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    A little knowledge is a dangerous thing: getting below the surface of the growth of 'knowledge work' in Australia

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    Author
    Fleming, P; Harley, B; Sewell, G
    Date
    2004-12-01
    Source Title
    Work, Employment and Society
    Publisher
    SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
    University of Melbourne Author/s
    Harley, William; Sewell, Graham
    Affiliation
    Management and Marketing
    Metadata
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    Document Type
    Journal Article
    Citations
    Fleming, P., Harley, B. & Sewell, G. (2004). A little knowledge is a dangerous thing: getting below the surface of the growth of 'knowledge work' in Australia. WORK EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIETY, 18 (4), pp.725-747. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017004047951.
    Access Status
    This item is currently not available from this repository
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/11343/27951
    DOI
    10.1177/0950017004047951
    Description

    C1 - Refereed Journal Article

    Abstract
    <jats:p> This article critically addresses the claim that there has been a striking growth in ‘knowledge work’ in advanced economies. Using the Australian Bureau of Statistics Labour Force Survey, we examine occupational change from 1986 to 2000 to evaluate the support for this claim. Researchers have usually relied on aggregate level data to justify the presence of a burgeoning knowledge-based workforce, but we contend that we must ‘get below the surface’ of the major occupational groups by disaggregating the data. This enables us to demonstrate that a substantial component of the apparent growth in knowledge work is accounted for by an increase in low-level information handling occupations rather than by a growth in knowledge work as it is commonly conceived. The article then develops an interpretive framework that makes sense of the data in a manner that avoids both over-estimating the prevalence of the ‘knowledge worker’ and underestimating the knowledge-related activities in jobs commonly considered to be low-skilled and bereft of important competencies. </jats:p>
    Keywords
    Business and Management

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