Leveraging Intellect in a Small Business: Designing an Infrastructure to Support Today's Knowledge Worker

Authors

  • Robert L. Cross Boston University

Abstract

The intensity of competition and pace with which knowledge becomes obsolete are heralding an era where leadership, structure and control systems must increasingly focus on management of knowledge and skills. Such an environment requires management to systematically design an infrastructure that is tailored to the needs of an increasingly mobile knowledge worker and supports organizational learning in areas of strategic concern. Small businesses face  a unique challenge in this environment as they often do not have the time or a sufficient ''mass " of employees to sustain sophisticated recruiting, development or performance management programs. In the following article, the authors argue the real world imperative of crafting an infrastructure that supports organizational learning from the very inception of a business, and provide some manageable approaches to this task for any small business.

References

Bates, Timothy," Entrepreneur Human Capital Inputs and Small Business Longevity," Review of Economics and Statistics, 72, November, 1 990, pp. 551-559.

Collins, James C. and Porras, Jerry I., "Built to Last: Successful: Habits of Visionary Companies," Harper Business, 1 994.

Crawford, Richard, "In the Era of Human Capital," Harper Business, 1991 .

DeNisi , A.S. and Mitchell, J.A., "An Analysis of Peer Ratings as Predictors and Criterion Measures and a Proposed New Application,"Academy of Management Review, 3, 1 978, pp. 369-374.

Drucker, Peter, "Post Capitalist Society," Oxford, 1 993.

Eccles, Robert G., "The Transfer Pricing Problem," Lexington Books, 1985.

Fedor, Donald B. and Bettenhausen; Kenneth L., "The Impact of Purpose, Participant Preconceptions, and Rati ng Level on the Acceptance of Peer Evaluations," Group & Organization Studies, 14, pp. 1 82-197.

Fiol, Marlene C. and Lyles, Marjorie A., "Organizational Learning,"Academy of Management Review, 1 0(4), pp. 803-81 3.

Fombrun, Charles J. and Wally, Stefan, "Structuring Small Firms for Rapid Growth," Journal of Business Venturing, 4, March 1989, pp. I 07-122.

Galbraith, Jay R., "Designing Organizations," Jossey-Bass, 1995.

Hammel, Gary and Prahalad, C.K., "Competing for the Future: Breakthrough Strategies for Seizing Control of Your Industry and Creating the Markets of Tomorrow," H BS Press, 1994.

Handy, Charles, "The Age of Paradox," HBS Press, 1994.

Kahn, William A., "Psychological Conditions of Personal Engagement and Disengagement at Work," Academy of Management Journal, 33, pp. 692-724.

Kotter, John P. & Heskett, James L., "Corporate Culture and Performance," Free Press, 1992.

Leonard-Barto" Dorothy, "Wellsprings of Knowledge: Build ing and Sustaini ng the Sources of I nnovation," Harvard Business School Press, 1995.

Latham, G.P. & Locke, E.A., "Goal setting: A motivational techn ique that works," Organizational Dynamics, J une, 1979.Meyer, Alan D., "Adapting to Environmental Jolts," Administrative Science Quarterly, 27, 1982, pp. 515-537.

Mc.Evoy, Glenn M. and Buller, Paul F.; "User Acceptance of Peer Appraisals in an Industrial Setting," Personnel Psychology, 40, 1987, pp. 785-797.

Miles, Raymond E. and Snow, Charles C., "Fit, Failure and the Hall of Fame," Free Press 1 994.

Miller, Danny and Toulouse, Jean-Marie, "Strategy, Structure, CEO Personality and Performance in Small Firms," American Journal a/ Small Business, JO, Winter 1986, pp. 47-62.

Nadler, Dav id A., Gerstein, Marc S., Shaw, Robert B. and Associates, "Organizational Architecture: Designs for Changi ng Organizations," Jossey-Bass, 1992.

Naisbitt, John and Aburdene, Patricia, "Megatrends 2000: I 0 New Di rections for the 1990s," Morrow, 1990.

Nonaka, l k uji ro and Takeuchi, 1-l irotaka, "The Knowledge-Creating Company," Oxford U n iversity Press, 1995.

Nwachukwu, Osita C. and Tsal ikis, John, "Environmental Heterogeneity, Strategy-Maki ng, Structure and Small-Business Performance," Journal of Applied Business Research, 7, Spri ng 1990-91 , pp. 38-44.

Pederson, Mark and Lidgerding,Gary, "Pay-for-Performance in a Service Firm, ' Management Accounting, 77, November 1995, pp. 40-43.

Pfeffer, Jeffrey, "Competitive Advantage Through People: Unleashing the Power of the Workforce," Harvard Business School Press, 1 994.

Quinn, James Brian, "Intelligent Enterprise," Free Press, 1 992.

Randolph, W. Alan, Sapienza, Harry J. and Watson, Mary Anne, "Technology-Structure Fit and Performance i n Small Businesses," Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 16, Fall 1991, pp. 27-41.

Schoemaker, Paul J. H., "How To Li nk Strategic Vision To Core Capabil ities," Sloan Management Review, Fall 1992.

Senge, Peter M., "The Fifth Discipl i ne: The Art and Practice of the Learni ng Organ izat ion." DoubleDay Currency, 1 990.

Simons, Robert, 'Levers of Control," H BS Press, 1995.

Toftler, Alvin, "Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century," Bantam, 1 990.

Tovey, LE.A., ''Meeting Business and Management Training and Development Needs Through Competency Assessment," Journal of Strategic Change, Vol. 3 1994.

Von Glinlow, Mary Ann, "Reward Strategies for Attracting. Evaluating and Retaining Professional," Human Resource Management, 24 (2). 1 985, 1 91-206.

Downloads

Published

1997-01-11

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 1 (1997)

Section

Articles

License

The Journal of Small Business Strategy (the “Publisher”) and the Author(s) agree as follows:
 
1.Author(s) hereby grant to Publisher all right, title, and interest in and to the Work, including copyright to all means of expression by any method now known or hereafter developed, including electronic format. If Publisher does not publish the Work within two (2) years of the Effective Date, copyright shall revert back to the Author. Publisher agrees to always credit Author(s) as the author(s) of the Work.
 
2.Publisher hereby grants Author a royalty-free, limited license for the following purposes, provided the Work is always identified as having first been published by Publisher.
    •The right to make and distribute copies of all or part of the Work for use in teaching;
    •The right to use all or part of the material contained in the Work in a book by the Author(s), or in a collection of the Author(s)’s work;
    •The right to use and distribute the Work internally at the Author(s)’s place of employment, and for promotion and any other non-commercial purposes;
    •The right to use figures and tables from the Work for any purpose;
    •The right to make presentations of material from the Work;
    •The right to use and distribute the Work on the Author(s)’s Web site and on the Author(s)’s university’s institute repository;
Such license shall be effective when the Work is first published in the Journal of Small Business Strategy.
 
3.The Author(s) represents and warrants that the Work: (a) is the Author(s)’s original work and that Author(s) has full power to enter into this agreement; (b) does not infringe the copyright or property right of another; (c) contains no materials which is obscene, libelous, defamatory or violates another’s civil right, right of privacy, or is otherwise unlawful; and (d) has not been previously published, in whole or in part. Author(s) shall indemnify and hold Publisher harmless against loss or expenses arising from breach of any such warranties.

How to Cite

Leveraging Intellect in a Small Business: Designing an Infrastructure to Support Today’s Knowledge Worker. (1997). Journal of Small Business Strategy (archive Only), 8(1), 15-34. https://libjournals.mtsu.edu/index.php/jsbs/article/view/356