Knowledge Intensive Services' Suppliers and Clients

31
2.3 Sociology
In contrast to the economic approaches, sociological studies are typically less
concerned with the impacts of KIBS on economic performance than with more
traditionally sociological issues. They thus pose questions about the nature and
functioning of KIBS and the KIBS-client relationship that have to do with social
relations, power structures, the origins of categories, and the like. Relatively few
sociologists have actually sought to grapple with KIBS, and the construct “KIBS”
is rarely used by them. But there are several lines of relevant sociological research,
for example those that raise issues of the social structures involved in professional
knowledge systems, the operation of markets for “knowledge workers”, and the
role of knowledge-based organisations in social networks.
Professionalisation
The literature on the emergence and consolidation of professions is one fruitful
field to consider, with useful pointers to the formation of professional and
disciplinary enclaves which have trouble communicating with each other. 12 Some
KIBS are prone to this problem (with their own jargon, etc.) – but others can be seen
as specialising in bridging such gaps, as translating knowledge for other
parties. Abbott (1988) sees professions in terms of their practices (we discuss
“communities of practice” later).These involve:
• Diagnosis – the process wherein information about the client is taken
into a professional knowledge system and assembled into a picture of
the client’s problem.
• Inference – problem classification.
• Treatment – the process whereby results are given back to the client and
prescriptions are offered.
He goes on to consider the processes by which problems are assigned to specific
professions, academic knowledge is generated and integrated into operations,
legitimacy is mobilised where clients are reluctant to accept treatment, etc. There
are insights here as to when things are organised as external KIBS or as internal
12 Abbott notes that “the tasks of professions are to provide expert service to amend human problems”
(p 33). See also his intriguing Chaos of Disciplines University of Chicago Press, 2001; this uses
fractal analysis as a metaphor for the proliferation of disciplines and subdisciplines, arguing that the
same fundamental dichotomies (or other distinctions) tend to be reproduced again and again as the
social systems grow evermore complex. The approach can be used for professional systems in
general.