Brain worker

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Knowledge worker. (Discuss)

Brain workers are workers who perform mental work for the achievement of a monetary reward. Typical examples are consultants, researchers, lawyers, etc. Essential is their capacity to invent solutions to new problems that they encounter in their work and to make those solutions useful.

The word "brain worker" was coined in Dutch (breinwerker) in the Dutch management book "The brain economy":

• Bil, Ton and Jean Peters (2001). De breineconomie, hardback, Amsterdam: FinancialTimes Prentice Hall. 90-430-0419-7.  (sold out, but available in libraries)

Bil and Peters commented the word "knowledge worker" that was more usual at the time. They pointed out that in addition to knowledge, also creative skills, communicative skills, learning capacity and decisiveness are key characteristics of fruitful brain workers. The book elaborates on the individual work attitudes of brain workers. It describes an approach to manage the work of brain workers, which leaves the necessary autonomy and the characteristics of a favourable company culture for brain workers.

For an analysis of the history and theory of intellectual labour, see Richard Barbrook's:

• Barbrook, Richard (2006). The Class of the New, paperback, London: OpenMute. 0-9550664-7-6.