ial organizations of the present day which will survive in the knowledge based society and economy are those whose organizational structures, processes, and technologies provide them with the necessary flexibility to change in ways which will make them compatible with the changing societal environments.
In the current period of transition, society and its institutions are in the process of exploring new goals, values, technologies, and processes. Certainly, not all of these new goals, values, technologies, and processes will prove to be acceptable, and will survive into the knowledge based age. It is this very uncertainty that is the cause of disagreement as to the eventual shape of the emerging age. Many of the alternative goals, values, technologies, and processes that will be rejected during this period of transition may well be resurrected and implemented at some point during the knowledge based society. Thus, whatever characteristics are projected today may well change tomorrow.
The essential characteristics which will define the differences between industrial and post industrial society and economy will likely exist with respect to four factors available and accessible knowledge, societal complexity, economic turbulence, and the impact of technology. The peoples of the 1990s, judging by media representations, appear to believe that the "knowledge explosion" is a recent phenomenon. The knowledge explosion actually began in the seventeenth century. Like most explosions, the knowledge explosion has continued to grow, and it is likely to continue to grow well into the twenty first century.
The knowledge explosion is characterized by a growth in the absolute amount of knowledge in existence, and a growth in the accessibility and manageability of the knowledge base. Each of these factors separately, and each of the factors in concert has had, is having, and will continue to have significant impacts on society.
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