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Saturday, July 19, 2008

Virtual Organizations & Communities: Sharing & Creation of Knowledge

What is the affect of 'virtualization' on the social interaction of employees? How do they maintain the face time - often considered necessary for streamlining the harmonious flow of work - when constrained by their virtual segregation and isolation? How successful are the new technologies in creating virtual environments that can simulate the reality of organizational life that depends upon human relations?

The 'virtual office' and the 'virtual workplace' are the buzzwords that have gained popularity during the last decade of the twentieth century. Most such organizations are characterized by the distribution of work that is increasingly unconstrained by the boundaries of time and space. Often, denizens of such organizations may be distinguished from the traditional norm of life-time employer-employee relationships. Such organizations, often enabled by the latest advances in information and communication technologies, have been suggested as the paradigm of the emerging shape of the corporation. They have been suggested as responsible for decreasing costs, improving productivity and reducing cycle time based on complex relationships such as interorganizational structures, outsourcing contracts, temp jobs and so forth. On the other hand, these organizations have increasingly challenged the social premises that underpin the traditional concept of organizations. Such challenges are not only in terms of structure, coordination and control issues, but more importantly in terms of behavioral and performance issues. Some such issues that have been resurfacing in the recent media include:

What is the affect of 'virtualization' on the social interaction of employees? How do they maintain the face time - often considered necessary for streamlining the harmonious flow of work - when constrained by their virtual segregation and isolation? How successful are the new technologies in creating virtual environments that can simulate the reality of organizational life that depends upon human relations.

What do you think? All views are welcome.

Here are three resources that may help us further this dialog to understand the depth and breadth of these issues.

a) An interview with Magid Igbaria and Margaret Tan, authors of the book 'The Virtual Workplace' which focuses upon relationships among the new computer and communication information technologies, people, and organizations with regard to virtual workplaces in the world.

The Virtual Workplace of the 21st Century: Is Your Organization Ready For It?

b) Interview of American Society of Training and Development's Training & Development magazine with Yogesh Malhotra, Chairman and CKO of @BRINT Research Institute.

Virtual Corporations, Human Issues & Information Technology

c) Virtual Corporations and Virtual Communities: A compilation of articles on these topics as well as the hot trend of Outsourcing that is often related to increasing 'virtualization' of the corporation.

Virtual Corporations & Outsourcing

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Virtual Organizations & Communities: Sharing & Creation of Knowledge

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