(A) the characteristics of knowledge workers.
Compared with ordinary employees, knowledge-based employees have many particularities in personal characteristics, psychological needs, values and working methods:
1, with corresponding professional expertise and high personal quality. Most knowledge workers have received systematic professional education, have higher academic qualifications, and master certain professional knowledge and skills; At the same time, due to the higher education level, most knowledge workers have higher personal qualities, such as broad vision, strong thirst for knowledge, strong learning ability and wide knowledge level. They have the scarcest and most valuable capital of the enterprise-knowledge resources and knowledge innovation ability, especially the stability and enthusiasm of employees who master core technologies, important tacit knowledge and key customer relationships, which is directly related to the survival and development of the enterprise. Knowledge workers are no longer employees under the law of "capital-employed labor" in the traditional economic era, but should also become the share of residual income of enterprises with the investment of knowledge capital.
2. Have a strong desire to realize self-worth. Knowledge workers usually have higher-level needs and often pay more attention to the realization of their own values. Therefore, it is difficult for them to be satisfied with ordinary routine work, but they are more keen on challenging and creative tasks, and try their best to pursue perfect results, eager to fully display their talents and realize their self-worth through this process.
3. A high degree of creativity and autonomy. Contrary to the repetitive work of manual workers, most knowledge workers are engaged in creative work. They rely on their professional knowledge, use their brains for creative thinking, and constantly form new knowledge achievements. Therefore, knowledge workers are more inclined to have a relaxed and highly autonomous working environment, emphasizing self-guidance and self-management in their work, rather than passively adapting to the operation of machinery and equipment like the operators on the assembly line and being bound by materialized conditions.
4. Strong personality and contempt for power. Different from traditional manual workers, knowledge workers are not only smart, proficient in their majors, but also have outstanding personalities. They respect knowledge, worship truth and believe in science, but they don't want to go with the flow, follow the trend and fear power or authority. On the contrary, they will despise any authority because of their persistent pursuit of knowledge and truth. In addition, because knowledge workers have special professional knowledge and skills, they can influence their superiors, colleagues and subordinates. The position authority in the traditional organizational hierarchy often has no absolute control and binding force on them.
5. It is difficult to supervise and control the work process. Knowledge workers are engaged in creative knowledge work in a changeable and uncertain environment, and their work process often has no fixed flow and steps, but shows great randomness and subjective dominance. Even the workplace is very different from the traditional fixed production workshop and office environment, and inspiration and creativity may be generated at any time and occasion outside work. Therefore, it is difficult to monitor the working process of knowledge workers, and the traditional operating procedures are meaningless to them.
6, the work results are not easy to be directly measured and evaluated. The work achievements of knowledge workers often appear in the form of ideas, creativity, technological inventions and management innovations, so they often do not have immediate and directly measurable economic forms. Due to the rapid development of modern science and technology, many knowledge innovations and scientific research achievements are usually not completed by one person, but require teamwork and joint efforts. Because of the above characteristics, it is often impossible to measure the work achievements of knowledge workers, especially individuals, with general economic benefit indicators. This feature has brought some difficulties to enterprises to correctly evaluate the personal value of knowledge workers and give them reasonable salary.
7. High mobility of job choice. Because knowledge workers have special factors of production, that is, knowledge hidden in their minds, they have the ability to accept the challenges of new jobs and new tasks, so they have far higher career choices than traditional workers. Once the existing job is not attractive enough, or lacks enough personal growth opportunities and development space, they can easily turn to other companies to seek new career opportunities. Therefore, knowledge workers' loyalty to career commitment is higher than that to enterprise organization.
(B) the needs of knowledge workers
1, self-development needs. Compared with other types of employees, knowledge workers pay more attention to challenging jobs that can promote their sustainable development. They have a constant pursuit of knowledge and personal and career growth. In order to maintain their ability and value, they need to keep learning, exchange information with others and enjoy knowledge. Organizations are required to create a good learning environment to meet the needs of their knowledge updating and career development.
