Does knowledge worker productivity really matter?

Experts of specific domains form the fastest increasing workforce in the OECD countries. Since this fact has been realised by management researchers, they have focussed on the question of how to measure and enhance the productivity of said workforce. According to the author’s research, it is, however, not the measurement and enhancement of an expert’s productivity which is to be regarded as the crucial challenge in the management of experts. The author, moreover, has identified five success factors which impose specific challenges on the management of experts. This paper summarises the key arguments for aforementioned perspective, based on empirical research carried out by the author. It defines parameters that constitute expert performance and delineates the implications of this perspective for the theory of and the practice in managing experts. -- Expert ; knowledge worker ; professional ; performance ; productivity ; management