I have been following this thread on knowledge workers pretty closely. By
coincidence, today I received the latest edition of "Fast Company"
magazine in the mail. As is usually the case, I dropped everything to
read the magazine and proceed through it slowly cover to cover. The whole
issue is devoted to start-up companies, but in the process of discussing
this, deals with what it takes to motivate and retain "knowledge workers."
The most facinating piece is one on a cleaning company in Finland (yes,
"janitors). It is a highly successful company that has doubled it's
revenues in a very short time period. The company treats its employees
who actually perform cleaning duties as knowledge workers. Explains a lot
about thier incredible profits. What a way to develop an organization, if
you apply this concept to all workers, even those who perform what we may
catagorize as menial and repetitive jobs. Highly recommended reading!
-- Debbie Broome e-mail: debbieb@linux.plano.gov Assistant City Manager phone: 972-461-7465 City of Plano Texas fax: 972-423-9587 P.O. Box 860358 Plano, TX 75086-0358Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>