By Raúl
Gorrín. Growth that adds volume without improving productivity is fat.
Growth that diminishes productivity is cancer. This is a quote from Peter
Drucker. In an article from the Harvard Business Review there is a discussion
of our changing world.
Fifty years ago our parents and
grandparents could not imagine the world we live in. The new world marked s
shift to a knowledge society. Knowledge became a more crucial economic
resource that land, labor or financial assets. The best management decision
would be one to invest in the education of its workforce. ( Raúl Gorrín)
The educated worker needs to be given
autonomy and responsibility over his work and the quality of it. A
knowledgeable worker in a way needs to manage themselves. Continuing innovation
had to be part of their job, their task and responsibility. Companies
need to see an educated worker not as a cost to the company but as an asset.
Drucker defined a knowledge worker as someone that knew more about his job than
anyone else in the organization.
Thomas Davenport wrote a book called
'Thinking for a living'. He spoke about the knowledge work as being an expert
in their field in knowledge and in skill. Professor Davenport and
other experts such as Dorothy Leonard, co-author or 'Deep smarts - how to
cultivate and transfer essential business wisdom' disagreed on different
methods for maximizing innovation and creative thinking among its knowledgeable
workers. Their business philosophy was from hiring coaches to creating an
atmosphere that would cultivate individual thought and creativity.
On the other hand there, business experts
such as Michael Hamner, co-author of
'Re-engineering the corporation ' took a totally different view in how to use
the knowledge worker to maximize the productivity of the company. He believed
that focusing on the productivity of the individual was misguided. The
knowledge worker is to be thought of as part of the whole corporation and the
system needs to be set up for greater interaction and cooperation and not on
the individual autonomy of its thinkers. ( Raúl
Gorrín)
To date no clear cut answer has been found on
the best solution for increasing a business's productivity through its
thinkers. This will be the challenge for our next generation. MIT Sloan wrote
an article 'Why don't we know more about knowledge?' . Raúl Gorrín.
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