The Frontiers of Management: Where Tomorrow's Decisions Are Being Shaped Today

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Measuring White-Collar Productivity

IN THE UNITED STATES, WHITE-COLLAR workers now substantially outnumber blue-collar workers, and they absorb an even larger share of the total wage bill. They account, for instance, for almost two-thirds of total hospital costs. Even in traditional blue-collar industries, automobiles, for instance, the total wage bill for white-collar workers is by now almost equal to that of the blue-collar force. Yet few managements seem much concerned with white-collar productivity. Their excuse: “No one knows how to measure it.”

But this is simply not true. The yardsticks we have may be crude, but they are ...