Knowledge Workers and the Knowledge Economy

The paper examines the growth of a new group of workers – knowledge workersseen as critical for the growth of knowledge based economy. The emphasis in much of theliterature is upon formal codified knowledge. This focus does not adequately deal with tacitknowledge which is acquired in informal ways from experience and engagement withothers. Further when issues of measurement are considered it is around information ratherthan knowledge that most measures have been based. Currently there is no internationalagreement on the definition of the ICT sector. The paper reviews definitions adopted by theOECD to show that problem with spillovers from the ICT sector and the difficulty ofpositioning the ICT sector within existing industry classification persist. The paperconcludes by arguing that there is a need for a retheorising of the of the respective roles inthe ‘new economy of information and knowledge workers and a greater understanding ofthe interrelationship between explicit formal and tacit informal knowledge