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Knowledge workers of the knowledge society are distinctively different from those of the agrarian and industrial society workers. They are defined as “symbolic analyst” who manipulates symbols rather than machines.
They include architects and bank workers, fashion designers and pharmaceutical researchers, teachers and policy analysts. They are associated primarily in service sector such as telecommunications, transport and financial services. Knowledge workers systematically accumulate knowledge, share it and deploy it purposefully.
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Continuously improving the stock of knowledge will be critical for their success. In the knowledge society the knowledge workers are valued very high. For e.g., in many of the American manufacturing companies the intangible assets are now worth more than tangible assets. These intangible or intellectual assets are based primarily on the skills and capabilities of their so-called knowledge workers.
i. The knowledge workers are the leading class of the knowledge society and necessarily the ruling class. They differ fundamentally from the other, groups in history who occupied the leading dominant position in then values, expectations and social position.
ii. They get access to work and social position in knowledge society through formal education and training.
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iii. Quantity and quality of knowledge work will differ substantially based on the amount and kind of formal knowledge and training required for a particular job.
iv. As formal education occupies the centre stage of the knowledge society, formal schooling emerges to be the key institution. Here the components of knowledge (knowledge mix), quality of learning and teaching not only become central concern of the knowledge society, but also central political issues. “In fact it may not be fanciful to anticipate that the acquisition and distribution of formal knowledge will come to occupy the place in the politics of the knowledge society which acquisition and distribution of property and income have occupied in the age of capitalism”.
v. It is significant that not necessarily the conventional system of schooling, but the systematic continuing education offered in the place of employment would get importance. Here an educated person will be someone who has learnt how to learn and throughout her/his lifetime, continues to learn especially in and out of formal education. Thus acquisition of knowledge is not age specific but life-long.
vi. The knowledge workers work in terms and work as employee in an organisation. They are to learn different kinds of terms for different purposes – their performance capacities, strengths, limitations and trade-off between various kinds of terms. They are also to learn how to switch from kind of team to another and to integrate oneself into a team.
v. Organisations in general provide the platform to the knowledge workers to convert their specialised knowledge into performance. In the organisation the knowledge workers are at times the employee and at time the bosses.
vi. The knowledge workers also own the tools of production. Unlike the capitalist society, true investment in the knowledge society is the knowledge of the knowledge workers, without knowledge whole production process is unproductive. It is the knowledge investment that determines whether the employee is productive or not, rather than the tools, machines and capital the organisation furnishes.