INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND THE KNOWLEDGE WORKERS OF THE NEW INFORMATION AGE

Information Technology and the Knowledge Workers of the New Information AgeMost workers in knowledge based or research and development organizations have the sophisticated skills to find

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND THE KNOWLEDGE WORKERS OF THE

NEW INFORMATION AGE

Dr Frits Pannekoek

Director, Information Resources

University of Calgary

Calgary, Canada

Information Technology and the Knowledge Workers of the New Information Age

Most workers in knowledge based or research and development organizations have the sophisticated skills to find and manipulate information in the new digital environment However, studies indicate that until users have undertaken at least a research-based post-secondary masters or doctoral degree they do not known how to use the key digital or indeed print information resources without specialist intervention.1 In the petroleum industry, for example these could include Petroleum Abstracts, GeoRef, Geobase,

Enviroline, Compendex, Applied Science and Technology Abstracts, SPE papers, Science Citation Indexes, and various business databases Any company dependent upon

technology in its business activities should have a similarly relevant set of information at its disposal Often information exchanges and needs of these technology intensive companies are made on corporate, institutional or discipline based intranets, controlled by senior management, and/or if there is a strong scientific component, by a few senior Ph.D scientists

These observations are serious particularly given the profound change in the nature and composition of information and its delivery In the twenty years following 1975,

electronic databases have grown in number from 301 to 10,338 In 1975 these databases contained about 52 million records; in 1997 they contained 11.3 billion records Of these, the single largest subject is business (27 per cent); while the next most significant is science and technology (17 percent).2 A growing number, at least 60 per cent in 1997, are now produced in the United States Use is also increasing rapidly In 1974 there were about 750,000 searches; in 1996 there were about 82.5 million This is reflected in database sales, which have increased from $40 million in 1979 per year to $1.5 billion per year in 1996 It is also important to note that while in the early years, datasets were largely generated by government, now they are overwhelmingly provided by the private

1 Eileen Pritchard and Paula R Scott, Literature Searching in Science, Technology, and Agriculture (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1996).

2 Martha E Williams, “Highlights of the Online Database Industry and the Internet 1998,”19 th Annual National Online Meeting Proceedings 1998, edited by Martha E Williams (New York: Information Today, 1998), pp 1-2 This contains an excellent statistical summary from which all statistics in this paragraph are drawn

sector Of concern should be the fact that about 90 per cent of the data base sales are controlled by six to ten key vendors What is also important to note is that while in the late 1970’s data base content was largely statistical or raw data, today it is over 50 percent full text, searchable and in English The revolution is real and profound 3

This revolution can have serious consequences not only for the sciences but also for the

“grass roots” development of technological innovation In the very early years of the Canadian oil and gas industry (1890 to 1945), for example, most of the innovations in gas processing were made in the field The technologists generously adapted engineering drawings drafted in distant urban centers to fit local conditions However, as the

companies grew in size and as knowledge became increasingly complex, centrally

controlled and bureaucratized, field-based innovation ceased The current hope is that new ubiquitous information technologies will restore greater capacity and responsibility for innovation to all professional and technical staff The technology should remove the shackles of distance, and the tyranny of structures derived from educational status, and organizational hierarchies

The gurus who are daily outlining new promises of the technology driven information age suggest this democratization of information as an immediate inevitable outcome.4

A networked environment encourages employees to take the initiative, by

gathering information, consulting with experts, and solving problems

collaboratively It transcends the traditional barriers of departments, management hierarchies, and even company boundaries.5

And on the surface this would seem to be a truism The literature does suggest significant change, but that it is driven by a reaction to the new technology, rather than by any careful integrated planning, reflective of the internal, national and professional cultures in which knowledge-based organizations find themselves For the new information

technologies to have real impact, significant commitment to information literacy

3 See for example Neil Barrett, The State of the Cybernation (London: Kogan Page Limited, 1996)

Outlook 4: 6 (June 2000)

5 Mary J Cronin, Doing Business on the Internet How the Electronic Highway is Transforming American Companies (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1994), p 11

initiatives and to the thoughtful social re-engineering of the information components of these cultures will have to take place

Today the flow of high-end refereed scientific information, or raw information from databases, tends to be top down, mediated by “knowledge brokers,” or in large

institutions by information experts The staffs who implement technical decisions are generally not fully engaged in the process of securing the information required for the best solutions This has been partially altered by intranet and digital technology

However, these actions have other as yet undetermined consequences Most of the technical, financial and management databases are rooted in North American culture and are in English The impact of this now readily available material on indigenous cultures had not been fully understood The problems can be mitigated were there to be a healthy dialog on their intranets in indigenous languages respecting individual traditions To date there are few instances of this happening.6

It has been assumed that information technology will transform “creation, ” that is the process by which new ideas that have human and/or commercial value will be generated Yet unless the traditional path of knowledge creation is defined, it is difficult to determine technology’s impact, and more important how technology can be managed to demystify it and to maximize its utility

There is a debated and recognized literature in the information sciences on the sociology

of knowledge creation The arguments are complex, but extremely important in an understanding of how technology is filtered by culture and how this impacts the creation

of knowledge It is clear from the literature that the environments that create knowledge differ amongst universities, governments, and industry Some are highly efficient and effective, others are not As important it is also clear that host culture and organizational size are also critical variables

6 F Pannekoek, “The Commodification of Information and the Marginalization of Indigenous Culture,” Paper delivered at TEND 2000, Abu Dhabi, April 2000.