2. The need for work autonomy. Knowledge workers can complete their tasks according to their own working methods under the established strategic direction and self-evaluation index framework. They demand autonomy so that they can work and finish their work in the most effective way they think.
3, work achievement needs. The satisfaction of knowledge workers comes from the work itself, including challenging work and high-quality work. This need can be manifested as the need to realize technical ideals, achieve career, be affirmed by peers and have a reputation.
4. The need for fairness and justice. This need is mainly manifested in the need for external and internal justice and fairness. If the need for external justice is mainly manifested in the consistency of income and reward, it requires the social evaluation system to reasonably recognize the price state of its knowledge. The need for internal justice and fairness is mainly manifested in the timely and fair distribution of salary within the enterprise, which requires the enterprise to correctly evaluate individual contributions and reasonable salary.
5. Need respect and participation. Knowledge workers are eager for more respect and trust. Mainly manifested in the need to be recognized and affirmed, respected and understood by organizations, leaders and colleagues.
Second, an empirical study on the incentive factors of knowledge workers
(A) empirical study of foreign incentive factors. In foreign countries, Mahan Tammy, a knowledge management expert, has come to the conclusion through a large number of empirical studies: the first four factors to motivate knowledge workers are:
"Personal growth" (33.74%),
"Work autonomy" (30.5 1%),
"Operating performance" (28.69%),
"Money wealth" (7.07%).
AXA Consulting and Australian Institute of Management analyzed 858 employees in Australia, the United States and Japan, and listed the motivation factors of knowledge workers. The top five motivating factors are: remuneration, nature of work, promotion, relationship with colleagues and influencing decision-making. Among them, "the nature of work", "the relationship with colleagues" and "influencing decision-making" are more important to knowledge workers than other employees. There is no significant difference in the importance of "reward" and "promotion factor" between knowledge workers and other employees.
(B) An empirical study of the incentive factors in China.
In China, based on the questionnaire survey of 65,438+050 R&D personnel and 65,438+050 sales and service personnel, Wang Yangjun and Peng Jianfeng of China Renmin University compared and analyzed the motivation factors of knowledge workers in China, as follows:
"salary" (3 1.88%),
"Personal growth and development" (23.95438+0%),
"Challenging work" (10. 145%),
"The future of the company" (7.975%),
"Guaranteed and stable jobs" (6.52%).
Zheng Chao and Huang Youli of China University of Science and Technology analyzed 426 questionnaires, and concluded that the motivation factors of knowledge workers in state-owned enterprises in China are listed as follows:
"Increase income" (48. 12%),
"personal development" (23.7 1%),
"Operating performance" (22.30%),
"Work autonomy" (5.87%).
Comparing the above empirical research results, we can see that (1) the motivation factors of knowledge workers basically reflect some of their own characteristics that we analyzed earlier. (2) There are many incentives for knowledge workers, but the main ones are salary, personal development, work achievement and work autonomy. (3) There are some differences in motivation factors between Chinese and foreign knowledge workers. This is mainly manifested in the ranking of salary factors. Mahan Tammy's research shows that "money wealth" is the last factor, and its proportion is very small. Research by AXA Consulting and Australian Institute of Management shows that the "return" factor ranks first, but its importance to knowledge workers is not significant.
Third, the incentive strategy for knowledge workers
(1) Establish a reasonable salary system, implement a comprehensive salary strategy, and give full incentives to knowledge workers. In the era of knowledge economy, the salary of employees is no longer a simple income distribution problem, but a form of realizing the value of knowledge-based talents. Knowledge workers have the most potential factor of production-knowledge, and have strong bargaining power in the salary game with enterprises. In addition, the shortage of resources and talents makes its market value rise continuously. Therefore, high salary is not the only factor for knowledge-based talents to choose enterprises and decide to stay. Non-monetary factors account for an increasing proportion in its demand structure. In order to meet the salary demand of knowledge workers, enterprises in developed countries generally implement a salary payment method called "comprehensive salary strategy".
