Managing Knowledge Work in Organizations
This project explores virtual teams and VR for better collaboration, innovation biases in promotions, and the roots of "good jobs."
Factsheet
- Schools involved Business School
- Institute(s) Institute for Applied Data Science & Finance
- Research unit(s) Applied Data Science
- Strategic thematic field Thematic field "Humane Digital Transformation"
- Funding organisation SNSF
- Duration (planned) 01.07.2025 - 30.06.2028
- Head of project Prof. Dr. Christian Zihlmann
- Project staff Prof. Dr. Christian Zihlmann
- Keywords knowledge #work #VR
Situation
More than half of the Swiss workforce consists of knowledge workers (Deloitte, 2018), defined as individuals whose expertise and application of knowledge are core to their jobs, including analysts, engineers, entrepreneurs, and scientists. As advanced economies increasingly rely on knowledge work (Autor, 2019), this grant proposal outlines three projects to deepen our understanding of key aspects of this field. The first project examines virtual teams, a growing trend accelerated by the pandemic. While virtual teams enhance flexibility, they face challenges such as social distance, reduced trust, and decreased cooperation. This study investigates the potential of virtual reality (VR) technology to address these issues by providing immersive, interactive environments. The second project focuses on innovation in promotion tournaments. Knowledge workers often innovate under implicit incentives, where principals’ private biases can distort evaluations. This project explores how these biases discourage breakthrough ideas, particularly among risk-averse workers, potentially affecting career progression and innovation dynamics. The third project investigates the roots of "good jobs"—roles with high salaries and autonomy—common among knowledge workers. It hypothesizes that tacit, private knowledge about production processes drives the emergence of such jobs, ensuring autonomy and high pay.
Course of action
By conducting controlled experiments, this research aims to offer insights into knowledge work challenges, with implications for both academic literature and practical applications.
