Virtual organization

About: Virtual organization is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1514 publications have been published within this topic receiving 24555 citations.

Strategic outsourcing: leveraging knowledge capabilities

Abstract: Today's knowledge- and service-based economy offers companies a chance to increase profits through strategic outsourcing of intellectually based systems. As companies disaggregate intellectual activities internally and outsource more externally, they approach true virtual organization with knowledge centers interacting largely through mutual interest and electronic ? rather than authority ? systems. In this article, Quinn outlines an integrated knowledge and outsourcing strategy that can mitigate the risks and concerns associated with outsourcing. Companies with successful knowledge strategies follow these well-accepted principles: They concentrate on developing "best in world" capabilities that customers genuinely care about. An effective core competency strategy focuses on two to four cross-functional, intellectually based service activities or knowledge and skill sets that the company can build and maintain at best-in-world levels to provide a flexible platform for future innovations (at least one directly connected to understanding the customer). Such core competencies become "strategic blocks" that prevent a firm's suppliers from directly attacking its markets and increase the firm's bargaining power and security. They leverage the capabilities and investments of others by exploiting three areas of intellectual outsourcing: (1) traditional service or functional activities performed in-house (e.g., accounting, IT, or employee benefits); (2) complementary, integrative, or duplicative activities scattered throughout the company; and (3) disciplines, subsystems, or systems in which outsiders have greater expertise or capabilities for innovation. They innovate constantly. Links to outside knowledge sources that are able to assemble diverse expertise greatly affect the timing and amplitude of innovations. Sophisticated outsourcing supported by new electronic communications, modeling, and monitoring techniques enables companies to reduce innovation cycle times and costs by 60 percent to 90 percent and decrease investments and risks by equal amounts. They eliminate inflexibilities, such as fixed overhead, bureaucracy, and physical plant, by tapping the resources of the downstream customer chain and the upstream technology and supply chain. How can a company best manage risks and develop the full potential of intellectual outsourcing? Successful outsourcers carefully develop and implement certain crucial management controls that Quinn describes. Outsourcing also must become a top management issue because lower- to intermediate-level managers tend to be actively hostile to outsourcing ? fearing loss of jobs, prestige, or power.

Collaborative networks: A new scientific discipline

Abstract: Collaborative networks manifest in a large variety of forms, including virtual organizations, virtual enterprises, dynamic supply chains, professional virtual communities, collaborative virtual laboratories, etc. A large body of empiric knowledge related to collaborative networks is already available, but there is an urgent need to consolidate this knowledge and build the foundations for a more sustainable development of this area. The establishment of a scientific discipline for collaborative networks is a strong instrument in achieving this purpose. In this article the main characteristics of a “discipline” are analyzed in the context of collaborative networks, showing that the pre-conditions necessary for building this new discipline are available.

When is virtual virtuous?: organizing for innovation

Abstract: Champions of virtual corporations are urging managers to subcontract anything and everything All over the world, companies are jumping on the bandwagon, decentralizing, downsizing, and forging alliances to pursue innovation Why is the idea of the virtual organization so tantalizing? Because we have come to believe that bureaucracy is bad and flexibility is good And so it follows that a company that invests in as little as possible will be more responsive to a changing market-place and more likely to attain global competitive advantage

Virtual Organization

Abstract: irtual organization is linked to a variety of seemingly disparate phenomena, including virtual memory, virtual reality, virtual classrooms, virtual teams, and virtual offices. Virtual memory enables programmers to write code referring to storage not actually available in the computer. Virtual reality enables a user to experience visual, auditory, and tactile sensations that do not exist in the normal human environment. Virtual classrooms offer students possibilities for learning not available in a given classroom [5]. Virtual teams allow managers to assemble groups of employees to meet transient, unanticipated needs [3]. Virtual offices allow employees to operate in dynamically changing work environments [1, 2]. These phenomena exemplify virtual constructs, sharing a common organizational principle much like the defining characteristics of an algebraic system. A group, for example, serves as a model for a disparate collection of structures, including number systems, permutations, linear transformations, some binary codes, the automorphisms of a graph, and a host of other systems consisting of a set of elements together with a binary operation satisfying certain conditions. The principle common to virtual constructs is expressed in the notion I call virtual organization [4, 6, 7] (see the sidebar “Applicable in Social As Well As in Information Systems”). This introduction has three aims: Show that virtual organization captures the essential features of the disparate virtual constructs; describe its potential advantages, limitations, and prerequisites in business organizations; and indicate the types and range of problems that can be solved through virtual organization.