ORGANIZED KNOWLEDGE-BASED WORK

This text takes the perspective that knowledge-based work has become a sociological topic because it is a core element in the transition fro m industrial society to the information society. The proliferation of information processing work invites a revision of the theory of the fi rm because the work of ''symbolic analysts'' extends from the activiti es of persons to the shaping of operational modes of ''intelligent org anizations.'' Organized information processing work uses the process o f organizing to transform knowledge to a critical factor in production , one which underlie the essential core competencies of organizational learning and systemic innovation. This paper delineates several cruci al aspects of the concept of the information society as well as some a spects of intelligent organizations. It uses this framework to describ e knowledge-based work in more detail. Short case studies on corporate consulting and financial services illustrate specific forms of this e xpertise. The sociologically most relevant consequences of the argumen t of the paper point to the vanishing role of the nation state (and na tional economies) in influencing the fate of work and to the increasin g role of knowledge as a factor in production.