Legal Research

"Information Work Versus Knowledge Work"

This post was written by Connie Crosby: "How can we reduce our workloads, and do the more interesting knowledge work? In his April 15th presentation "The Nature of Knowledge Work" Keith D. Swenson, VP of R & D for Fujistu America defined knowledge work as:

• Non-repeated
• Unpredictable
• Emergent
• Robust in the face of variable conditions

Presumably, then, all other work done by knowledge workers is information work. It is work that is repeated, predictable, routine or otherwise fairly straight-forward.

This is not a new consideration. We have been good at ensuring the repetitive or predictable work is given to people at more junior levels so that we are not paying high-priced staff such as lawyers and managers to do the repetitive tasks. But with the current economy we have seen decreases in staff at many levels so that delegation is not as easy..."

Continue reading this interesting post and reach the active link by clicking on the author's name.

Source: Slaw.ca, 24 May 2010. Reproduced with permission of Simon Fodden, founder of Slaw.

Full post as published by Stark County Law Library Blawg on May 24, 2010 (boomark / email).