Quinary Activities

Quinary activities sit at the very top of the service sector pyramid. These are not routine services; they are the work of the highest-level decision makers and policy makers. While the quinary sector in general deals with knowledge-based industries, quinary activities themselves are subtly different — they focus on the creation, re-arrangement, and interpretation of new and existing ideas, along with data interpretation and the use and evaluation of new technologies.

People in these roles are often called ‘gold collar’ professionals. They represent a special subdivision of the tertiary sector, marked by highly paid, specialised skills. Examples include senior business executives, government officials, research scientists, and financial and legal consultants. Their importance in advanced economies far outweighs their small numbers.

Outsourcing — contracting work to an outside agency to improve efficiency and reduce costs — has reshaped where these services are performed. When outsourcing involves moving work to overseas locations, it is called off-shoring (though the two terms are often used together). Outsourcing has opened up a large number of call centres in countries like India, China, Eastern Europe, Israel, Philippines, and Costa Rica, creating new jobs there. These are also countries that have traditionally seen out-migration; with work available through outsourcing, that migration may decrease.

The main reason outsourcing continues is comparative advantage — companies can get work done more cheaply while maintaining quality. However, outsourcing countries face resistance from job-seeking youths in their own countries who see jobs moving abroad.

New trends in quinary services include:

• Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) — distinct from Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) because it involves highly skilled workers. It is information-driven knowledge outsourcing that enables companies to create additional business opportunities. Examples include R&D activities, e-learning, business research, intellectual property (IP) research, legal profession, and banking.
• ‘Home shoring’ — an alternative to outsourcing, where work is brought back to the home country. …