Knowledge Work Activities of a Systematic Review Task

ABSTRACT Most workers' activities in the workplace can be classed as knowledge work (KW). Previous research has described workers' tasks very broadly, making it difficult to know the actual work. We hypothesise that deconstructing what goes on inside a task could reveal many subtasks and activities at levels that are, as yet, unexamined and in need of deeper understanding. To explore this further, a data set collected from research fellows who described a specific task was examined. The task was broken down into many subtasks and activities, showing that one single task contains many levels of tasks. This understanding may allow for the development of tools to support the worker.