Knowledge Accumulation Within an Organization

Abstract

Abstract:We develop a simple model of task allocation for knowledge workers over their career within an organization. The human capital theory initiated by Becker (1962Becker ( , 1964 has offered a rich analysis of an individual's life cycle investment in human capital. One of the main result of this literature states that human capital investments are undertaken at the early stage of the career because workers have then a longer period of time over which they can benefit from the return of their investments. In this paper, we consider a knowledge accumulation problem within an organization that cannot prevent the worker from quitting and using the knowledge outside the organization. In the first best situation, we show a similar result as in the human capital theory, i.e. the share of time allocated to knowledge creation tasks decreases over time. We then ask how this pattern is affected when the knowledge worker can leave the organization and benefit from this knowledge outside the organization. In this case, we obtain the novel result that the time path of the fraction of working time allocated to knowledge creation tasks is non-monotone. This fraction is highest at the early career stage, falls gradually, then rises again, before falling finally toward zero.We also show that an increase in the firm-specificity of knowledge can increase or decrease the life-time income of the knowledge worker.JEL codes: J24, C61, D23, J41, L00

Training Between Neighbors: Can a Successful Training System Be Developed Between Companies Located in the Same Locality?

“…Likewise, if an effort is made to measure the inputs/outputs of a local training system as a group (e.g., in an attempt to clarify averages), this might be unrepresentative of the more dynamic firms, and the timescales and investments they have made to reach their current positions (Van Long et al, 2014). At the other end of the scale, there is a danger for firms which take more from the training system than they put in: it might be argued that the greater the emphasis or dependence on external sources of training knowledge and provision, the lesser the relevance it might have to internal needs, if there is not sufficient input or adaptation of the input, or if selection of training inputs has not been done in the first place with sufficient care based on clear criteria.…”

“…The emergence of more numerous providers, many of whom could be expected to be specialized and of higher relative quality than before, should make for wider provision that is easier to access, possibly enabling a more secure training investment and development experience, and incrementally improved training/ learning trajectory; there is even a chance that prices would go down (Caniels & Romijn, 2003, p. 1266Van Long et al, 2014). The specialization that may emerge could be due to two factors.…”

Generalized Inexact Proximal Algorithms: Routine’s Formation with Resistance to Change, Following Worthwhile Changes

“…. , l} = J (say knowledge workers; see Long et al [17]) to produce a chosen quantity of a final good of a chosen quality. The endogenous quality q(x) of this final good changes with the chosen profile of skilled workers x = (x 1 , x 2 , .., x j , .., x l ) ≥ 0, where x j ≥ 0 is a number of workers of type j.…”

“…a continuous concave function such that (16) and (17) hold. If δ ∈ (0, q) (see condition (5)) and r ∈]0, 1[ are fixed constants, B(x, δ/β 1 ) ⊂ U , a := λ(1 − σ) and M := Lb a , then the whole sequence {x k } converges to a critical point x * of f which is a strong global trap, relative to the worthwile to change set W λ * (x * ), for any choice of the final satisficing rate λ * > λ ∞ .…”