Thinking for a Living

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Managing Knowledge Workers

How should knowledge workers be managed in order to extract the highest possible level of performance and results? How should a manager or leader act within a knowledge-intensive organization? How does knowledge work management differ from the other, more traditional forms of management? This is a somewhat familiar area, unlike the physical facilities for knowledge work I discussed in the previous chapter; we already know a good deal about how best to manage knowledge work—in part because some of the received wisdom about managing knowledge workers also applies to other types of workers. Some might argue that the attributes of good managers and leaders in general are also the attributes of good managers and leaders ...