Knowledge Governance

By doing our conceptual research on the realm of knowledge worker motivation we want to contribute to the answering of the most important management challenge of the 21st century, namely how to motivate experts in varying organizational settings to perform at maximum capacity. We develop a contingency view and distinguish between the mode of knowledge production (in a team or by a single expert) and the storage of that generated knowledge (codification versus personalization strategy). The outcome of this is a 2x2-matrix, in whose cells we have a closer look at the necessary motivational tools. In some cases the vintage carrot can be promising, another circumstance demands threatening people with the notorious stick, and yet another case calls for a totally different make-up. Thus our approach differs strongly from the classical one-size-fits-all approach of employee motivation. The enormous practical relevance for successful corporate governance is illustrated by four illustrative examples (such as Google and Red Bull).