Members of an “invisible college” generate most “high end” knowledge, regardless of organization, in some way This “college” is a matrix of scholars, largely Ph.D.’s, who tend to exchange information, share ideas, and act as mutual intellectual and sometimes social support, generally, regardless of employer This “invisible” college has been the foundation of modern scientific discovery and has ensured that new knowledge is

reflective of what has gone on before The “invisible” college ensures that new ideas are the product of informal collaboratives, that ideas are shared, commented upon, and discussed well before publication Indeed “publication” in senior journals is the end of this continuum of constant validation Several studies of this process have found that when informal “information and knowledge” communications are tracked from

laboratory conversations, to discussions with colleagues, and to the informal sharing of papers, that generally 10 to 15 % of those involved in a field are key validators or

influencers In the case of psychology for example, the majority of Ph.D.’s publish in a particular journal only once Also only 10 per cent of the articles in key journals are cited frequently over the years It could be argued then that if there are 10,000 authors in the field, and only 10 percent of the articles are cited on the average once or more a year, only 1000 scholars, and probably even fewer are discipline leaders There will be

variations on other disciplines, but all evidence the “informal” college, and all have some informally recognized peer recognition system It is then a few key members within the informal college who influence others.7

The role and composition of the many “invisible colleges” varies significantly from technical college, to government, to university to corporation Generally the colleges can

be ranked in order of ability to influence the creation and assimilation of new knowledge The doctoral universities with significant programs hold the “key influencers” and

“validators” of the process of discovery and validation The smaller the university, the less likely their faculty or students will influence or create new leading ideas The graduates of smaller universities tend to publish in journals with lesser prestige, and be

on the “outside” of the invisible college While the journals themselves are key sources of information, many scientists source the increasingly complex and voluminous literature

7 See Part 1 “The Structure and Dynamics of Science Information Flow” in Belver C Griffith, ed Key Papers in Information Science (Washington: American society for Information Science, 1980).

through knowledge brokers, generally key colleagues It is not an infrequent occurrence

at the University of Calgary library, to have senior scholars ask for an author citation list for a new sub field, just so they can source senior members of the “invisible” college for

a new field of interest

In the instance of workers with undergraduate degrees, the “invisible” college takes on a different structure These workers, especially in the professions, tend to secure new information or undertake new developments based on coworker input At the same time the undergraduate degree professionals particularly in the corporate and government world to value “vendors” of key technological solutions as reliable sources of

information Generally these vendors are intellectual peers and tend to have been

“information” brokers themselves within the corporate or government work place Their skills at communication and empathetic validation make them natural “information hubs.”

Generally then, within every organization there is a single individual who is known for his/her ability to secure information and who is known as a “broker.” These people rarely read or contribute to the literature However these information brokers know how to acquire information, and pass it on within a context of reliability Generally if knowledge information systems are re engineered, it is critical that these information “brokers” be included These are precisely the people who should be involved in organizational intranets If they have been effective, they will know and understand the information needs of the work place And depending upon national culture, the information brokers, might be the “youthful” new graduate, or in other cases the “elder” statesman In

research and development laboratories it might be a key laboratory technician or in some cases a key scientist The “leading” expert will not always be the “information” broker Even in organizations where there are professional information mediators, they are most influential where they team up with the informal “brokers.”

The complexities and social rootedness of the informal approach to knowledge

acquisition, creation and validation is carried through into the government and corporate

sectors However the connection of the government and corporate sector to the invisible college would appear to be more tangential and to diminish over time In most

disciplines, and there are exceptions, there is proportionally less participation in the

“invisible college” by government and corporate Ph.D’s The reasons would seem to be self-evident

First in the case of the corporate sector, those that have significant research and

development teams, are insistent that innovation and attendant new information remain proprietary until such time as it is ready for patent As important, while the individual scientists may still see themselves in their first years of their profession as members of the “informal college” their success does not depend upon it This however is not

uniformly true, and often depends upon the nature of linkages between the university and the corporation It is interesting to note that in the corporate sector the nature of the linkages to the appropriate “informal college,” has less relevance to the success of

innovation than the size of the corporation It would appear that new small start up research and development based corporations do better than larger corporations Why this might be has not been the subject of much study yet, although perhaps the small aggressive teams are effective because they know how to access and share information, without the intervention of knowledge “brokers.” There is also lingering suspicion

however that the differing productivity is in part due to the degree of control attempted by management on the flow of ideas, and the enforced conformity which generally marks larger and more hierarchical organizations.8

Government departments and government research institutes are often charged in their mandates with innovation In Canada, the Canadian Wildlife Service, the Alberta

Research Council, or the National Research Council are cases in point The employees of these organizations within tend to be full participants of the “informal college.”

