Boosting the Productivity of Knowledge Workers

Organizations and senior executives around the world consistently struggle to find ways for improving the productivity of so-called knowledge workers. These are defined as managers, salespeople, scientists and others whose jobs consist primarily of interactions—with other employees, with customers and suppliers—and involve complex decision-making based on knowledge and judgment. These workers constitute a large and growing share of the workforce in developed economies, and represent a major opportunity for companies, as well as for countries seeking to grow and maintain their gross domestic product (GDP).

McKinsey Quarterly recently conducted a study into the productivity of knowledge workers and found that since knowledge workers spend half their time involved in interactions, companies would be well advised to explore the productivity barriers that impede these interactions in order to enhance the output of these workers. These barriers include: physical and technical, social and cultural, contextual and time.

Armed with a better understanding of such constraints, senior executives can be more effective in identifying targeted productivity-improvement efforts to increase both the efficiency and effectiveness of the interactions between workers.

For the full study and for ways of overcoming these key barriers to productivity see the report in the McKinsey Quarterly.