Knowledge Workers and the Principle of 3S (Self-Management, Self-organization, Self-control)

Knowledge workers are highly regarded by employers for their innovation and creativity. Due to the intangible character of knowledge, managing knowledge workers requires different approaches, tools and methods than managing non-knowledge workers. There is a broadly shared idea that knowledge workers require less autocrative, more autonomous style of management than non-knowledge workers. The article gives the theoretical background of the term knowledge worker and covers the part of the research on knowledge workers dedicated to the autonomy of knowledge workers. The autonomy was examined by the question concerning so called 3S. 3S means self-management, self-organization and self-control. The hypothesis is that knowledge workers prefer more autonomous work and prefer to work on the principle 3S. The article discusses answers of 457 respondents, knowledge workers of different professions. The result of the survey indicates that the shift in managerial styles is happening.