Th e search for technical talent in the United States has become very
competitive (Christopher, 2006). Knowledge workers are the fastest growing
talent pool in most organizations. About 48 million of the 137 million
workers in the United States alone can be classifi ed in this group; a single
company can employ upward of 100,000 knowledge workers. Th ey create
more profi t than other employees, and their work requires minimal oversight.
Yet the performance of knowledge-intensive companies within the
same industry varies signifi cantly, which suggests that some companies
struggle to extract value from this special workforce. What’s more, the
technology supporting work has created faster and better ways to share
information, and that further drives the demand for such workers and
their potential impact (Guthridge et al., 2008).