Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!tank!arch_ems@gsbacd.uchicago.edu
From: arch_ems@gsbacd.uchicago.edu
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Low Productivity of Knowledge Workers
Message-ID: <5431@tank.uchicago.edu>
Date: 17 Sep 89 16:12:29 GMT
Sender: news@tank.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Graduate School of Business
Lines: 75

>I recently heard Michael Scott-Morton give a talk in which he
>asserted that U. S. knowledge worker productivity has not been increased
>by all of our personal computers.  I was also told that there
>was a fairly recent Fortune Magazine article making the same point.
> 
>1. Can anyone provide references to research on this question?
> 
>2. If this is true, would you care to speculate on why?

A number of responses have been posted to this query but they all have seemed
to skirt an interesting reason... One poster noted that computers allow users
to do all sorts of things that couldn't be done before -- another poster noted
that 'productivity' was measured in $ of revenue/# of employees.  There are
two productivity issues which cannot be directly imparted by a $/# calculation.
Both have to do with competitiveness and both (_I_ think) are directly affected
by computerization: Quality and Complexity.  Let me explain --

QUALITY

Frankly, I cringe now when I, as a business person, receive a handwritten note
of more than five words or a typed resume.  I have an expectation that people
will use word-processors, and laser printers and desk-top publishing to produce
correspondance and important documents like resumes.  The standards have gone
up regarding the proper public image that an individual or business must
present and there is a corresponding increase in cost to produce the higher
quality correspondance and publications.  If businesses and individuals don't
live up to this quality mandate, they will suffer in the marketplace -- images
have a lot to do with sales.  In addition, there are all sorts of expectations
about document delivery.  Ten years ago, what was the average cost of mailing
things to your business associates?  Today, how many fax machines does your
business have and how many Federal Express packages do you send a month? (week,
day?)  This is an increase in the cost of doing business.  It directly affects
productivity and it is the direct affect of "technology."  But again, if you
didn't meet this quality expectation, your business would suffer in the
marketplace.  Finally, there are a lot of expectations regarding the presen-
tation of materials now that just didn't apply ten years ago.  Graphics, charts,
intricate lay out -- all are now a part of the basic documents that not to
long ago were pure text.  This added quality in the material presentation costs
money -- further eroding "productivity."  But again -- it is necessary to do
these things in order to compete.

COMPLEXITY

The speed of business transactions and their complexity has expanded as
quickly as our increased computing and telecommunications.  Many more companies
today are operating across international boundaries, in geographically
disparate offices, and with highly time sensitive data.  Frankly, there
are a lot of businesses that are just not possible without the complex
infrastructure of technology -- how do you compute that into "productivity?"
I mentioned Federal Express before -- how could that business survive without
computation?  The reason they can charge so much to move a couple of pieces
of paper across country for is you is not only because you know it will get
their overnight -- but also because if it doesn't you can call them and the
person in Nebraska who answers your call from Boston will know that your
package to San Francisco is in a delivery truck crossing the Bay Bridge, en
route from Oakland (and can also probably tell you that it went to Oakland
because you got the zip code wrong, and can tell you the name of the person
who will deliver the package and the time within five minutes of when it 
will be delivered.  And I think that is a simple example of the complexity
that computers allow -- 


Now, everyone reading this probably understands intimately the technology
that makes all of this possible but you might not have thought about it as
part of the bottom line -- there are some other offsets to productivity
that are important to consider: training, sunk costs for equipment and
networking, system administration, and increased information needs.  But
the point is -- we are able to do more and more and must in order to 
remain competitive.

--Ted

Edward Shelton, Project Manager
ARCH Development Corporation
arch_ems@gsbacd.uchicago.edu