS, 2001; Howkins, 2001). Its practice is non-technical and relates to soft subjects in Arts and Humanities. Accordingly, the working style of those creative professionals in advertising is often described as artsy and unconventional in terms of work patterns and dress code. Further, it is seen to be centred around social-cultural aspects of life and society and therefore fun and entertaining (Jones, 1999; Klein, 2001; Law, 2001; Vaske, 2001; Ogilvy, 2003). In contrast, those creative workers in IT software are viewed as being highly technical and their activities are technical, scientific, and science-focussed. They are often described as “brainy,” and “geeky” and lacking in communication skills. Their work is heavily reliant on IT and they work in high specification working environments. They are, generally speaking, perceived as working independently in silos and consequently functional and dry (Gates, Myhrvold and Rinearson, 1996; Torvalds and Diamond, 2001; O’Riain, 2004). The above descriptions may arguably be said to be one-dimensional. In reality, as this study aims to investigate, there are more commonalities between the two sectors than is immediately apparent. This includes, for instance, the requirement of wider types of knowledge such as cultural knowhow by IT software workers and technological knowhow by knowledge workers in advertising (Vaske, 2001; BBC News, 2007).

Working Definitions of Knowledge and Knowledge Work

During the literature review phase described above, the working definitions of concepts were considered. For the purposes of this investigation, it was decided to use an eclectic definition in order to encompass the many differing perspectives and the following were identified as important (Loo, 2011). Knowledge could be subject or non-subject related and modified by technologies. It could be explicit, as in the case of technical knowledge and communicated in writing or orally or transmitted through Internet-based software. At the same time, it could be tacit, non-communicable, and non-transmittable through technologies. Knowledge could be acquired formally, through higher education programmes or informally through interactions and experiences in workplace settings.

Knowledge work is the application of knowledge (either explicit or tacit) by a person for commercial activities (e.g., relating to innovating or creating a digital product or service) with the aid of technology (e.g., computer software and Internet) and technological objects (e.g., laptops and mobile phones). Its application is a conscious activity to create a new commercial product or service or to innovate or improve on an existing commercial product or service. This activity may be carried out individually or collaboratively or a variation of both. Like knowledge, knowledge application occurs in social contexts, both with people and technologies.

The creative dimension of knowledge work may be defined as the manipulation of knowledge using a person’s skills, talents, and personalities to achieve a commercial end.

For the purposes of this study, the combination of the above definitions of knowledge work and creative dimensions in the context of the knowledge economy is called creative knowledge work or creative application of knowledge. These definitions are appropriate and relevant because they provide a starting framework to investigate: a) types of knowledge required for creative knowledge working, and b) certain specific roles of creative knowledge work in the two professional sectors.¹

Research Questions

The refined questions included:

1. What is meant by knowledge in the ‘Knowledge Economy’?
   • Why has the term ‘knowledge economy’ come into use?
   • What are the characteristics of this type of economy?
   • What are the sectors in the knowledge economy?
   • How is knowledge perceived?
   It should be noted that this question was posed by Guile (2010) earlier.
2. What is meant by knowledge work in the knowledge economy?
   • What are the characteristics of this way of working?
   • How have the theorists of the knowledge economy defined knowledge working?
3. How is knowledge work understood by key actors in different sectors?
   • What are some examples of knowledge working in different sectors of the knowledge economy?
   • What are the characteristics of these examples of knowledge work?
4. Is creativity an important aspect of knowledge work?
   • If so, how is creativity related to knowledge work?
   • How have the theorists of the knowledge economy viewed creativity in relation to knowledge work?
   • What are the peoples’ skills, abilities, and personalities that are related to knowledge work?
5. What are the necessary contexts for creative knowledge work?

Lines of Argument of the Investigation

Characteristics of the knowledge economy include its diversity with no agreed definition, but rather a collection of perspectives which continue to evolve (Bell, 1973; Lash and Urry, 1994; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Castells, 2000; Quah, 2002; Knorr Cetina, 2005a). Any economy in transition from an industrial variety to a post-industrial variety or from the initial to more developed phases of a post-industrial economy will have unclear boundaries. This transitional process suggests that “connective dimensions” could be identified which link the old style economy to the new and they could include: a) increased digitalization of knowledge goods alongside tangible goods (Quah, 2002), b) increased global activities of business networks (Castells, 2000), and specific knowledge working of Japanese companies (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995) and c) closer connections between producer and user (Quah, 2002). Identification of these connective dimensions is critical because they enable an in-depth examination of the complex nature of creative knowledge working in the two sectors.

This investigation focuses on the micro level on those working in the knowledge economy and the importance of this type of study is acknowledged by Castells (2000, p. 31) who explained:

For the first time in history, the human mind is a direct productive force, not just a decisive element of the production system.

The lines of argument consisted of:

1. The nature of work varies in the knowledge economy as it does in other economies. Some types of knowledge work require a creative approach to working, or “creative application of knowledge” or “creative knowledge work.”
2. This form of knowledge work is created by a person who applies his/her knowledge for commercial activities such as the creation of new goods and/or the improvement of goods or processes. A creative knowledge worker uses his/her raw knowledge from subject-related, work-related, and life-related knowledge by manipulation, analysis, problem seeking, and problem solving to create a commercialized-targeted knowledge rich good/product. This commercialized-targeted knowledge may be different in size and capability and also in terms of relative and absolute levels of knowledge in the knowledge economy in comparison with older style economy products. One such example is the computer where the hardware decreases in size, capability improves, and memory storage and processing power increase as technology develops. The nature of work may be generic across the global and networked new economy, but it is contextualized by how knowledge is applied to specific tasks in different sectors.
3. Creative knowledge workers utilize their cognitive abilities, skills, talents, and personalities in their work to create new goods, innovate goods, or processes and/or lead in a business environment. The types of cognitive abilities required may vary depending on the nature of the knowledge work and contexts and may also require a high sta...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figure and Tables
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction
• 2 The Knowledge Economy and Perceptions of Knowledge
• 3 Knowledge Work: Issues and Perspectives
• 4 Critical Perceptions of Creativity and Knowledge Work
• 5 A Theoretical Framework of Creative Knowledge Work
• 6 Advertising I
• 7 Advertising II
• 8 Information Technology Software I
• 9 Information Technology Software II
• 10 Forward
• 11 Coda
• Appendices
• About the Author
• Bibliography
• Index