According to Duxbury and Higgins 57% of full time employees reported high levels of stress. Stress is impacting the productivity, health and well-being of individuals, and the bottom line of employers. A growing body of evidence suggests exposure to nature, nature-based features, and biophilic design may offer a solution to reducing stress in the office workplace. This thesis brings together a comprehensive body of information drawn from the neurosciences and environmental psychology, including attention restoration theory (ART), psycho-evolutionary theory, Kellert’s biophilic design elements, and seven case studies, to propose key nature-based interior design strategies for stress reduction in office knowledge workers. Providing direct and indirect exposure to nature appears to have the strongest impact on mitigating the stress response. The importance of the integrated design process (IDP), post-occupancy evaluation (POE), and barriers to incorporating biophilia centred design practices are addressed and process strategies proposed. / October 2015

This research investigated the leadership style in a research and development (R&D) work unit within a petro-chemical company, using the Full Range Leadership Development Theory as assessed by Multifactor-Leadership-Questionnaire (MLQ). From the literature review conducted, it was concluded that an R&D environment is multi-dimensional and the workforce can be diverse in the field of specialisation and personality characteristics. Subsequently, the literature review also focused on functional diversity and gender differences within technological and/or scientific environments. Descriptive statistics were provided and the data were then statistically analysed. The research results showed a statistical difference in the perception of the frequency of leadership style between manager-leaders and subordinates. Differences in the mean scores of manager-leaders and subordinates found that the manager-leaders overestimated the frequency ratings of their transformational leadership style and the leadership outcomes, while they under-estimated the frequency ratings for transactional and laissez-faire leadership style. This indicates that although the manager-leaders consider themselves as more transformational, the subordinates of this R&D unit view their immediate managers as not displaying ideal levels of transformational leadership behaviours. A self-bias phenomenon may be present where the manager-leaders judge themselves as overly favourable. It is recommended that this be addressed within the organisation. A statistical significant difference was observed in how some male and female employees experienced their manager-leaders' leadership style. The females indicated a higher frequency of laissez-faire leadership style, while some males viewed their manager-leaders as more transformational compared to the female employees. Manager-leaders may need different skills to manage females and in general an increasing awareness of gender bias within the unit may mitigate stereotypical assumptions. No statistically significant differences (p<0, 05) could be found for the total group between functional areas, being scientists versus engineers. It should be noted that the departments consist of predominantly scientists, while only one department showed a mixture of scientists and engineers. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2010.

This research investigated the leadership style in a research and development (R&D) work unit within a petro-chemical company, using the Full Range Leadership Development Theory as assessed by Multifactor-Leadership-Questionnaire (MLQ). From the literature review conducted, it was concluded that an R&D environment is multi-dimensional and the workforce can be diverse in the field of specialisation and personality characteristics. Subsequently, the literature review also focused on functional diversity and gender differences within technological and/or scientific environments. Descriptive statistics were provided and the data were then statistically analysed. The research results showed a statistical difference in the perception of the frequency of leadership style between manager-leaders and subordinates. Differences in the mean scores of manager-leaders and subordinates found that the manager-leaders overestimated the frequency ratings of their transformational leadership style and the leadership outcomes, while they under-estimated the frequency ratings for transactional and laissez-faire leadership style. This indicates that although the manager-leaders consider themselves as more transformational, the subordinates of this R&D unit view their immediate managers as not displaying ideal levels of transformational leadership behaviours. A self-bias phenomenon may be present where the manager-leaders judge themselves as overly favourable. It is recommended that this be addressed within the organisation. A statistical significant difference was observed in how some male and female employees experienced their manager-leaders' leadership style. The females indicated a higher frequency of laissez-faire leadership style, while some males viewed their manager-leaders as more transformational compared to the female employees. Manager-leaders may need different skills to manage females and in general an increasing awareness of gender bias within the unit may mitigate stereotypical assumptions. No statistically significant differences (p<0, 05) could be found for the total group between functional areas, being scientists versus engineers. It should be noted that the departments consist of predominantly scientists, while only one department showed a mixture of scientists and engineers. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2010.

