Title: How knowledge organisations work: the value shop configuration

Authors: Petter Gottschalk

Addresses: Norwegian School of Management, Nydalsveien 37, 0442 Oslo, Norway

Abstract: Knowledge workers in knowledge organisations solve client problems in sequential and cyclical work processes. Sequential and cyclical work takes place in the value configuration of a value shop. While typical examples of value chains are manufacturing industries such as paper and car production, typical examples of value shops are law firms and medical hospitals. Often, such companies are called professional service firms or knowledge-intensive service firms. Like the medical hospital as a way to practice medicine and the law firm provides a standard format for delivering complex legal services. Similarly, police investigations represent knowledge work to solve crimes. The case of police investigations is presented in this paper.

Keywords: cyclical work; knowledge organisations; problem understanding; professional services; standards; value configurations; value shop; knowledge-intensive services; police investigations.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSS.2007.015224

International Journal of Services and Standards, 2007 Vol.3 No.4, pp.402 - 412

Published online: 28 Sep 2007 *

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