Measuring knowledge worker productivity: A taxonomy

Abstract

The structure of the economy continues to change; where once they are dependent on the productivity of a manual workforce, companies increasingly depend on the productivity of knowledge workers. Today, knowledge workers account for more than two-thirds of the workforce, and thus should be the focus of strategic plans to improve productivity. Currently there are no universally accepted methods to measure knowledge worker productivity, or even generally accepted categories. This paper provides a taxonomy of knowledge worker productivity measurements, and identifies a number of productivity dimensions that are used to categorize the findings of previous research. Also describes the relative density of discussions along these dimensions and identifies critical areas for future research. © 2004, Emerald Group Publishing Limited