Knowmad-friendly Companies: Is There Such Thing?

Knowmads —the nomadic professionals of the knowledge economy— are in their element under uncertainty and ambiguity. They know how to extract value from their knowledge, skills, learning capacity, social capital, and passions. But they do not fit well into hierarchical and bureaucratic organizational contexts where they feel constrained by structures, procedures and rules that often leave little room for personal initiative and craftsmanship. For that reason, and because they normally have more opportunities to find an alternative job than their colleagues, knowmads don’t stay much in this type of work environments, so their employers frequently accuse them of being disloyal. But what really happens is that for knowmads the word loyalty means something very different. The unconditional loyalty many companies still expect from their employees is something that simply does not fit into their schemes. Job descriptions of several