Thinking for a Living

How to Get Better Performances And Results from Knowledge Workers

Thomas H. Davenport

• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
• Year: 2005
• Print ISBN: 9781591394235
• eBook ISBN: 9781422166468
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Management
• Index: Business

Knowledge workers create the innovations and strategies that keep their firms competitive and the economy healthy. Yet, companies continue to manage this new breed of employee with techniques designed for the Industrial Age. As this critical sector of the workforce continues to increase in size and importance, that's a mistake that could cost companies their future. Thomas Davenport argues that knowledge workers are vastly different from other types of workers in their motivations, attitudes, and need for autonomy--and, so, they require different management techniques to improve their performance and productivity.Based on extensive research involving over 100 companies and more than 600 knowledge workers, Thinking for a Living provides rich insights into how knowledge workers think, how they accomplish tasks, and what motivates them to excel. Davenport identifies four major categories of knowledge workers and presents a unique framework for matching specific types of workers with the management strategies that yield the greatest performance.Written by the field's premier thought leader, Thinking for a Living reveals how to maximize the brain power that fuels organizational success. Thomas Davenport holds the President's Chair in Information Technology and Management at Babson College. He is director of research for Babson Executive Education; an Accenture Fellow; and author, co-author, or editor of nine books, including Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know (HBS Press, 1997).

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• 1 What’s a Knowledge Worker, Anyway?
• 2 How Knowledge Workers Differ, and the Difference It Makes
• 3 Interventions, Measures, and Experiments in Knowledge Work
• 4 Knowledge Work Processes
• 5 Organizational Technology for Knowledge Workers
• 6 Developing Individual Knowledge Worker Capabilities
• 7 Investing in Knowledge Workers’ Networks and Learning
• 8 The Physical Work Environment and Knowledge Worker Performance
• 9 Managing Knowledge Workers
• Notes
• About the Author