Meta-functional expertise

Meta-functional expertise is the breadth of one’s strategically important knowledge. It differs from the traditional conceptualization of expertise, which is generally considered to be a great depth of knowledge in a defined area, and where thus experts are people who are distinguished as knowing a lot about a particular subject. Comparatively, a meta-functional expert is considered to be somewhat knowledgeable in many different areas but not necessarily an expert in any single domain.

Compared to generalists

Someone high on meta-functional expertise is similar to a in that they have a wide array of knowledge. However, where generalists know many different things meta-functional experts have enough depth of knowledge in each area to be considered knowledgeable by other members of their team at work.

Results of meta-functional expertise

Individuals high on meta-functional expertise are:

• Better able to acquire social power at work because they can translate between s.
• More successful as entrepreneurs
• More innovative
• More likely to get promoted at work
• Better able to get information from people outside of their work team

Groups with more meta-functional experts on them perform better because they:

• Communicate better with one another and share more ideas
• Understand their surroundings better
• Gain knowledge external to the group more efficiently
• Are more innovative

See also

• Interdisciplinarity, utilization of specialist knowledge from several areas to solve a problem
• Interdiscipline, a discipline based on several disciplines, but which can also be considered an independent discipline

References