Skill and work experience in the European knowledge economy



higher levels of skill (Freeman 1997). The conception of knowledge work that surfaces
here echoes Machlup’s (1962) original definition: forms of work which were
responsible for producing and transmitting information that helped people to learn
something they had not known previously.

The third development is the re-appraisal of the relationship between organisational
structures, systems and processes to organisational performance, which has been
interpreted as confirming a growing demand for ‘high-skill’ (Green
et al 1999;
Tessaring 1997) or ‘knowledge’ (OECD 1996) work throughout Europe. Apart from
resulting in the decentralisation of authority for business decisions to front-line units,
the de-layering of organisational management hierarchies, the out-sourcing of non-
essential services, this process of re-structuring has also gradually broadened work
roles, occupational profiles and conceptions of skill and expertise in many industrial
sectors (Mason 2000) and organisations throughout Europe (Guile and Fonda 1998).
One manifestation of these developments has been that organisations are placing a
higher value on skills, such as ‘horizontal communication’ (Green 1999) and ‘ ’
(Brennan
et al 2001) in an attempt to assist them to respond more swiftly to customers’
needs or even co-produce products and services with customers. This development
suggests that some organisations are beginning to define knowledge work in terms of
the types of behaviour that support knowledge sharing and knowledge creation to
enhance product and service delivery as much as in terms of the level of qualifications
held by employees.

The extent of the shift towards knowledge work in the EU economy.

One of the reasons why it is difficult to ascertain the extent of the shift towards
‘knowledge work’ in European economies is because writers tend to adopt different
starting points in terms of how they analyse firms’ responses to the intensifying impact
of globalisation and interpret the empirical evidence about industrial and occupational
change.

11



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