Technological Aspects of Virtual Organizations

Virtual organizations are frequently discussed in management texts in the context of e-business and remote working. Yet the technical infrastructure that allows individuals, groups and corporations to have virtual relationships is rarely discussed in management books, and if so, the relationship between technology and the managerial issues is glossed over, or not properly elaborated. This textbook, designed for final year undergraduates and MBA students, considers the theory and practice of virtual organizations at three levels: the individual, the group, and the corporation. The justification for this approach is that at each level one sees manifestations of different problems that have to be considered in the design and implementation of relevant tools. These problems center on how information is used or, more precisely, how it is accessed, created, communicated, and reused once again. The technology appropriate for individuals may be different from the technology for groups or corporations. Ultimately, the reader should get a better understanding of the relationship between people and technology.