As we speed forward into our future, we are on the crest of the next great Wave of human change based on new technologies and new global circumstances. With this great change is coming new forms of large-scale social organization. These are the global networks emerging today. Each form of organization has included the ones before. Small group networks function with hierarchies.
Hierarchies provide the framework for bureaucracies.
Today's global networks include hierarchy and bureaucracy, rather than replace them. Before considering further what is new about today's networks, let's look at how hierarchies, bureaucracies, and networks come together in a modern organization. A network is a form of organization like hierarchy and bureaucracy. One example we believe is common to both Japan and the United States is the local fire department. For three years in the 1970s we helped the U.S. Department of Commerce set up America's first national fire prevention agency.