Challenges of Management

5. THE CHALLENGE OF KNOWLEDGE WORKER PRODUCTIVITY Main Idea The most important contribution of management in the 20th Century was to increase manual worker productivity in manufacturing by around fifty-fold. The key management challenge of the 21st Century is to bring about a similar increase in the productivity of knowledge workers. Supporting Ideas All the economic and social gains of the 20th century, including the emergence of the "developed" countries, were made squarely on the back of increases in the productivity of manual workers as newer and better tools became available. (The distinction still applies today, in fact -- the underdeveloped countries are those that have not yet made their manual workers productive). Comparable work on increasing the productivity of knowledge workers is just getting underway. Knowledge worker productivity is determined by six factors: 1.Flexibility and some ambiguity. In knowledge work, the key questions are usually:
What should the task be?
How are you going to contribute?
What impediments can be eliminated?
In manual work, the key question is usually: How should the work be done? For most manual work, the outcome had a direct bearing on the best methods to use. In knowledge work, obtaining quality results is the objective, and how that is achieved is up to the worker, since there will usually be a number of alternatives available. 2. Responsibility. Knowledge workers have to manage themselves, and accept responsibility for their own productivity. That requires autonomy and accountability. 3. Innovation. Knowledge work requires ongoing innovation to be incorporated. The innovation process for knowledge work is more dynamic and constant, than is ever realized for manual labor. 4.Continuous learning and teaching. Knowledge workers must continually be upgrading their skills and learning new techniques. They also must have the means to teach those new skills to others, including their coworkers, if everyone is to stay