Meta-functional expertise

Meta-functional expertise is the breadth of one’s strategically important knowledge.^[1] 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 generalist 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.^[2]

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 specialists.^[3][4]
• More successful as entrepreneurs^[5]
• More innovative^[6]
• More likely to get promoted at work^[7]
• Better able to get information from people outside of their work team^[8][9]

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

• Communicate better with one another and share more ideas ^[10][11]
• Understand their surroundings better ^[12]
• Gain knowledge external to the group more efficiently^[13]
• Are more innovative^[14]

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