The so-called "total compensation strategy" means that the company divides the compensation paid to employees into "external" and "internal" categories. The combination of the two is "total salary", and "external salary" mainly refers to the quantifiable monetary value provided to employees. For example, short-term incentive pay such as basic salary and bonus, long-term incentive pay such as stock options, stock options and share awards, monetary benefits such as pension and medical insurance, and other monetary expenses paid by the company, such as housing subsidies, club membership cards, company car allocation, etc. "Intrinsic compensation" refers to the value of various remuneration provided to employees, which cannot be expressed in quantitative monetary form. For example, job satisfaction, all kinds of convenient tools to complete the work, training opportunities, opportunities to improve personal reputation, attractive company culture, good interpersonal relationships, cooperative working environment, and the company's recognition and gratitude to individuals. External compensation and internal compensation have different incentive functions. They are interrelated and complement each other, forming a complete salary system.
Facts have proved that knowledge workers' expectations and needs for enterprises are all-round, with both material needs and higher spiritual needs. Therefore, the implementation of "total compensation strategy" is an effective model to realize the comprehensive incentive for knowledge workers.
(B) fully authorized, entrusted with heavy responsibilities to improve the sense of participation of knowledge workers. According to the characteristics of knowledge-based employees engaged in creative work and paying attention to independence and autonomy, enterprises should, on the one hand, fully authorize according to the task requirements and allow employees to independently formulate their own working methods that they think are the best; On the other hand, it is necessary to provide financial, material and human support for the creative work independently undertaken by knowledge workers to ensure the smooth progress of their innovative activities. Practice has proved that letting knowledge workers participate in the decision-making directly related to their division of labor can fully express the trust and respect of enterprises. In addition, knowledge workers, because of their professional knowledge and skills, often know the situation of the problem, the improvement methods and the real thoughts of customers. Once employees have a stronger sense of participation and more autonomy in company affairs, their sense of responsibility for work will be greatly enhanced. And only through authorization can the company achieve higher efficiency at a very low cost.
The full authorization of knowledge workers needs to establish the corresponding authorization organizational structure. This kind of organizational structure, first, the superior managers should have a certain detachment, and fully grant the management power to the subordinates to make them fully autonomous; The second is to transform subordinates into leaders and give them responsibility. The traditional organizational form can only accommodate one leader, while authorization management requires managers and knowledge workers in various business divisions, branches, functional departments and positions to become leaders beyond their superiors in their professional business fields; The third is to expand the business process of non-superior intervention, increase the knowledge content, and let the lower-level knowledge workers make their own solutions according to the task requirements to deal with the problems in implementation.
In addition, entrusting important tasks is also an important way to motivate knowledge workers. In educational psychology, there is Wenger Marley effect theory, which means to give psychological hints to the educated: you are good at it; You can learn better. Let the educated know themselves, tap their potential and enhance their self-confidence. In the management of knowledge workers, enterprises can also make use of the Ommali effect to entrust employees with important tasks, stimulate their internal potential and make them glow with great creativity. Due to the need of high self-confidence and self-realization, knowledge workers usually have a strong desire to challenge the environment and themselves. The Wenger-Marley effect can make the motivated person turn pressure into motivation and quickly adapt to the needs of the post.
Lenovo Group put forward the employment theory of "small horse-drawn cart" by using the Ommali effect. Adhere to the principle of "respecting people and entrusting them with important tasks". Only those who have ten points, giving them twelve points, big or small, will give employees a stage slightly greater than their own ability. As a result, "Pony" felt the trust of the group and quickly grew into "Malaysia". It is this heavy-handed way of employing people that makes Lenovo develop rapidly. The Wenger Marley effect essentially conveys the trust and expectation of managers to employees. It is this high degree of trust and expectation higher than their own requirements that has become a powerful driving force for knowledge workers to keep forging ahead and contribute all their talents to the enterprise.
