Introduction

Abstract

Today’s information and communication technologies mean that major events in any part of the world are instant news throughout the globe, that it is as easy to shop at an online store on another continent as it is to drive to your nearest shopping mall, that you can admire the picture of a newborn baby on a family member’s website or on your mobile phone just hours after the child is born. We are truly in a global village, and our lives today are set within a much greater web of connections than any previous generation would recognize. As individuals we are experiencing this connected world—and so, inevitably, are organizations.