The Relation of Knowledge Intensity to Productivity Assessment Preferences and Cultural Differences

Abstract

The authors investigate commonalities and differences in productivity assessment preferences among managers from two different cultural settings, one in the US and the other in China. They also investigate these differences for two knowledge intensity levels to inform how the type of work being assessed affects these preferences. The results illustrate significant differences among the two organizations, among the knowledge intensity levels, and that these results are generally dependent on the specific measures of performance being evaluated. The US organization's managers tended to view quality as the most important metric for the high knowledge intensity work, and customer satisfaction as the most important metric for the low knowledge intensity work. The Chinese managers viewed innovation as the most important metric for the high knowledge intensity level jobs, and quality as the most important metric for the low knowledge intensity level jobs. These results indicate that utility-based work productivity model can be used as an evaluation tool to measure knowledge work productivity.