A Summary of the Davenport book Thinking for a Living

1. Thinking for a Living – Book Reading
Thinking for a Living Book Reading
Objective
The objective of this assignment is to a critical analysis of the book Thinking for a Living on the lines of
Information and Knowledge Management. This book was written by Thomas H. Davenport
Book Description
This book originally written in 2005 talks about the approaches, techniques and ideas to manage
Knowledge workers in an organizational setting. This book highlights the diminishing and unsuccessful
trend of managing employees in the Industrial age method. The book comprises of nine chapters. The
chapters 1-3 try to establish some introduction to Knowledge intensive companies‟ jobs, Knowledge
Worker profiles & their characteristics and Knowledge economy in general. The subsequent chapters 4-9
are observations and suggestions given by the author based on the series of research studies mainly
catering to Knowledge Work Processes, Organizational Technology, Knowledge Worker Capabilities,
Working Environments and Management of Knowledge Workers.
Here is a breakdown summary of the book by chapter. The reader‟s critique is also provided for each
chapter with key points.
Chapter 1 - What’s a Knowledge Worker, Anyway?
Summary
This chapter gives an introduction to knowledge work and knowledge worker from a beginner‟s viewpoint.
It creates a basement on which the subsequent chapters are built.
Key Points
There is an interesting mention of the term „Market to Book Value‟ in connection to Knowledge intensive
companies. The insight is that the market‟s perception of the value of knowledge and knowledge workers
in these companies is higher than the book values (tangible assets) indicating that knowledge as
intellectual capital is most important to these companies. (Pg 4-5) The snippet “How Many Are There?” is
about the US Bureau of Labor Statistics(BLS) classifies its workers and gives a good indication on the
profile(Management, Business and Financial Operations, Healthcare practitioners to name a few) and
number of people involved in Knowledge Worker type jobs contributing to about 30% of the total
workforce in 2003. The snippet also provides similar information from UK, to re-iterate the fact that
knowledge workers form a substantial part of the current day workforce and the numbers will steadily
increase moving into the decade. (Pg 5-7)
A business case of KM is raised by the author after coming to the conclusion of his research on Business
Process that the most important processes for organizations today involve Knowledge work (Pg 9)
The author offers a critique to the original definition of Knowledge Worker by Peter Drucker. He claims
that Drucker‟s definition mistakenly involves jobs of taxi drivers, movies ticket takers and ditch diggers
and also implies that the definition refers to only one knowledge workers per job per organization. (Pg 12)
The author provides clear elucidation of Knowledge Worker characteristics. Some excerpts are given
below
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2. Thinking for a Living – Book Reading
1. Many people use knowledge in their jobs and have some degree of education and expertise, but
for knowledge workers the role of knowledge must be central to the job
2. Despite a few necessary shadings in the definition of knowledge workers, it’s clear that
organizational success depends on the innovativeness and productivity of these workers within
their organizations.
3. Knowledge workers are dispersed across the organizational structure and the globe, yet the
interdependence and complexity of their work requires them to collaborate effectively with others
in different functions, physical locations, time zones and even organizations. (Pg 12)
The author at the end of the chapter gives some basic principles and observations about knowledge
workers. Some of them are Knowledge Workers like autonomy, Knowledge workers usually have good
reasons for what they do, Knowledge workers value their knowledge and don’t share it easily to
showcase the implication that knowledge workers can‟t be managed in the traditional sense, a claim that
he had made in the start of the chapter.
Personal Critique
I thought this chapter was pretty good. It is quite informative for both KM students and other general
reader. In the section „Knowledge Workers as a Class‟, the author could have avoided taking a jibe at
another person who doesn‟t believe in having separate management methods for knowledge workers.
Chapter 2 – How Knowledge Workers Differ and the Difference it Makes
Summary
This chapter makes distinctions about the different types of Knowledge Workers and their characteristics.
The distinction is based on 1.) Judgement and Collaboration 2.) Knowledge Activity 3.) Type of Idea 4)
Cost and Scale 5.) Process Attributes 6.) Business Criticallity 7.) Mobility.
