Measuring quality in knowledge work sounds formidable. In practice, it defines itself.
In some knowledge work—and especially in some work requiring a high degree of knowledge—we already measure quality. Surgeons, for instance, are routinely measured, by their success rates in difficult and dangerous procedures, for example, by the survival rates of their open-heart surgical patients. But by and large we have, so far, mainly judgments rather than measures regarding the quality of a great deal of knowledge work. The main trouble is, however, not the difficulty of measuring quality. It is the difficulty in defining what the task is and what it should be.
The best example is the American school. Public schools in the American inner city have become disaster areas. But next to them—in the same location and serving the same kinds of children—are private schools in which the kids behave well and learn well. There is endless speculation to explain these enormous quality differences. But a major reason is surely that the two kinds of schools define their tasks differently. The typical public school defines its task as “helping the underprivileged”; the typical private school (and especially the parochial schools of the Catholic church) define their task as “enabling those who want to learn, to learn.” One therefore is governed by its scholastic failures, the other one by its scholastic successes.
ACTION POINT: Define quality for your job.
Management Challenges for the 21st Century
* Source: The Daily Drucker by Peter F. Drucker