Thinking for a Living:

How to Get Better Performance and Results from Knowledge Workers

Davenport, T.H. (2005).  Thinking for a living: How to get better performance and results from knowledge workers.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

The term “knowledge worker” has been used for some 40 years, since business guru Peter Drucker coined the term in 1956.  More recently, Accenture Fellow and Babson College instructor Thomas H. Davenport, has organized a set of research findings and recommendations that attempts to guide managers in leading those knowledge workers, or those who “think for a living.”

Davenport defines knowledge workers in the following way: Knowledge workers have high degrees of expertise, education, or experience, and the primary purpose of their jobs involves the creation, distribution, or application of knowledge. (p.10) Davenports paints his picture of knowledge workers with a relatively broad brush; examples of knowledge workers by his definition include physicians and physicists, scientists and sci-fi writers, airplane pilots and airplane designers.

Knowledge work, Davenport contends, can be organized into a three-tiered matrix.  First, transaction workers understand the flow of work and knowledge needed to perform – and rarely have time to consult external guidelines or knowledge sources.  Second, those doing integration workers articulate the process to be followed in documents; those worker typically have enough time and discretion to consult the documents.  Finally, expert and collaboration workers are characterized by high autonomy and discretion.

He extends the discussion of knowledge workers to more a specific managerial level.  He states, “Perhaps the single most important, yet rarely addressed, knowledge worker capability is the management of the personal information and knowledge environment” (p.138).  Knowledge workers really don’t care about what Davenport calls “facilities gewgaws” such as the ping-pong tables and relaxation rooms; in fact, many workers are reluctant to be seen using such facilities for fear that they won’t be seen as hardworking enough.

So how do you manage knowledge workers?  Davenport makes the following recommendations:

• Leave the final decision up to the knowledge worker
• Develop a measurement and improvement culture
• Establish a credible and up-to-date knowledge base
• Enlist analysts who have actually done the work in question.  If you’re trying to improve health care processes, for example, use doctors and nurses to design the new process. 

Successfully managing knowledge workers begins with better understanding them.  It continues when managers go from organizing hierarchies to organizing communities, go from hiring and firing employees to recruiting and retaining them, and go from building manual skills to building knowledge skills.

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