Peter Drucker on Knowledge Worker Productivity

In the Winter of 1999, Peter Drucker had published an article on Knowledge Worker Productivity: 

The biggest challenge.  Here is access to the article.

Here is the second sentence: “The most important contribution management needs to make in the 21st century is similarly to increase the productivity of knowledge work and knowledge workers.”

Here is a quote from some key ideas in the article:

Six major factors determine knowledge-worker productivity.
▪ Knowledge-worker productivity demands that we ask the question: “What is the task?”
▪ It demands that we impose the responsibility for their productivity on the individual knowledge workers themselves. Knowledge Workers have to manage themselves. They have to have autonomy.
▪ Continuing innovation has to be part of the work, the task and the responsibility of knowledge workers.
▪ Knowledge work requires continuous learning on the part of the knowledge worker, but equally continuous teaching on the part of the knowledge worker.
▪ Productivity of the knowledge worker is not—at least not primarily—a matter of the quantity of output. Quality is at least as important.
▪ Finally, knowledge-worker productivity requires that the knowledge worker is both seen and treated as an “asset” rather than a ”cost.” It requires that knowledge workers want to work for the organization in preference to all other opportunities.

Very interesting ideas.