However, not infrequently the demands of “policy” conformity, parliamentary

accountability for the expenditure of funds, and the demands for information control

Outlook, 4:6 (June, 2000), p 19 ff.

mitigate the ability to participate as “knowledge brokers” in the “informal college” except

in their own units

Most important of all, however is the role in the bureaucracy of the worker with the undergraduate degree Most are “desk officers” responsible for the development of policy, and for the management of social and economic change Their need for the best information is critical However like their scientific counterparts, most receive their information from information brokers, that is individuals who appear to be the best informed, in their organizations Most, even if they have access to the scholarly literature rarely have the time to use and assimilate the material.9 Studies undertaken recently at the university indicate that undergraduate students are modeling behavior that will be repeated in the work place The majority for example finds e-mail connection with the faculty member one of the more effective means to access information This is slightly less important than internet-sourced information At the University of Calgary, students use internet material 63% of the time to complete research projects In the instance of Faculty it is only 35%.10 If workers believe that their mentors and the internet will be the primary source for information for the creation of knowledge, then employers, if they want to be successful, will have to acquire or create e-based information and ensure the involvement of senior information “brokers” in their information dissemination

strategies The cost will be considerable – but so might the returns The conclusion that becomes obvious is that the traditional intellectual hierarchies engendered by the

medieval culture of the universities persist and are still being passed on to the work place

It should be a frightening prospect that graduates of Universities with rudimentary

information literacy skills are relying on “unreferereed” “dumbed down” information from the internet as the foundation for the solutions to complex problems Given the demands of the government workplace for instant information to solve instant problems can it be otherwise? If new scholarly work impacts government decision making, it is

9 Hazel Hall, “Online information sources: tools of business intelligence?” Journal of Information Science, 26:3, p 141.

10 Julie Kearns, Keith Scharnau, and John Cole, “Learning Support Needs: What University of Calgary Students Need to be More Effective Learners” (Calgary: University of Calgary Information Resources, 1999), Table 12

because of the occasional link that may exist with the “informal college” through the senior mentors The niceties of intellectual integrity are also being eroded Can one imagine several years ago a corporation offering its employees the “Thief of the Year” award to the one who has “stolen” the best idea?

It should be acknowledged that the focus of this paper has been on the creation of new knowledge used largely in research and development initiatives, or in policy

development All organizations also have the need for management/operational

information systems, which might include client information, staff data, financial data, and performance information The creation and use of this information is obviously critical, and since these needs often drive the technology systems of the corporation, the culture of the groups requiring this information can determine the communication and information protocols for an entire corporation Often the security and privacy needs of corporate management information system, and the “propaganda” purposes of the

marketing systems are at variance with the need for openness and continued questioning

of research and development systems

Will, or have the new technologies transformed the use of information and the creation of knowledge as just described There are innumerable books that suggest that the

revolution is sweeping us along now! Neil Barrett in The State of the Cyernation

Cultural Political and Economic Implications of the Internet offers typical observations

He sees increasing democratization of the work place, the increase in sharing of

expertise, the erosion of national, and the elimination of discipline borders This vision is one of incredible optimism and economic opportunity Without doubt there is ample evidence to support this vision

But what specifically has changed in the cultures, which impact how we access and process information? Have we changed anything but the volume of material, particularly

at the low end of the continuum, or the speed of access? First, has the still, somewhat closed, “informal college” been changed? Will new scholars be able to by pass the keepers of the gates of the “informal college?” Will new electronic communications

replace the print and -e journals controlled by the “informal college?” The reality shows that tradition still has a strong grip on scholarly communication and that the “informal college” if anything will likely strengthen its hold This is proven in a recent study undertaken by several University of Calgary social scientists and its Information

Resource directorate for the Social Science and Humanities Federation of Canada on scholarly communication.11 The majority of scholars in the humanities and social

sciences in Canada (a very highly wired nation) are prepared to draw upon WEB based resources to complete their own research, however they are not inclined to have their own material placed in WEB based publications The greatest reluctance comes from the real

or imagined perceptions that WEB based scholarly journals are not reviewed by “status” peers Electronic journals, despite their growing numbers, are still considered low status alternatives As important, although this was not articulated by the respondents as

frequently, is the fact that electronic journals are not always abstracted in the critical citation indices, and that they are not always archived Simply put, because of this consideration, scholars do not feel that their publications in these new e creations would have the status required for promotion and recognition in their organization or profession

The prediction of the gurus that the informal academy will be broadened and that those senior in the informal academy will lose their paramountcy has also not happened either These predictions were based on the assumption that senior scholars maintained their hegemony through the illegitimate control of the refereeing mechanisms Some have advocated that WEB mechanisms like pre-print servers would reform scholarship and make “discoveries” immediately available While there is an increase in sharing of preliminary findings with a wider international network in the informal college through e-mail and a discussion of ideas through various “list servs,” there is no indication that this has resulted in the erosion of the “informal” college Indeed it can be argued that if anything it has strengthened it While the internet has incredible possibilities for

openness, there is an equal opportunity through structured intranets controlled by the

11 Keith Archer, “Electronic Publishing in the Humanities and Social Sciences: A Preliminary Report on Survey findings” (Calgary: Unpublished paper for the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada, Feb 3, 2000).