Employment systems, skills and knowledge

Learning by doing represents a major component of both workforce skills and organisational capabilities. Consequently, the boundaries of skills result from the interaction between organisational and labour market factors which shape employment systems. This chapter explores how skill systems are shaped, on the one hand, by the demands of different knowledge structures, whether they are predominantly individual or distributed, and whether they are codified or tacit, and on the other, by patterns of governance of employment relationships. It is argued that an economically productive relationship depends upon aligning knowledge types and organisational forms with suitable frameworks for the exchange of labour services. These pressures result in the development of four broad types of knowledge and skill systems outlined in the chapter. It goes on to examine how the spread of project-based and more transient employment relationships is changing the nature of skills and the organisation of job-related knowledge.