Emerging Trends - Evolving Global Information Infrastructure and Information Transfer - page 160

information policy, the economic system of society, and technology. These factors
are described in Chapter 2.
These environmental factors interact to impact society, causing change, which
may be gradual and incremental, or it may be sudden and cataclysmic. Even
gradual change can result in major changes in attitudes and values, a paradigm
shift or change in how people view their world. That paradigm shift is described
below.
Influence of the Emerging Paradigm
In Chapter 2 we provided a model to assist in understanding the networked
digital world that now engulfs us; the work of Peter Schwartz and James Ogilvy
(1979) and their analysis of theory building in different disciplines produced a mod-
el that explains the shift to the emerging characteristics of the new paradigm. This
model describes the collapse of certainty in society and compares the dominant
and emergent paradigms, which we summarize below:
Dominant > Emergent
Simple > Complex
Hierarchy > Heterarchy
Mechanical > Holographic
Determinant > Indeterminate
Linearly causal > Mutually causal
Assembly > Morphogenesis
Objective > Perspective
This model provides a framework, a way of thinking about the changes occur-
ring in our society and the implications for changes in the information infrastructure.
The role of the information professional has become more complex because of the
transition to the emerging paradigm—because the traditional hierarchical structure
of organizations is often morphed into a flatter organization, a heterarchy with mul-
tiple orders, and the traditional lines of authority are replaced by more autonomy
within the organization. Rules may be changed or eliminated, and the change to a
new organizational structure can cause strife within an organization.
New technologies and new systems for communication change the way people
communicate. Information professionals, as leaders, must be aware of these chan-
ging values, structures, and communication patterns, because information profes-
sionals are key facilitators in the information infrastructure.
Competing Paradigms in the Information Professions