Employee Expertises: The Status of the Theory and the Literature

Employee expertise has emerged as one of the key concepts of the human performance profession. Yet the research base of the concept is incomplete. Despite a spate of publications on the subject and frequent use of the term, our understanding of the antecedents, processes, and consequences of employee expertise is limited. Awareness of these limitations is important to professionals who are intent on developing work place expertise. To the scholar, these limitations offer opportunities for further investigation and research. To increase the level of understanding of this important concept and to guide further scholarly inquiry, the author summarizes and critically reviews the status of the research literature on expertise: its definitions, methodological approaches, theories, substantive research findings, and issues surrounding the development of expertise. The author concludes by proposing an agenda for future research and theory development.