The Bazaar as a Model for Knowledge Work

ABSTRACT This paper presents fieldwork that extends existing metaphors of knowledge work as a process shaped by hierarchical or market forces. A qualitative, ethnographic study of six knowledge‐intensive businesses in two countries identifies striking parallels with the Middle Eastern bazaar in contrast to Western impersonal markets and hierarchies. We induce eight attributes of knowledge bazaars from our data: (1) inseparability of production and exchange, (2) multiple currencies, (3) centrality of time and place, (4) the primacy of intrinsic over extrinsic rewards, (5) the primacy of clientelism over formal reporting, (6) the primacy of brokerage over formal reporting, (7) the primacy of random interaction over linear information search, and (8) the primacy of reputation building over formal titles. We conclude that knowledge exchange in our sample is continually shaped by both social and economic forces within the community and by the continual flow of goods and services from the environment. This perspective highlights several novel implications for the management of knowledge work. In addition, we offer two major practical implications: (i) Different from some settings, withholding information in a knowledge bazaar is negative for all involved but especially for the party withholding and (ii) in the knowledge bazaar, rigid formal reward systems are likely to disrupt the dynamic equilibrium that permits the generation of effective novel solutions.