The Development Of Knowledge Workers In An Organization Characterized As Complex Adaptive Systems (Cas)

Organizations today report the need to grapple with changes and varying demands and needs that develop in the organization's environment. Studies argue that knowledge workers in an organization can contribute to the organization ability to cope with a complex environment. Other studies show that due to managerial need for supervision and control of the work processes, knowledge workers do not succeed in exploiting their creativity and providing effective solutions. The "CAS" (Complex Adaptive Systems) model is a model that based on the principle of the survival of individuals in nature. In CAS, a distributed array of subsystems, termed "fractals", act autonomously according to environmental demands while maintaining constant connection with other fractals in the system. The main purpose of the article is to characterize the internal organizational environment as CAS that is appropriate for the growth of knowledge workers. In such an organization, number of processes occur simultaneously in a continuous manner: The main process begins with continuous and consistent transparency of managers towards employees. A process of updating all employees in changes occur in the organization's environment. This continuous process enables the employee to combine his/her needs as a knowledge worker with the organizational goals. Another process that characterizes the organizational environment as CAS is the process of information integration among employees. CAS implies intensive retrieval and distribution of knowledge among employee using information systems and social communication technology. Thus, the worker as a fractal can quickly locate relevant documents, experts or other employees dealing with relevant subjects his/her work. Another essential process is to perform a social networking - a diverse social activity of exchange of ideas and feedback by each worker. This interaction process enables the employee to promote and brand himself/herself as an expert to disseminate ideas and receive feedback from others. These capabilities make it possible for managers to be exposed to the employee's abilities, focusing on managing and synchronizing work processes, yet, contribute motivation to the workers to implement innovative solutions and to respond autonomously but immediately to changes and varying demands and needs that develop in the organizational environment.A conversion into a CAS organization is becoming necessary for organizations that wish to survive and advance in the digital world. Hence, the final part of the article portrays the road to introduce CAS characteristics into an organization, in order to better utilize the skills and potency of the knowledge workers.