Context - The Information Revolution

In the previous section we made certain assumptions about the 'Real World'. In this section we will explore the nature of this world in more detail. We will argue that the world in which large organizations work can be characterized in terms of:

• The rapid rate of economic and technological change, particularly with regard to the Information Technologies
• The rapid rate of social and cultural change, particularly with regard to globalization

It will be further argued that, if this is the nature of the world in which organizations exist, then they face three major long term (strategic) challenges:

• Managing change: as traditional ways of organizing work changes in response to changed demands
• Managing diversity: as the world becomes ever more complex, interlinked and global
• Managing knowledge: the central resource of such an economy

These themes are dealt with in later sections of the module which can be accessed by following the links above.

Economic and Technological Change

Bell and Toffler paint a picture of a world in a period of radical technological and economic change driven largely by developments in science and technology.

Bell and the Post-Industrial Society

Bell's argument is based on the analysis of socio-economic trends in the years following the second world war.

• Economic Trends -
  The decline of manufacturing industry and the growth of the service sector.
• Social Trends -
  The growth of scientific knowledge and the centrality of theoretical knowledge. Knowledge becomes "Intellectual Capital".

Toffler and the Third Wave

Toffler moves the argument on and identifies the political dimension to the Information Revolution at the end of the 20th century.

• The overthrow of matter -
  Knowledge: "a single word ... encompassing data, information, images, symbols, culture, ideology, and values" becomes not only capital but also a commodity.
• The implications for Society -
  Change is being driven by a technology that knows no cultural or geographic boundaries.

Social and cultural change

McLuhan and Castells paint a picture of a world in the throes of major social and cultural change.

McLuhan and the Global Village

McLuhan is concerned with what might be termed the Communications Revolution that took place in the 1960's. His main concern was the effect that this might have on the way in which we think and interact with the world we live in.

• The Global Village -
  Telecommunications mean that we are exposed to a much wider range of experiences and cultures than any previous generation. The world is becoming a Global Village.
• The medium is the message -
  The technological capacities of media are context-independent. However, their potential for transferring meaning is created and shaped by the context in which they are applied. McLuhan saw changes in the dominant medium of communication as being the principal determinant of major changes in society, culture and the individual.

Castells

Writing at the end of the 20th century, Castells attempts to describe a logic for the information age in terms of the tension between the new dominant social form, the Networked Society, and the way that existing social institutions are organized.

• The Network Society -
  Networks have become the dominant form of social organization. Power no longer resides in institutions but within what Castells calls the Flows that can take place within and between points in the global network.
• The Physical World -
  The dominant social logic is shaped by these Flows, however, people live in the physical world. This leads to a "condition of structural schizophrenia", where two different spatial and temporal logics clash, introduces massive culture change around the globe.

Reading

Books

• See any of the books from the MIS books section

or

• Castells M. The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture Vol. I: The Rise of the Network Society. Cambridge MA. Oxford UK: Blackwell 1996
• McLuhan, M. and Powers BR. The Global Village: Transformations in World Life and Media in the 21st Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989
• Toffler. A. The Third Wave. Pan, 1980.
• Bell. D. The Social Framework of the Information Society in The microelectronics revolution., Ed T. Forrester., Basil Blackwell, 1980.
• Bell. D. The Coming of the Post Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting. Heinemann, 1974.
• Toffler. A. The Futurists, Random House 1972.
• McLuhan. M. Understanding Media: The extensions of man. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964.
• Ellul. J. The Technological Society, Random House, 1964

Links

• If you wish to search for additional sources of information, use the MIS links page

• A Magna Carta for the Knowledge Age
  From Toffler et al
• The Alvin Toffler Archive at Wired
  Contains links to article by / about Alvin Toffler
• Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting
  brief review of Bell's "The Coming of the Post Industrial Society".
• Knowledge Work or Working Knowledge?
  This paper contains a brief review of Bell and a critique knowledge work. From the Journal of Systemic Knowledge Management.

• Marshall McLuhan
  A comprehensive review of the work of Marshall McLuhan from Wikipedia
• The Medium is the Message
  An article on Marshall McLuhan from a Christian perspective
• The Network Paradigm: Social Formations in the Age of Information
  A review of Castells by Felix Stalder
• The One-dimensional Network Society of Manuel Castells
  A critical review of Castells by Jan A.G.M. van Dijk