White-Collar Worker Productivity: Challenges In Finland

The paper focuses on knowledge worker productivity assessment (KWPA), a method originally developed to support the productivity measurement of knowledge workers within an organisation. The aim is to ascertain whether white-collar workers' productivity drivers at macro-level can be identified by the KWPA; whether the drivers are robust to make general analysis and, furthermore, also suitable for research purposes. In addition, the objective is to identify problems related to the current state of Finnish white-collar workers' productivity by utilising the set of drivers. The empirical data includes questionnaire responses from a total of 840 Finnish white-collar workers representing different organisations and professional groups. This study provides evidence of that white-collar workers' productivity drivers at macro-level can be identified by the KWPA and also seem to be usable for purposes of scientific research. In addition, new information on the current state of Finnish white-collar workers' productivity is provided suggesting that e.g., rewarding policies and feedback practices are the biggest challenges in productivity improvement.