A lot of effort is put into diversity by organizations today, but the diversity question mainly focuses on gender, ethnicity, cultural and beliefs (Robertson, et al., (2017), while one of the most daunting diversity challenges has been proven to be diversity between generations, which often goes overlooked and unaddressed. A new generation represent an increasing share of the work force and many of them are already today positioned in leading positions, aspiring for leadership positions or aiming to reach for management positions to be able to do difference. Organizations that understand how to successfully address generational conflict and leverage each generation’s strengths will be better able to keep employees motivated and productive amidst the social and economical changes.   This study aims to explore the leadership preferences and motivation factors for the Millennial Generation, in order to unlock their potential and be able to bridge this knowledge gap. The preferences were examined through a survey, targeting a study group of millennial knowledge workers with various backgrounds from different companies to be able to dismiss possible bias reflecting different cultures. The survey was performed by adopting items from the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ), based on Bass’ (1985) Transactional – Transformational leadership theory and the Career Orientation Inventory (COI) reflecting Schein’s (1985) theory about career anchors.   The survey was delivered through several channels and in the end a sample group of 105 Millennial knowledge workers were included in further analysis. An Explorative Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted to determine the underlying structure among the variables in the analysis. Since this research is based on previous studies (Blom, 2010), the methodology is chosen as a confirmatory approach with Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to show how well the model fits the data. A Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) is performed to evaluate the relationship between the variables from Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) for Transactional and Transformation Leadership theory and Career Orientation Inventory for Career anchors.   Findings by Blom, (2010) reveal that the Millennial knowledge workers prefer leadership dimensions that involve intellectual stimulation and charisma, which correspond to a transformational leadership style compared to a transactional leadership style. This type of leadership focus on the change in individuals and creates valuable and positive changes, which inspires towards both common and individual goals. Similar results were obtained in our study and the relation with motivating factors shows that the sample group with higly educated people in the knowledge sector are motivated by having meaningful purpose with their job. They also wish to reach administrative positions in their companies and are interested by the thought of create and manage their own business. The interrelation between these factors determines the degree of satisfaction which is directly linked to the relationship between motivation and productivity. This is why it shall be one of the highest priorities of each organisation to find how to motivate their employees on an individual level, it is directly connected to productivity. Key words: Millennials, Transformational Leadership, Transactional Leadership, Career Anchors, knowledge workers

abstract: The 21st-century professional or knowledge worker spends much of the working day engaging others through electronic communication. The modes of communication available to knowledge workers have rapidly increased due to computerized technology advances: conference and video calls, instant messaging, e-mail, social media, podcasts, audio books, webinars, and much more. Professionals who think for a living express feelings of stress about their ability to respond and fear missing critical tasks or information as they attempt to wade through all the electronic communication that floods their inboxes. Although many electronic communication tools compete for the attention of the contemporary knowledge worker, most professionals use an electronic personal information management (PIM) system, more commonly known as an e-mail application and often the ubiquitous Microsoft Outlook program. The aim of this research was to provide knowledge workers with solutions to manage the influx of electronic communication that arrives daily by studying the workers in their working environment. This dissertation represents a quest to understand the current strategies knowledge workers use to manage their e-mail, and if modification of e-mail management strategies can have an impact on productivity and stress levels for these professionals. Today’s knowledge workers rarely work entirely alone, justifying the importance of also exploring methods to improve electronic communications within teams. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering 2018

