Knowledge Worker Productivity Assessment

Motivating and Measuring Your Best People


The father of modern management, Peter Drucker wrote – “the only true source of sustainable competitive advantage a company has its knowledge workers.” Based on an extensive literature review and dozens of interviews, Professor Steve Markham from the College of Management at NC State

"The most valuable assets of a 20th-century company were its production equipment. The most valuable asset of a 21st-century institution, whether business or non-business, will be its knowledge workers and their productivity."

Peter F. Drucker

University has compiled two important assessments for managers wanting to get more from their knowledge workers.

The first is the Knowledge Worker Managers Checklist. It gives managers insights into what makes these creative, but sometimes difficult to manage, individuals more productive. Knowledge workers don’t always respond well to conventional management techniques. They often ‘resist tops down direction’, but become very involved when managers’ provide a clear vision’ and ‘engage them in a 2-way conversation on business and technical matters’.

Through his research Dr. Markham has identified the seven key factors, e.g. Networking, Volunteering, Project Overload, etc., that are truly important to knowledge workers. Take 20 minutes out of your day to answer 34 simple questions to determine if the culture you have set for the organization is, in fact, conducive to getting the most out of these talented people.

The second assessment is the Knowledge Workers Productivity Measure. It uses a 360-degree approach to measure the actual output of a knowledge worker at three critical points during a project:

  • Pre-delivery
  • Mid-project
  • Post-delivery

By combining the responses of the 1) knowledge worker, 2) a peer on the project, 3) a person external to the project, a manager can get a very good grasp of the status of the project, as well as a shared understanding with the knowledge worker of the number and importance of the project’s expected outcomes. This understanding, in the case of knowledge workers, can be vital to the project achieving its full success.

For more information on how you can have access to the Knowledge Worker Productivity Assessment, contact CIMS.