Key Points
An excellent classification structure for knowledge-intensive processes based on the dimensions „Level
of Interdependence‟ and „Complexity of Work‟ rated from low to high, is provided. As per the structure,
four main models are identified as 1.) Transaction model 2.) Expert model 3.) Integration model and
4.)Collaboration model. Four main activities of Knowledge Workers are identified as Creation, Packaging,
Distribution and Application of knowledge. The author opines that Knowledge creation is the toughest with
few examples. (Pg 28-30)
There is a distinction drawn between big and small ideas and a prediction is made – The organizations
that will be most successful in the future will be those in which it’s everyone’s job to creating and using
both big and small ideas. An example involving the company Chaparral Steel is made to showcase the
kind of success that even an industrial company can achieve when its employees are made to
consistently as a part of their job definition (Pg 31) The author talks about the difficulties in measuring
certain knowledge work processes (eg: patent search and filings, market research) in contrast to the ones
that can be measured (eg: medical coding) and also states the importance of measurement in today‟s
competitive world. (Pg 33) There is reference made to the book Good Company written by Don Cohen
and Larry Prusak on the point that mobile work doesn‟t build social capital or social networks. (Pg 34)
Personal Critique
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3. Thinking for a Living – Book Reading
Continuing with the good introduction in ch1, the author looks to differentiate knowledge workers again in
this chapter and also creates some key distinctions within them. He views KM professionals as
distributors of knowledge which is interesting but personally I think KM pros should be seen as purveyors
of knowledge. The choice of words with classification of ideas into big and small could have been better.
Chapter 3 – Interventions, Measures and Experiments in Knowledge Work
Summary
This chapter is about the possible interventions and experiments that can be taken by organizations to
see if knowledge worker efficiency can be improved. Some meta-issues of knowledge work interventions
along with the reasons, methods and common mistakes are also mentioned.
Key Points
The author mentions a relatively straight forward way to deal with Knowledge Workers – HSPALTA
meaning Hire Smart People and Leave Them Alone. (Pg 39) A example of semiconductor company is
taken up to show that the notion with companies viewing knowledge worker performance as a „black box‟
can be removed by studying the factors affecting the performance of high performing groups when
compared to the low ones. (Pg 41) The author sites some new observational techniques like forms of
ethnography or corporate anthropology to understand the so-called invisible knowledge work processes.
(Pg 42)
On the earlier methods meant to improve performance, a reference is made to Frederick Taylor‟s work in
the 1880 – Scientific management to improve worker efficiency in the industrial age. The method caused
unwanted „class wars‟ within the society due to the demarcations it created. (Pg 45) On the topic of
Knowledge Worker Productivity, the author states that this classical term is not applicable to Knowledge
work. A reference is made to Charles Leadbeater‟s quote to underline the output of knowledge work Most
people in most advanced economies produce nothing that can be weighed: communications, software,
advertising, financial services. They trade, write, design, talk, spin and create: rarely do they make
anything. The assets they work with are just ephemeral as their output. Author suggests alternate terms
like Performance and Results instead of using Productivity. (Pg 47)
Some practical issues in measuring knowledge worker performance are raised and also some ineffective
methods used by organizations to measure performance are also mentioned. One example is to measure
the number of lines written by a programmer which is ineffectual. Few alternate methods such as Peer
group reviews and multiple peer evaluations are provided with intent of measuring both quality and
quantity. (Pg 49) Few output measures are suggested 1.) The volume of knowledge produced 2.) The
quality of the decisions or actions taken on the basis of knowledge and 3.) The impact of knowledge
produced (as judged by others). IT industry came up with its Capability Maturity Model (CMM) that
measures the quality of software engineering. This has meant the IT work could be outsourced as the
outsourced company can assure quality for its products with appropriate CMM certificates. (Pg 50-52)
The failed case of Business Process Re-engineering is taken. It was due to its top-down re-engineering
method and also because it is of prescriptive nature that seldom works with knowledge workers. The new
process change that the companies wish to bring should be based on Representational Democracy
where Knowledge workers are made a part of the change process. Other failed methods are scripting,
treating all knowledge workers in the same way and a blind computerization of processes (Pg 53-54) A
company that is shown as a paradigm of Disciplined Experimentation is Capital One, with its series of
projects involving „Productivity and Knowledge Management‟
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4. Thinking for a Living – Book Reading
Personal Critique
The author sounds a bit clichéd when he says knowledge based products can be made affordable by
improving knowledge worker productivity as I think product price range and employee actualization
should be distinct and not interdependent. Some facts are outdated when he says very little knowledge
work has been outsourced which is quite contrary to current day where all of knowledge work is
outsourced to Asia.
Chapter 4 – Knowledge Work Processes
Summary
In this chapter, the author talks about some process oriented approaches to improve knowledge work, so
as to create an environment where innovation and discipline can co-exist.
