Distractors of Computerised Creative Knowledge Work

Use of advanced ICT in combination with efficient management of intellectual capital in modern computerised knowledge work is key for generating innovation to achieve socio-economic development. This paper studies how some work organizational institutional factors and personal characteristics are linked to shaping various distractors of computerised work results in creative knowledge employees, with the purpose of pointing to the driving forces of some key ICT related and other obstacles in achieving desired results in intellectual work. This paper provides ordered probit regression results on data from an Estonian survey of creative knowledge employees doing computerised work. Our findings reveal that emotional tiredness, sleepiness, work environment issues, managerial problems and unclear work tasks appear as the most dominant distractors of work results perceived by creative knowledge employees. The intensity of perceiving the adverse effect of those factors appears to be triggered primarily by the age and gender of the employee, their sleep patterns and availability of flexible work arrangements. The findings of this paper may help to design better the principles of knowledge management in computerised work to capture the intellectual potential of creative employees more efficiently. Moreover, knowing the triggers of distractors for achieving desired creative work results by knowledge employees may point to areas where the development and use of ICT could be particularly promising.