Case Processing and Interorganizational Knowledge: Detecting the "Real Reasons" for Referrals

Abstract

Research on referrals in social control decision-making has focused on referral sources and outcomes, neglecting actual processes of making and accepting referrals. This article highlights referral processes by analyzing receiving agents' use of interorganizational knowledge of the decision-making tendencies and concerns of sending agents to assess the meaning and import of referrals. Such interorganizational knowledge includes both general background knowledge of the aggregate patterning of referrals and specific knowledge of the likely “real reasons” for particular referrals from sending agencies. These forms of knowledge provide critical resources allowing receiving agents to infer “what is really going on” in any particular referral, and hence to assess the import and implications of the alternative possible responses to referrals.