Darbuotojų žinių poreikis šiuolaikinėje organizacijoje
Needs for the Kmployee knowledge in Modern Organizations

Summary/Abstract: The twenty-first century has been named as the era of changing paradigms based on knowledge and its constant renewal. The knowledge in the process of globalization is becoming an important factor for sustainable development (Dementjeva, 2011), helping the organization to take over the most valuable knowledge and for the individual to refresh both general and professional knowledge. Therefore, the need of employee knowledge, which is influenced by various processes of modernization and increasing levels of competition have been analyzed in the article. The research study demonstrates that the construction sector is receptive to innovations and corresponds to the characteristics of the times. The European Union Communique (2009) states that the employee needs to broaden the knowledge and understanding, attaining new skills and competences. The Budapest-Vienna document (2010) focuses on the knowledge society, innovations and intellectual resources, thanks to which the intellectual value of the organization exceeds the value of material property (Handy,1990) and there is a need to conceptualize the potential of the individual knowledge which becomes the personal and organizational success, influences the efficiency of investments, economic development and even the power of the state (Morkvenas, 2010). The processes of globalization and knowledge-based economy lead to sharp competition in various fields of activities. Therefore, the organization needs enterprising and flexible employees being able to update and adapt their knowledge to constantly changing environmental conditions. According to K. Kriščiūnas, J. Staniškis and V. Tritis (2008), the knowledge is the basis for achieving wisdom, being accumulated through various means and factors. So the task for modern managers is to inflame team members to seek new competences and skills, analyze and apply their knowledge in business conditions and business opportunities (Drejer, 2002). It is emphasized that even during the economic recession, the attitude towards the assessment of the employee knowledge has to change, since the need for the employee knowledge has to grow proportionally under crisis conditions, however the requirements for individual management competences have to be raised even higher. The problem of Lithuanian modern organizations is - the formation and assessment of the need for employee knowledge is rather passive and not oriented to the future prospects, that is, – non-business entities form the need for the knowledge, but educational institutions. Lithuanian employer investments in employees are low and the forecast for the need of professionals is relatively expensive and complicated (Martinaitis, 2010). Under market conditions, everyone has to take care of the potential of the knowledge, its development and also show initiative: select and save or create some viable employment in line with abilities and try to realize their potential and ensure the material security. The education reform, implemented in the context of the rapidly changing social environment and globalization processes, that is, to the possibility of the entities to create and give a sense to reality. This fact encourages for the continuous evaluation of the employee knowledge and competences, which reflect the significance of the knowledge for public changes. Modern society is characterized by the change of paradigms, where the knowledge is constantly refreshed and is temporary. Such changes in the structure of knowledge at the time of globalization initiate the distribution between a new social status and social influence (Kanapeckaitė, Gribniak, 2007). Scientists use various terms to describe the employee‘s knowledge: individual competence (Galbraith, 1964), knowledge employees (Drucker, 1994), intellectual capital of employees (Stewart, Ruckdeschel, 1998; Bonti, 1998), employee capital (Mikulėnienė, Jucevičius, 2000), intangible assets (Lev, 2001), human capital (Webster, 2006; Leonienė, 2008), employee knowledge potential (Morkvėnas, 2010). The diversity of these concepts can be explained by the fact that the analyzed topics are developing for discovering new terms which are already used in other senses. What is more, a subjective opinion is also prevailing, stating that such diversity of concepts leads to incorrectness of Lithuanian language translation equivalents. Therefore, in the absence of the generalized concept of the knowledge, the concept the need for knowledge is used to solve this problem. The problem remains relevant to both the theoretical and practical point of view, but only in the recent years more attention has been paid to quantitative and qualitative knowledge assessment methodologies. However, the unanimous employee knowledge assessment model hasn‘t been created yet, although, it is emphasized. Therefore, the disposal of employee knowledge and its need in modern organizations has been a relevant scientific problem. The research object of the article is the need of knowledge. The aim of the research is to assess the need for employee knowledge in the construction sector. The research objectives are to analyze the factors forming the need for employee knowledge; to investigate the construction business sector employee approach to the need for the formation of knowledge. Research study methods: Theoretical insights and their generalization; questionnaire; mathematical analysis of the survey data. Research ethics: The respondents were told the participation was voluntary, guaranteeing anonymity, in addition to self-determination was left free to participate in the investigation and express ideas.

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