Key Points
The chapter starts off with an excellent explanation of process. Quoting the author “To treat something as
a process is to impose a formal structure on it-to identify its beginning, end, and intermediate steps to
clarify who the customer is for it, to measure it, to take stock of how well it is currently being performed,
and ultimately to improve it” (Pg 61)
The work of researcher Paul Adler is cited with respect to studying knowledge worker behavior with
respect to changes in process. Adler states that “the more routine tasks in software development were
rendered more efficient by standardization and formalization, leaving the non-routine tasks relatively
unstructured to allow more creativity in their performance” (Pg 63)
Some thumb rules are provided on the ways to handle the different Knowledge Worker profiles mentioned
in chapter 2 (Pg 65). Process recommendations are given by the type of Knowledge activity of which a
staged based approach is prescribed for Knowledge creation. Examples of new drug compound process
and oil exploration are given. Corning R&D‟s labs follow a model called “stage gate” model applied to
innovation process with freedom within each stages. Under Knowledge Application process, the
importance of Knowledge Re-use is given. Three critical factors – Leadership, Asset visibility and Asset
control are provided (Pg 67-72) The author explores some techniques from „fuzzy logic‟ and „statistics-
Quality function deployment‟ and „conjoint analysis‟ on the notion of breaking process into stages. Pg 73
The author does some introspection and realizes too much of focus on process without actual practice
would be of no benefit therefore he advises an integrated approach of following process and practice for
effective results. He takes a dig at process analyst tendency to do abstract analysis on every aspect. The
quote “I know you think for a living. But I can think better about your work than you can” represents the
attitude of process analysts aptly. (Pg 75) A warning is made in adapting process design as an
engineering discipline as there is very less focus on the practical aspects in this method. When combining
process and practice, six implications are given which are quite implementable. One of them is “Use the
Golden Rule of Process Management. Ask yourself, Would I want to have my job analysed and
redesigned on the fashion that I am doing it to others” (Pg 76-77)
Different types of process interventions are given. The prominent being „Participative‟ so that knowledge
workers are involved in the process lifecycle with changes implemented gradually and not in a single go.
The author extends this to two more factors – incremental and continuous and relates the example of Six
Sigma that has adopted at a global level.GE is a pioneer with it „Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)‟. (Pg 78 ).
Ernst & Young is credited for its “Power-pack” – a toolkit on the methods to propose projects to clients by
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5. Thinking for a Living – Book Reading
improving their order management processes. A mention on the now famous „agile‟ process is done
which shows less focus on specific steps and more on the urgency of the output. Extreme programming is
one such technique which uses agile methodology (Pg 78-81)
Personal Critique
I found this chapter to be quite good as it brings in the process perspective which is quite scientific and
less risk prone. KM is shown as a technology oriented movement instead of a process which is quite
startling as the author is seen as a KM pioneer. The talk about „fuzzy front end‟ process of new product
development is quite good and informative.
Chapter 5 – Organizational Technology for Knowledge Workers
Summary
This chapter focuses on the technology aspect of knowledge work. It looks at the cost vs trade-offs of
using certain technologies that aid knowledge workers in their job activities. The author comes up with the
conclusion that technologies will work out if they fit into the context of jobs.
Key Points
Technologies work at two level- Organizational level and individual level with specific set of tools. The
author builds on the different knowledge worker models mentioned in chapter 2 with the organizational
technologies applicable for each model. Some of them are Decision automation, Embedded knowledge,
Knowledge reuse and Data mining. Of these, Decision automation is common to all models. (Pg 87) Two
unfulfilled pervasive dreams with regard to knowledge worker and technology are mentioned “One of that
is knowledge workers would be able to easily access all of the data…” and “the second dream is that
knowledge itself – typically unstructured, textual knowledge-could be easily captured, shared and applied
to knowledge work”. (Pg 88)
A brief history about Decision Support Systems are provided starting with Management Decision Support
Systems(MDSS) to the latest Multi-dimensional Online Analytical Processing (MOLAP) and some of their
shortcomings are mentioned with regard to computer augmented decision making. Failure of Artificial
Intelligence is provided with few examples. One of them being “The knowledge intended for the system
was difficult to extract from the expert‟s brain” (Pg 89-90)
Interestingly, author also talks about the failure of KM with the employees failing to contribute their
knowledge to knowledge bases thereby becoming stale systems. Technologies that embed knowledge
into jobs are the ones that are highly successful as the employee doesn‟t have to spend additional time in
looking for it. An integration of Business Process and Knowledge Management could be a good thing for
the enterprise. (Pg 90-92)
The author takes the case of Partner Healthcare in mentioning many successful implementations of
embedding knowledge into the actual work of doctors, surgeons and other hospital staffs. Some of the
implementations are Knowledge base, logic modules with integrated patient record system, clinical
decision support system, even management system for alerts and intranet portals. (P 94-96)
Some important factors are highlighted along the chapter. A prominent one is the prioritizing which
processes and knowledge domains to address and Developing a measurement and improvement culture.
