the definingcharacteristic of knowledge workers is that they arethemselves changed by the information theyprocess.’ So, the workers interviewed saw theirvalue to an organisation being to understand a bodyof knowledge and generate new information fromthis understanding which changed either theorganisation or its customer in a direct way.
a more refined and nuanced definition of knowledge workers than Peter Drucker's 1973 definition.
Peter Drucker, the distinguished commentator onorganisation and management, has popularised theterm “knowledge worker” to describe the role of agrowing percentage of employees in businessorganisations: “The manual worker is yesterday..,..The basic capital resource, the fundamentalinvestment, but also the cost centre for a developedeconomy is the knowledge worker who puts to work
what he has learned in systematic education, that is, concepts, ideas and theories, rather than the man who puts to work manual skill or muscle, ” [5]. 5. Drucker, P. F. Management: Tasks, Responsibilities and Practices, Harper & Row; New York, 1973.
Influential management consultant, educator, and author Peter Drucker helped to popularize the concept of the "knowledge worker" by way of his book Management: Tasks, Responsibilities and Practices (Harper & Row, 1973).
Who/where is the origin of the neologism/idea of "knowledge worker"?