Walter advises that he has been "approached by an academic associate to
co-lecture a course on "managing the knowledge worker."
I fancy myself knowledgeable on that topic, Walter, so I'l make a comment
or two.
First off, you can't and I can't manage knowledge workers. They manage
themselves or they're not managed at all. (See p.259 in Peter Drucker's
1973 book, Management.) What you can do is manage knowledge work, but
that's a far cry from managing knowledge workers.
I heartily encourage you and anyone else with an interest in managing
knowledge work to read two of Peter Drucker's older books: The Age of
Discontinuity (1968 or 1969) and Management (1973). In both of these he
delves deeply into the nature of knowledge work and knowledge workers, and
what it takes to manage the former and make the latter achieving.
I'm no Peter Drucker but I've been interested in the shift to knowledge
work for 30 years and even written a piece or two about it. You'll find
these at my little web site...
http://home.att.net/~nickols/articles.htm
Once there, look for the following:
The Autonomous Performer
What Is in The World of Work and Working
Making Work Productive
The reference sections will point you to some other, very good sources.
Good luck, Walter
Regards,
Fred Nickols
The Distance Consulting Company
nickols@worldnet.att.net
http://home.att.net/~nickols/distance.htm
"The Internet offers the best graduate-level education
to be found anywhere."
--Fred Nickols <nickols@worldnet.att.net>
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