Most organizations know their headcount, budgets, and
strategy—but not their work. They cannot see how workload develops and moves,
where capability breaks, how culture interferes, or how much productive
capacity their systems quietly waste. And HR—expected to solve everything from
burnout to performance to workforce planning—is left to do the impossible
without the one thing it needs most: visibility into the work itself.
Measuring Work and Productive Capacity
changes the discipline of people management. It reveals a complete,
evidence-based operating system to better understand workload, utilization,
human energy, capability, culture, and capacity—all integrated into a practical
framework HR and enterprise leaders can use to diagnose, design, and strengthen
the organization.
This book gives HR and OD professionals a level of analytical
power traditionally reserved for operations, strategy, and finance. It exposes
why organizations burn out, why hiring fails, why culture programmes misfire,
and why “more headcount” is almost always the wrong answer.
Provocative, practical, and deeply grounded in real-work
dynamics, this book introduces a new science of organizational performance—one
that finally places HR at the strategic center.
If you want to build an organization that can actually
deliver, adapt, and thrive under real-world conditions, start by measuring the
work.
Table of Contents:
Introduction:
Measuring Work: From Invisible Labor to
Organizational Intelligence
- Workload
Analysis: Introducing Approaches & Methods
- Understanding
“Load” Task Environment & Objectivity
- Task-Centric
Methods: With Applications & Examples
- Process-Centric
Methods: With Task-Centric Synthesis
- Resource
Utilization: Effective Time & Productive Capacity
- Output,
Throughput, and Quality: Connecting Quantity to Value
- Time
& Energy as Metrics: Perceived Workload
- The
Value Framework: Value, Ethics, and Governance
- Organization
Capability: Linking Load, Utilization, and Output
- Work
& Culture: The Context of Performance
- Organization
Capacity: Planning Sustainable Productivity
- Final
Synthesis & Strategic Action
Appendices
A. Companion
Workload Methods Cheat Sheets (1-3)
B. Worked
Example: Capability Assessment & Work
Glossary
About the Author
Notes & References
About the Author :
Dr. Patrick Duffy is an organization scientist,
advisor, and author specializing in organization capability, governance, and
workforce systems. With more than 30 years of experience across government,
business, and the nonprofit sector, he has worked with senior leaders on
strategy execution, structural design, cultural transformation, and performance
improvement.
He holds a doctorate and MPhil in organization science
from Universidad San Antonio de Murcia, an MBA from Cardiff University, an MSc
from Bangor University, a postgraduate diploma from the London School of
Economics, and an MA from the University of Leicester. His work positions
organization capability as a measurable executive responsibility and focuses on
translating evidence into operating practice.
