World of Global and Knowledge Economies - Literature review Example

Introduction World has transformed itself into a new and more complex phenomenon of knowledge based economies in which the value of knowledge plays critical role. This has been however, a period of evolution as from the beginning of the industrial revolution, the overall nature of how the goods and services shall be produced in a given economy continuously evolved. (Chatzkel,2004) In pre-industrial era, reliance was placed more on the land and labor as the key sources of producing the goods and services however, with the emergence of knowledge based economies, old methods of producing the goods and services changed too.( Chen, & Choi, 2004) The emergence of knowledge based economies however, was the result of a continuous evolution of different perspectives such as classical and organic contributed towards the development of a society which gradually transformed itself to this point. This literature review will therefore discuss the influence of classical, organic, and symbolic interpretive as well as the post modern perspectives on the current world of globalization and knowledge based economies. Classical Perspective What characterizes the knowledge economies and knowledge cities is the accumulation of knowledge and development of cities and societies is dependent upon how the human capital of that society is developed. Thus cities are considered as the structural capitals for housing the human capital of the society. (Edvinsson, 2006). There are two critical schools of thoughts which emerged in the early days of the emergence of literature on management. Both i.e. scientific as well as administrative management schools of thoughts focused on the improvement of employee performance as well as the management of the organization as a whole. The classical perspective is also more relevant to the current knowledge based economy that the improvement in the performance of the employees and resultantly that of the organization depends upon how knowledgeable the employees are.( Dovey & White 2005) This is also relevant because knowledge based economy concepts advocate that in order to reduce the impact of diminishing returns on the capital, it is important that new ways of doing things are created. (Edvinsson, 2006). Classical perspectives therefore is relevant in the sense allow knowledge based economies to gain access to the more qualified and high performing employees. Organic Perspective Organic perspective is critical in the sense that it advocates the formation of networks and hubs where people work in an informal manner.( Morgan, 1997) Knowledge based economies are also based upon the informal networking of the individuals through digitization which has been made possible with the help of globalization. (Lang, 2001). What is also critical to note that organic perspective directly asserts the impression that the knowledge workers need not be concentrated in one place? Thus the current derive in digitization and globalization actually allowed the organizations to harness the power of the competencies of their employees while transcending the traditional borders. (Stacey, 2003) Organic perspective is significantly more critical due to the fact that it focuses on the understanding the needs of the employees and allow the emergence of concepts like group leadership. The informal nature of the organizations and the team based approach therefore also allow the organizations to become mobile in nature. This is exactly the reason as to why the knowledge based economies emerged as the more fluid and flexible economies allowing organizations to locate the global talent and harness their power through informal networks. (Murray, 2007). Symbolic Interpretive This aspect is quite challenging in the sense that it focuses on the subjectivity of the issues and advocates that emergence of knowledge and its meaning is restricted to the knower. In a sense, the knowledge is subjective and its understanding therefore directly depends upon the viewer of the knowledge.( Ergazakis, Metaxiotis, & Psarras 2006) The critical link between this perspective and the modern knowledge based economies therefore is the link suggesting that the organizations shall view the knowledge from multi perspectives and shall not focus on certain regions or places to look for the knowledge and gain access to the knowledge workers. Knowledge based economies are based on the assumption that knowledge is flexible and that the technological advancement shall fit into the social networks in which organizations operate. (Appelbaum, 1997). The above argument by Appelbaum is more relevant in the sense that symbolic interpretive perspective indicates that organizations are so called socially constructed realities therefore their promotion depends upon the overall understanding of one’s ownself and that of others. Thus the sharing of the knowledge and its subsequent dissemination in society is a concept which seems to be directly borrowed from this aspect of the symbolic interpretive. This perspective therefore also seems to be more aligned with the current debate on the emergence of knowledge based economies.( Sun & Scott, 2003) Post modernism Post modernism views organizations as mean of oppression and the sites for concentrating the power and increasing the influence of the organization. This perspective therefore gives a sort of negative connotation to the overall relationship between the society and the organization. This concept also indicates that the organizations are just like texts which can be re-written thus indicating the link between the fluid nature of the knowledge economies and the post modernism.( Loermans, 2002) The knowledge economies focus on the learning organizations suggesting that the only way for organizations to succeed is to continuously change them in order to make changes which suit the current competitive environment. As such post modernism seem to play significant role in the development of overall concepts of learning organizations and the emergence of knowledge based economies on the world scene.( Hatch, & Cunliffe, 2006) Conclusion This literature review discussed different themes which seem to have exercised influence over the emergence of knowledge based economies. What is significant to note that the current stream of debate on knowledge based organizations and economies seem to borrow much from the earlier concepts of organizational development? Classical as well as organic concepts of organizational development seem to have greater influence on the way the overall movement for knowledge based economies emerged. (Loermans, 2002) Further, the post modern ideas and symbolic interpretive ideologies further perfected the debate on this and clearly outlined the influence of these perspectives on the development of knowledge based economies. References 1. Appelbaum, S. H. (1997). Socio-technical systems theory: an intervention strategy for organizational development. Management Decision , 35 (6), 452-463. 2. Chatzkel, J. (2004) Greater Phoenix as a knowledge capital, Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol.8, No.5, p61-72 3. Chen, S. & Choi, C.J. (2004) Creating a knowledge-based city: the example of Hsinchu science park, Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol.8, No.5, p73-82 4. Dovey, K & White, R. (2005) Learning about learning in knowledge-intense organizations, The Learning Organization, Vol12, No3, p246-260 5. Edvinsson, L. (2006). Aspects on the city as a knowledge tool. JOURNAL OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT , 10 (5), 6-13. 6. Ergazakis, K. Metaxiotis, K. & Psarras, J. (2006)Knowledge cities: the answer to the needs of knowledge-based development, The Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems, Vol.36, No.1, p67-84 7. Hatch, M.J. & Cunliffe, A.L. (2006) Organization theory: modern, symbolic and post-modern perspectives, Oxford University Press 8. Lang, J. C. (2001). Managing in knowledge-based competition. Journal of Organizational Change Management , 14 (6), 539-553. 9. Loermans, J.(2002) Synergising the learning organization and knowledge management, Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 6 No3, p285-294 10. Morgan, G. (1997) Images of organization, Sage 11. Murray, A. J. (2007). From the knowledge worker to the knowledge economy: Six billion minds co-creating the future. The journal of information and knowledge management systems , 37 (1), 7-13. 12. Stacey, R.D. (2003) Strategic Management and Organisational Dynamics, FT Prentice Hall 13. Sun, P.Y.T. & Scott, J.L. (2003) Exploring the divide – organizational learning and learning organization, The Learning Organization, Vol10, No4, p202-215 Read More