(C) to carry out education and training, strengthen personnel training and selection, so that knowledge-based employees will continue to grow with the development of enterprises. Peter drucker, a management guru, once said that the training and education of employees are the driving force and source of employees' continuous growth. In many companies, employees think that education and training are the best benefits provided by the company, because education and training are often prerequisites for promotion in this company or other companies. Therefore, according to employees' own characteristics, we should give them opportunities to go abroad for further study, job promotion and professional and technical research, and arouse their enthusiasm and initiative in mastering knowledge and technical ability. In the era of knowledge economy, this kind of training and education is also an important condition for enterprises to attract and retain talents. Therefore, enterprises should put education and training throughout employees' whole career, so that employees can constantly update their knowledge structure, learn the most advanced knowledge and technology at any time, and keep up with the development pace of enterprises, thus becoming the most stable and reliable talent resources of enterprises.
L 'Oré al China regards cultivating all-round and future-oriented talents as the life of the enterprise. Excellent college graduates will not be assigned to specific jobs after entering the company, but will receive training for 3 ~ 6 months and accept the company's culture and values; Then go to different branches all over the country for internships and feel the operation of the company. After the internship, new employees will choose jobs according to their personal interests. In the future work, employees will continue to get long-term or short-term training opportunities. In this way, college students can also be competent as managers after entering the enterprise for a few years. Well-known enterprises such as GE, IBM and Procter & Gamble in the United States have made plans for employees' continuing education and lifelong education, thus enabling employees to have lifelong employment ability. When an employee feels that there will be a good development prospect in the enterprise, he will naturally be loyal to the enterprise and serve it wholeheartedly.
(d) Adopt a tolerant management mode and implement a flexible working system to create a relaxed working environment for knowledge workers. When analyzing the essence of management behavior, Drucker profoundly pointed out that people are against being "managed" from the bottom of their hearts. This view is especially applicable to knowledge workers, because knowledge workers have a much deeper understanding of what they are doing than their bosses. Knowledge workers engage in creative thinking activities. Fixed working place, limited working hours, rigid working form and rigid working system will only stifle their talent, inspiration, imagination and creativity. Therefore, Drucker suggested that knowledge workers should be "led" rather than "managed". Leadership, not management, means creating a more relaxed and open working environment for knowledge workers, including the right to work independently, a flexible working system, an atmosphere of expressing opinions freely, tolerating employees' mistakes and creating a working environment full of fun and care.
Most knowledge workers attach great importance to private workspace and prefer the freedom to work alone and the more stressful work arrangement. Because the work process of knowledge workers is difficult to monitor, traditional supervision and management is neither suitable nor necessary for them. Therefore, for knowledge workers, it is only necessary to put forward requirements and assessment for their work results, and there is no need to strictly supervise the intermediate process. Therefore, enterprises can implement flexible working system for knowledge workers as appropriate. Including flexible working hours, working at home through the Internet and other means.
Knowledge-based employees are not perfect, and many knowledge-based talents may make behavioral mistakes because of their strong personality. If we are tolerant of knowledge workers, we should allow them to make mistakes. The human resources director of Siemens (China) Co., Ltd. said that we allow our subordinates to make mistakes. If someone becomes "strong" after making several mistakes, it is very valuable to the company. Ericsson Mobile Communications Co., Ltd. (BMC) also insists on the same attitude. "Once an employee enters the company, we will try our best to develop him. Even if he makes any mistakes, we will hold the manager accountable first. If he is not competent, we will also provide him with training or change jobs until he is competent. " The attitude of tolerating mistakes gives knowledge workers the greatest psychological endurance, enhances their trust and loyalty to the enterprise, and also helps them to play their creative potential.
Compared with ordinary employees, knowledge workers pay more attention to challenging work that can promote their development, and they have a continuous pursuit of knowledge; They demand autonomy, can work in a way that they think is effective, and complete the tasks assigned to them by enterprises; Get a reward commensurate with your contribution and enable yourself to share the wealth you have created. Therefore, the motivation of knowledge workers should focus on their development, achievements and growth, emphasize the organic combination of individual, team and organization incentives, and pay attention to the combination of long-term incentives and short-term incentives. In short, managers must start from the characteristics of knowledge workers, study their needs, grasp their psychological and behavioral characteristics, and take corresponding countermeasures, so as to effectively motivate and manage knowledge workers and further promote the development of enterprises. ■