Think about this for a minute. Do you know who these people are? And what about Knowledge Workers, and Data Entry Workers? And what is the secret handshake for each group?

An answer doesn’t roll right off your tongue, does it? How can you deploy the Information Worker Management Pack if you don’t know what an information worker is? So I went looking for a good explanation of these terms, and turned up a nice post from Mark Bower at Microsoft.

As?it turn out, information works seem to be just about every worker with a computer on their desktop!?Read Mark’s explanation below:

When we use the term Information Worker, this isn’t simply another name for Knowledge Worker.? Information Worker is the superset of 3 classes of workers with different information and technology usage characteristics.

• The Knowledge Worker
  • Works with ideas and manages teams
  • Wants to be able to develop and improve processes and forms; encourage collaboration; create workspace environments
  • Needs to create, consume, transform and analyse data
  • Works in an unstructured, free-form way, maybe starting with a set of ideas which are collaborated on and built into a new document/report/form/business process.
  • Examples of this type of worker include middle/senior managers, consultants, marketing execs.

• The Structured Task Worker
  • Unlike the Knowledge Worker they tend to work only with data and information, not ideas.
  • Create and consume, but don’t transform or manage information
  • Needs to be able to find facts quickly; create documents; Edit, write & process information
  • According to some reports this category of Information Worker makes up 80% of the user base in most organisations.
  • Examples of this type of user include bank clerk, call centre operator, nurse and people in supervisor roles: Shop Manager, Bank Manager, Nursing Supervisor.

• The Data Entry Worker
  • Create and consume, but don’t transform or manage information
  • Wants easy access to information; Standardised process and forms; list management
  • Doesn’t tend to do free-form document creation
  • This type of user typically works in some kind of administrative, secretarial or receptionist role.

Time to get moving on that Information Worker MP.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 15th, 2008 at 6:38 am and is filed under Essentials 2007, Management Packs, News, Operations Manager 2007, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.