With the increasing use of mobile technologies in modern organisations, managers are facing the dilemma of having to manage the performance of individuals who are removed from their direct sphere of control, while using performance management principles that have not necessarily been adapted to accommodate this. The study investigated, analysed and described the management and measurement of the performance of these virtual knowledge workers from the perspective of the manager, with the aim of proposing a new conceptual framework to assist managers in this task. In addition, the study identified the organisational context and individual contribution required to support such a framework. The study used a constructivist grounded theory framework, with the aim of building theory through an inductive approach rather than testing existing theory. An embedded, multiple-case study research design was used to execute the study, comprising five companies in the Information and Communications Technology and related sectors in South Africa. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected at the organisational, team and individual levels. In total, 39 interviews were qualitatively analysed using content analysis aided by ATLAS.ti. The 163 questionnaires were quantitatively analysed using descriptive statistical methods. Thereafter, within-case and cross-case analyses were performed to extract themes and to propose a conceptual framework for the enablement of the performance of virtual knowledge workers. The research uncovered four key findings. The first finding was that the concept of "virtual" in the term virtual worker is often misunderstood, and that the definition should be applied on a continuum of virtuality, leading to the concept of perceived and true virtuality. The second finding was that true virtuality influences how performance is perceived, and how deliverables and metrics contribute to perceived, actual and true performance. The third finding was that parameters affecting virtual performance include organisational, contextual, and customer factors, as well as the managerial approach itself. The manager needs to become the mediator for these parameters, thereby fulfilling the role of enabler of virtual performance. The fourth finding was that the visual or face-to-face element still remains important when managing the performance of virtual knowledge workers. The study makes a significant contribution on a theoretical level by extending existing theoretical models regarding virtual distance and the management of dispersed teams into a much more comprehensive model. This concentric performance enablement model for virtual knowledge workers shows how the manager acts as enabler for the true performance of the virtual knowledge workers. On a methodological level, the research demonstrates how an embedded, multiple-case study, executed on three levels of analysis, and based on a grounded theory approach, can be executed to develop theoretical insights into the complex phenomenon of enabling the performance of virtual knowledge workers; and lastly the study has also made a contribution on the level of practice, by giving managers a conceptual framework and practical recommendations on how to manage and enable the performance of virtual knowledge workers. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

Som konsekvens av COVID-19 så tvingades organisationer runtom världen att ställa om till distansarbete för att minska smittspridningen. Omställningen genomfördes i hög fart och i denna kontext så har vi utfört en kvalitativ studie hos en fallorganisation för att undersöka hur distansarbetet påverkat deras upplevda effektivitet genom att intervjua medarbetare på en storbank i Sverige. För studien har vi genomfört tio semistrukturerade intervjuer med kunskapsarbetare som jobbat med kunder på distans. Vår studie handlar om de här kunskapsarbetarnas upplevda effektivitet och utifrån svaren vi fått så identifierar vi faktorer som påverkat deras effektivitet som inkluderar bland annat: hemmiljön, organisationens stöd, intern och extern kommunikation, livssituation och kundrelationer. Analys genomfördes i form av en innehållsanalys av transkriptionerna från intervjuerna. Vi har kommit fram till att organisationen kan ha en positiv inverkan på kunskapsarbetarnas upplevda effektivitet vid distansarbete om rätt åtgärder tas, däribland har vi identifierat att det är viktigt att stödja sina medarbetare och att hjälpa dem att ordna en god arbetsmiljö när de distansarbetar för att kunna arbeta med hög upplevd effektivitet. / As a consequence of the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus organizations around the world have had to work remotely to reduce the spread of the virus. The change to working from home was made quickly and in this context we have conducted a qualitative study at an organization to investigate how remote work has changed the perceived efficiency of the knowledge workers at the organization. To gather answers to our research questions we have carried out ten semi-structured interviews with knowledge workers that have had to change to working remotely. All of them worked directly with customers. The interview material was analyzed by content analysis of the transcribed data. Our study centers around their perceived efficiency and the answers we have gathered surround factors such as: home environment, support from the organization, internal and external communication, family and customer relations. We have come to the conclusion that the organization and its actions can have a major positive impact on knowledge workers perceived efficiency during remote work. We have identified actions to take to enable efficiency such as: providing support for the employees and helping them create a good office environment at home.

