In your opinion, what are the essential impulses your Austrian compatriot Peter Drucker left?

Richard Straub: He recognized the importance of knowledge, and already 1969 he engendered the idea of the "knowledge worker" in his book "The Age of Discontinuity: Guidelines to Our Changing Society". In it he describes the change from the industrial age to the knowledge era and the specific importance of this new category, as well as the importance of knowledge as a production factor.

Which of his theses do you consider to be the most important - in view of today's developments?

Richard Straub: He emphasized the independence and personal responsibility of knowledge workers and demonstrated their characteristics. In his world of ideas the knowledge worker is the one who knows best how to achieve his designated task. In companies this has consequences for the management, and above all for the support of the knowledge workers with an environment that encourages continuous learning and cooperative processes. Those should never be subject to narrow bounds because the main characteristic of the knowledge worker - according to Drucker - is autonomy, individual responsibility.


The knowledge worker has to understand his own task and has to design his working place accordingly. Only then does the technology come into play. At this point the individualization and personalization of the working places is guided by the question: Which resources do I need to fulfill my task?

And is it correct to say that this requires an unmistakable clarity between employer and employee concerning the definition of the task?

Richard Straub: That's the first step: the clarification of the question "What is the task?" - in collaboration with management and one's colleagues. Accordingly, learning and knowledge that so far have been integrated rigorously now have to be personalized.

What would be the next step?

Richard Straub: The next question is the one concerning the productivity of the knowledge. Peter Drucker here draws an interesting comparison. At the end of the last century, the biggest known increase in productivity - based on the findings of Frederick W. Taylor - was achieved by analysis and a more efficient design of manual work. Productivity increased fifty times within 100 years and contributed to a strongly improved material situation for all classes.

So the next question will be the one for the productivity of knowledge work. Up to now not nearly enough attention has been paid to this question. Will email and blogs prove to increase productivity? This is still impossible to predict. We have to ask ourselves how much empty communication is developing from these tools so far and what we can do to achieve better results.

But aren't we at present only at the very beginning concerning the use of this tool set?

Richard Straub: Yes, we are still in the phase of experimentation, and a "dominant design" in the widest sense doesn't exist yet. Although we've made great strides the last ten years, we haven't got far enough to make the best possible use of those tools.

At the moment one of the greatest challenges in knowledge working is not to be overwhelmed by the torrent of information but to transform it into something that will make us more productive. But in the next five years I expect some quantum leaps relating to how people will be able to individualize and use their working place.

Where do you see the biggest potential?

Richard Straub: I see a big potential in technologies that provide so to speak a tool box for the design and individualization of working places. It is very important that they are based on open standards because only this way the possibility is left open to integrate a multitude of heterogeneous applications at the working place.

For me the IBM experience with the introduction of community tools based on "Instant Messenging" serves as an example from reality. Nowadays if I want to discuss a relevant topic, I post it to the community "Electronic Mentoring" or other similar communities because the self-image of the knowledge workers is decisive for the experience to get competent answers quickly.

But the essential point is that a company only furnishes the employees with the tools - without making any prescriptions. As a result, I would - in the sense of Peter Drucker - put a question mark behind the idea that a company is able to control the flow of information centrally and in detail.

Experience shows that the more I give the employees a free hand, the more customizing I allow, the more the knowledge will flow.