Worker with T-Shaped Skills
A Worker with T-Shaped Skills is a knowledge worker who combine the benefits of deep problem-solving skills in one work domain, with broad complex-communication skills across many areas.
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- Counter-Example(s):
- See: Scrum (Software Development), Interdisciplinary, Agile Software Development.
References
2020
- (Wikipedia, 2020) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-shaped_skills Retrieved:2020-4-28.
- The concept of T-shaped skills, or T-shaped persons is a metaphor used in job recruitment to describe the abilities of persons in the workforce. The vertical bar on the letter T represents the depth of related skills and expertise in a single field, whereas the horizontal bar is the ability to collaborate across disciplines with experts in other areas and to apply knowledge in areas of expertise other than one's own.
The earliest popular reference is by David Guest in 1991. [1] Tim Brown, CEO of the IDEO design consultancy, endorsed this approach to résumé assessment as a method to build interdisciplinary work teams for creative processes. Earlier references can be found; [2] in the 1980s the term "T-shaped man" was used internally by McKinsey & Company for recruiting and developing consultants and partners, both male and female.
The term T-shaped skills is also common in the agile software development world and refers to the need for cross-skilled developers and testers in an agile team, e.g. a scrum team. In 2017 TCS launched a proprietary mechanism to quantify the T-shape for its employees, named T-Factor.
- The concept of T-shaped skills, or T-shaped persons is a metaphor used in job recruitment to describe the abilities of persons in the workforce. The vertical bar on the letter T represents the depth of related skills and expertise in a single field, whereas the horizontal bar is the ability to collaborate across disciplines with experts in other areas and to apply knowledge in areas of expertise other than one's own.
- ↑ "The hunt is on for the Renaissance Man of computing," in The Independent, September 17, 1991.
- ↑ Johnston, D. L. (1978). Scientists Become Managers-The "T"-Shaped Man. IEEE Engineering Management Review, 6(3), 67–68. doi:10.1109/emr.1978.4306682
2010
- (Donofrio et al., 2010) ⇒ Nicholas Donofrio, Jim Spohrer, Hossein S. Zadeh, and H. Demirkan. (2010). “Driven Medical Education and Practice: A Case for T-shaped Professionals.” MJA Viewpoint
- QUOTE: ... For example, the growth of ageing populations has been flagged by World Health Organization (WHO) as one of three global challenges likely to overwhelm struggling health systems [1]. This viewpoint makes a case for T-shaped professionals. T-shaped professionals combine the benefits of deep problem-solving skills in one area, with broad complex-communication skills across many areas. As knowledge growth continues unabated and technology augments both human problem solving and communications, this is one way forward that is coming into focus. A case for T-shaped professionals in medicine is made in the following sections. First, relevant characteristics of research-driven medical education and practice must be considered, expanding on the points above. Second, the origins and arguments for T-shaped professionals in other areas, such at the fast changing world of Information Technology (IT) and knowledge-intensive business services, will be reviewed. ...