Thesis (D. Tech.) -- Central University of Technology, Free State, 2008 / In the twenty-first century knowledge landscape, companies are compelled to compete in a complex and challenging context, transformed by globalisation, technological development, new applications of knowledge and hyper-competition. This new economic landscape requires organisations to perform differently with their knowledge assets to survive and prosper. It has become crucial for organisations to reinvent themselves through new rubrics of leadership, which essentially requires radical change as post-modern perspectives on the knowledge economy emphasise the fluidity, and immediacy of information exchanges that are leveraged through creativity and innovation as the new future sustainable rent. Postmodernist contestations of modernist economic and organisational rationalities have successfully activated discourse from diverse audiences and immense contributions to contemporary knowledge-intensive organisational diagnoses have been proffered. A current issue, which urgently enquires into new conceptions of organisational leadership, is regarded as the global knowledge economy. This economy seeks new sources of inspiration and revitalisation within the dynamic, mutable domains of future knowledge competency construction and enactment. New forms of human capital are now required to manifest tacit and intellectual capacity through exponential creativity and innovation capabilities, rather than explicit production-driven modalities. Therefore, organisations must access this new talent that engages deeply with creative thinking, as they can no longer reproduce themselves within the old traditions of management and control. The need to conjure new aspects of leadership to harness and then transform novel solutions into action should create an environment enabled to validate creativity and innovation as the major building blocks for knowledge transfer and trading. The purpose of this study is to render solutions for future knowledge-intensive organisations and explore new methodologies where leadership realises the paramount importance to nurture the knowledge worker as the most important source of knowledge creation. This study explores the complex challenges faced by contemporary leadership in grasping future value propositions for advancing knowledge trading and offers suggestions to unlock creativity and innovation for the enhancement of knowledge productivity and the development of supportive managerial effectiveness. It is recommended that leadership requires a profound cultural shift from traditional methods of management that can be best described as control orientated, bureaucratic and autocratic. These former hierarchical management structures originated in the modernist paradigm of industrial capitalism. In contrast, contemporary knowledge management is defined within the post-modern debate, where authority is diffused throughout the organisation and leadership engages in sufficient reflexivity to facilitate a more effective understanding of the contemporary knowledge worker. Within this postmodern context, fluidity of knowledge-leadership could actively promote the immediacy of creative exchanges as foundational to deliver the future into the present. The findings suggest a new role for leadership acting as coach and innovation facilitator, rather than controller. Furthermore the findings indicate that creative leadership should involve knowledge workers in defining the mission, vision and strategic intent and secure participation in the knowledge philosophy to mould their respective knowledge roles within a supportive culture. The findings indicated that collaboration between knowledge workers and leadership is crucial to establish formal communities of practice. These, as opposed to informal exchanges amongst knowledge workers, are pivotal to the process of continuous reinvention and proffer the shifts that are essential to drive future knowledge competencies. The findings furthermore revealed that communities of practice should be formally encouraged by leadership who diffuses the strategic intent to initiate forums where formal learning and the sharing of skills occur and creativity is continually advanced. The result is the creation of repositories of knowledge and innovation networks within knowledge concomitance required to enhance knowledge performance and ultimately drive sustainable competitive advantage. The research findings produced novel suggestions to proffer new knowledge-trading opportunities. The recommendations address contemporary leadership to perpetually challenge communities of practice to seek new creative and innovative horisons. This would yield the competencies and capabilities required for improved knowledge performance, based on individual and collective creative contributions. It is imperative for creative leadership to imbibe a new corporate curriculum to embrace the necessary radical innovative approaches required in today’s hyper-competitive economy. The recommendations suggest that the harnessing of creative and innovative potentials of knowledge workers, through the development of the creativity dimensions, namely fluency and elaboration could yield dominant discourse as a central ingredient for collective learning. This, in turn, would propel exponential levels of knowledge productivity, which is the critical component required to drive economic sustainability. Knowledge-leading organisations need to unearth and exploit the economy of knowledge by tapping into subjective experience, creativity and intuitive reflexivity. This study endeavours to offer a compelling vision of the future and recommends an intelligent organisation of the future that utilises a new corporate curriculum achieved by creative leadership to leverage enhanced managerial effectiveness. Finally, a definition for creative leadership is proposed which promotes innovative awareness, fluency and elaboration through formalised communities of practice to leverage enhanced knowledge productivity by means of knowledge worker empowerment and two-way communication. Creating a high-involvement organisation also involves new choices with respect to organisational design. An effective design would be the entrenchment of an organisational culture where the knowledge worker is accountable for and involved in the future success of the organisation. It is recommended that future leadership can achieve new innovative value propositions by structuring new mental models for increased knowledge productivity. The knowledge concomitance model suggests solutions to manipulate and economise knowledge to produce a transformational fusion of discontinuous innovation, nurturing a new syntagma for future knowledge management practitioners.