(Pg 96-98) Medical informatics is mentioned as a new area with focused IT support for healthcare
domain. British Telecom‟s role specific portals and its high usage as per the worker profile are mentioned.
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6. Thinking for a Living – Book Reading
Towards the end of the chapter, the author talks about social networking software or socialware that
could benefit employees in an organization.
Personal Critique
From this chapter, the author begins to look a bit hackneyed and outdated. He gives some silly reasons of
not able to connect to wifi to show how handling technology can be tough. He gives an indirect reference
to the failure of KM as an organizational technology which could have been avoided as many KM critics
may take this point and highlight it. The author shows his reclusiveness to social tools like blogging by
saying that it is not that useful. I personally think blogging was very new in 2005 and that‟s the reason,
the author might have seen it that way.
Chapter 6 – Developing Individual Knowledge Worker Capabilities
Summary
This chapter focuses on the personal improvement of knowledge workers on correlation to information
and knowledge management. The author talks about three types of companies – first one that addresses
the change, the second one that thinks change will happen in due course of time and the third one that
doesn‟t want to change.
Key Points
The author again makes reference to software industry for its processes called Personal Software
Process (PSP) and Team Software Process (TSP) that underline enforcement of improvement at
individual and group level. Xerox is mentioned for its conducting of periodical meetings which is very
important to knowledge workers. (Pg 112-114)
A series of research projects conducted by Information Work Productivity Council (IWPC) is highlighted
here. Findings of two classes of managers – Information managers and Knowledge managers are
brought to the reader. Companies that have invested in Personal information and knowledge
management like Cisco‟s „Change the way we work‟, Capital One‟s Experimentation methods, Intel‟s
eWorkforce and Novartis‟s „Global Head of Knowledge Culture‟ are of prominence.
In the section of Measuring and Increasing Individual Performance, Microsoft is highlighted for its unique
approach of designing products that handle all the required change by themselves and not expecting
users to change their behaviors while using MSFT products. Communities of Practice approach of Xerox
is mainly used to bring together different types of workers to collaborate and share knowledge. (Pg 119-
121)
In terms of accessing information for work related activity, Pull approach is much preferred than Push
approach as users would only want to get information which they want and not other unnecessary
information. This inference is made based on a survey. (Pg 127) Other survey findings indicate that
young staffs are far better in technology when compared to others, quite expectedly.
Personal Critique
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7. Thinking for a Living – Book Reading
Some of the research findings in this chapter are clearly outdated as technology adaption in companies
has grown leaps and bounds. The distinction between information and knowledge managers is not that
clear, the same could be said for information and knowledge workers. Overall, I found this chapter to be
not very useful mainly because it is outdated.
Chapter 7 – Investing in Knowledge Workers’ Networks and Learning
Summary
This chapter focuses on the learning aspect starting with on how workers solve problems by finding the
required information. Comparison is done between „idea based firms‟ and „product based firms‟ to see if
they are any stark differences in the way information is searched for and results show that there are very
little differences. The author concludes the chapter by mentioning that organizations are caring less about
the traditional mentoring programs and investing more on e-learning systems that may not always yield
the expected results.
Key Points
The author starts the chapter talking high performing workers and the importance that they give to their
human social networks for getting what they want. There is a section on the different ways Knowledge
workers find information – Individual Expertise, Internal Networks and Personal Networks. The author
then concentrates on the successful traits of high performing workers 1.) Continuous learning through
experience 2.) Ability to mix many disciplines 3.) More Risk taking 4.) Focus 5.) Asking others for help 6.)
Being social butterflies and 7.) Prioritizing activities. Overall, the key aspects are Experiential learning,
technology use and networks.
