What Is a Gold-Collar Worker? :: Workforce Work Papers

What Is a Gold-Collar Worker?A Higher Level of Knowledge Work. Kelley (1990) described an old distinction that divided the execute force into blue-collar and white-collar players. Blue-collar actors typically did manual labor in a factory for hourly pay, whereas white-collar role players did knowledge work in an office on salary. However, changes in the nature of work and the workplace have led to large growth in the numbers of a particular kind of knowledge workerthe gold-collar worker, whose about valuable assets are problem-solving abilities, creativity, talent, and intelligence who performs nonrepetitive and complex work that is difficult to evaluate and who prefers self-management. The gold-collar worker is, for example, the computer engineer as opposed to a lower-level knowledge worker such as an input operator. Kelley pointed out that even though the name is new, there have always been gold-collar workers like designers, researchers, analysts, engineers, and lawyers. Lear ning, Teams, and Strategic Thinking. Wood (2001) characterized gold-collar workers in schooling technology (IT) similarly by focusing on qualitative matters. Gold-collar IT workers learn continually from experience. They recognize the synergy of teams and can demonstrate leadership they are strategical thinkers who see the big picture and can change strategic directions when necessary. They have a portable, flexible skill base relevant to a variety of work environments and maintain that skill base through their own personal development, with well-connected networks of contacts at the leading edge. Interdisciplinary Knowledge. Where business and science intersect, the basic focus of the gold-collar worker is interdisciplinary knowledge and experience (Bartlett 1998 Todaro 2001 Van Nierop and Bow 1997). This interdisciplinary focus combines scientific or other technical knowledge and skills with business literacy to result in a gold-collar worker with expertise across several areas. Gold-collar engineers, chemists, biologists, physicists, or geoscientists understand the relationship between their scientific discipline and business, have the management and financial knowledge needed for a business environment, and can marry science and entrepreneurship. Other Characterizations. Roe (2001) called the gold-collar worker a highly skilled multidisciplinarian who combines the mind of the white-collar worker with the hands of the blue-collar employee (p. 32) examples include aircraft systems maintenance technicians, network administrators, and advanced manufacturing technicians. A similar case would be online customer service representatives (CSRs), for whom managing customer relationships now involves not only oral communication but also text-based Internet chat and e-mail about tough questions not answered in frequently asked questions or keep e-mail responses (Dicksteen 2001).