He pointed out that companies are becoming more like universities as they de-layer their many layers of management, as they focus on their people and increasingly empower their people. I can't think of anyone more empowered than a tenured faculty member. But this is the very basis of creativity, the academic freedom to create change without fear of retribution, and to dedicate oneself to those esoteric subjects that will be the unpredictable basis for tomorrow's change. But none of this is to say that we do not have to continue to be sure that our people have the tools for the change. A very interesting concept linking modern chaos theory to organizations was published recently.
Chaos theory is quite technical but it describes the characteristics of self-organizing systems.
Examples range from the microscopic in the physical and biological worlds to the giant. For example, it explains how galaxies, with their great orderly patterns, arise from random clouds of gas or how some of the wonderful biological systems become ordered. The key to deriving order from chaos to develop a self-organizing system is communication. If you think of this model then as applied to organizations, the common link that creates order out of all the things that faculty members do in their teaching and research, is communications. Here, of course, is the central role of the library and all the modern technologies that are required to create this needed communication.