Adapting to the Information Age

This paper draws attention to the profound changes that human civilization is experiencing as it moves from an industrial environment into an information environment, in which unprecedented emphasis is placed on the knowledge and capabilities of the individual. A clear distinction is drawn between data and information in relationship to computer-based facilities, and the transition of data-processing to the higher levels of information and knowledge representation in quasi intelligent decision-support systems. It is argued that the cultivation of its human capital becomes a foundational requirement for the success of a knowledge-based organization. In such an organization traditional practices of hierarchical, authoritarian control are replaced by a distributed framework of leadership that utilizes different methods for maximizing the contributions at each node of a web-like organizational structure. Throughout the paper the close relationship between the apparent behavior of the natural and human systems in the real world and the theories relating to chaos and complex adaptive systems is emphasized.