By the end of the twentieth century, the United States and other developed countries (especially Japan and most of the countries in Europe) had become information-and service-based economies. Due to the need to manage more complex social and institutional activities, and due to the rise of systematic management, communication media, computing systems, and telecommunications networks, more and more organizational activities have become symbolic—the creation, communication, and interpretation of information. Organizational communication and information professionals—"symbolic analysts" or "knowledge workers"—will play an increasingly crucial role in society and the economy.

The U.S. Department of Labor (2000c) predicts that there will be growth in the number of communication and information jobs between 1998 and 2008. Within the industrial sector, which will grow by 14.4 percent overall, the services sector will have the largest growth (31%). The largest expected growth will be in professional specialties (27%), technical...