Under the managerial implications section, the author mentions about the combo of CoP and expertise
locator in being useful for employees to leverage networks and find information thereby forming a human
resource chain. One interest aspect of some organization is hiring people who have a flair for
collaboration, particularly using tools like Critical Incident Technique to simulate how one will perform in a
particular situation. At the end of the section, certain key attributes like communicate, model and reward
behaviors supportive of collaborative culture are deemed important for leaders. A mention is a made
about some key initiatives taken by companies like HP with its Yellow Pages application, 3i with its
„InterAction‟ system which is based on Relationship Intelligence to achieve its „one-room‟ corporate
strategy while expanding its global presence.
Personal Critique
Some of the sub sections in this chapter seemed redundant while reading. For example, the talk about
individual expertise and the sub sections in „Investing in Personal Networks‟. This chapter is much better
than the last two chapters as very good toolkits such as AAR and Critical incident techniques are
mentioned with good references made to companies.
Chapter 8 – The Physical Work Environment and Knowledge Worker Performance
Summary
This chapter focuses on a comparatively less important aspect of the physical work environment to
improve knowledge worker performance. The author shows some evidence on how this aspect could be
of good change. The chapter concludes with some suggestion on tweaking the work space as per the
worker model
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8. Thinking for a Living – Book Reading
Key Points
The chapter starts off with some observation on knowledge workers with respect to the physical work
environment. Some of the prominent ones are Knowledge workers prefer closed offices but seem to
communicate better in open ones, Knowledge workers move around in the course of their work,
Knowledge workers communicate with people who are close by and Knowledge workers don’t care about
facilities gewgaws. One important aspect that is uncovered here is that most knowledge workers prefer
Telecommuting these days.
The author remarks that most companies that experiment a lot with the work environment fail to measure
the improvements achieved from them. A classic case of „fad, fashion and faith‟ but notes that finance is
the most important factor with respect to changes as the firm needs to have the money to spend on this
aspect. Some examples are given. DEGW‟s „city as office‟ that provides a layout based on a employee‟s
choice, Cisco‟s shared language concept that brings together people from different departments to make
decisions that are acceptable to all.
A set of work settings recommendations is given by a matrix based on two dimensions – Degree of
segmentation of group work setting and Degree of individual choice. This matrix is quite useful for
companies to make decisions with respect to changes in the physical work environment. The author
concludes the chapter by posing a set of questions that firms can ask themselves to decide on the
physical work environment changes. Some of them are How homogenous is your organization? and How
important is it for your organization to align knowledge workers’ needs and their work settings?
Personal Critique
The biggest flaw with this chapter is that no pictures have been used when talking about physical work
environment which is quite a basic expectation from a user. But the author makes up with good
observations and good pointers to this slightly trivial aspect of physical work environment in a company‟s
viewpoint as telecommuting has become the norm these days.
Chapter 9 – Managing Knowledge Workers
Summary
In this final chapter, the author gives recommendations based on the facts of the preceding chapters. It
talks about the changing times with respect to people management which has evolved from authoritarian
style to „one among you‟ style. Emphasis is shown on the measuring and learning aspects from the new
approaches that are implemented in terms of improving knowledge worker performance. The selection of
factor such as technology, physical work environment is termed important. Author advises change
implementers to go for a holistic and long term approach instead of going for short term wins.
Key Points
The author starts the chapter by looking at some traditional views of management. He cites the
bureaucracy concept that was followed for a long time. In the section where the new management
priorities are laid out, some of the important ones are From overseeing work to doing it too, From hiring
and firing workers to recruiting and retaining them and From supporting bureaucracy to fending it off.
The key aspects are as follows
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9. Thinking for a Living – Book Reading
1.) Managing and doing knowledge work
2.) Building knowledge work communities
3.) Recruiting and Retaining Knowledge workers
4.) Building and propagating knowledge skills
5.) Creating a knowledge friendly culture
6.) Fending off bureaucracy
7.) Sourcing of knowledge work
At the conclusion of the chapter, the author mentions few key hygiene factors related to knowledge
age – Some of the prominent ones are Putting the organization in context, Brokering and learning
from dissent, Orchestrating group decisions, Enabling boundary-spanning and Facilitating social
networks
Personal Critique
I found this last chapter to be quite perspective as the author looks to serve some lazy readers who would
want to get all the key points from the whole book in a single chapter. But the finishing punch was missing
and ending was quite bland.
Final Verdict
A book which would have been heralded by KM purists in 2005 but not so much in 2012 as the scenario
has changed rapidly. American writers like Daniel Pink have already made a point that developing
countries are in the conceptual age now which is the next age after knowledge or information age.
Therefore, this book which centers itself on the information age needs to be relooked by the author but
never the less; it is great read for a managerial aspirant.
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