In the last two decades the IT service support worker has emerged to be a worker-type of considerable socio-economic importance. Such workers are symbolic of the trends towards the importance of information/knowledge and information technology within modern economic/political systems. Such systems, heavily influenced by governmental bodies and business organisations, have aggrandised the use of rationalising customer-centric management techniques. And yet such symbolic workers are largely hidden and unacknowledged as a specific type of worker in the business literature. This thesis represents an attempt to conceptualise the IT service support worker as a worker-type, inducing a conceptual model that identifies three aspects to the worker: information systems worker; knowledge worker and service worker and considers them from each of these perspectives. This qualitative research draws on a rich mix of observational and interview data collected across five UK organisations to produce a narrative that suggests that, for different IT service support workers, those different aspects tend to be variably emphasised within their team roles. The study additionally offers a theoretical conclusion that IT service support workers might reasonably be divided into different classes depending upon not only the design of their team role but also their individual career orientations and the nature of the knowledge they actually use in their work. Four such classes are identified as being of particular significance and these are evocatively named: Resigned Robots ; Constrained Careerists ; Establishment Experts and Aspiring Artisans . Whilst being outside of the scope of this study, it is suggested that this novel typology might also be useful for classifying other worker groupings. The study is intended to be useful for the enhancement of IT service management practice and makes several contributions in this regard. These include the need for managers to recognise the importance of experientially-acquired knowledge for efficiency in IT service support work and a suggestion that managers might tailor HRM practices for different classes of worker.

Driven by the insight that knowledge is power and, therefore, it is the core element for a company to be successful I examined which strategies enhance knowledge-sharing practices and processes among the HEI’s co-workers in order to create new competitive niches. This is especially important in times of ongoing change at an international level as HEIs seem to be increasingly in competition among one another for funds and students' intake. I based my study on the theoretical framework of Nonaka & Takeuchi’s SECI model of knowledge creation (1995) where, according to the authors, the knowledge-sharing takes place in four modes: socialization, externalization, combination and internalization. The main focus of my thesis is the socialization dimension, hence, the face-to-face communication between co-workers and their shared experiences and skills: the ‘tacit to tacit’ knowledge-sharing; the interaction between the different co-workers in the socialization process. Since all knowledge derives from tacit knowledge originally, tacit knowledge is, according to Nonaka/Takeuchi (1995), a person's own personal knowledge and his/her experience and skills; whereas explicit knowledge, on the other hand, is the formal and codified knowledge open to everybody via documents in a systematic language. The study of both literature and empirical data has shown that a special attention must be given to the resource-based view on strategy as it emphasizes the importance of the socialization mode by connecting the respective co-workers with one another in order to create something new. It is such a strategy that focuses on the best deployment of the knowledge resources in order for the institution to take advantage of their co-workers’ embedded, natural, context-specific, difficult to express and attached to the knower’s tacit knowledge. As a result, the key properties of a knowledge-enabling environment (in this thesis called ‘ba’) have been analyzed where tacit knowledge receives its attention by creating space and time for the tacit, hidden, embedded knowledge to emerge. Further field studies in different realities would now be helpful to further extract common patterns for the creation of a sense-making framework of strategy where the tacit dimension of each co-worker is seen to be a unique and remarkable asset for HEIs in order to gain a position of competitive advantage in the market place.