Shaafah, Alyami (1032736) [Virtual Organisation]

Prelude

With the rapid growth of science and technology the structure of organization has been traced dramatically over the last couple of decades and adopted virtuality. The author of this wikidot page reviewed at least 6 academic journals’ articles and two websites to assess the “Virtual Organization” in different sectors, including retain banking, business organization, social interaction, and team work etc. For better understanding of the topic the author analyses changes and challenges face by the Virtual Organization. The following analysis flourishes with variety of research on the topic “Virtual Organization”

Article One- Hughes, J., O’Brien, J., Randall, D., Rouncefield, M., aand Tolmie, P. (2001), Some ‘real’ problems of ‘virtual’ organization, in New Techonology , Work and Employment, Vol.16, No.1, ISSN. 0268-1072, Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

Virtual organisation in retail banking

The article, some ‘real’ problems of ‘virtual’ organisation’ written by Hughes and Others in 2001, deals with the organizational changes in retail banking after the emergence of the ‘virtual team’ and ‘virtual organisation’ in this field. Hughes et al (2001) conducted a pragmatic research which clarified the word ‘virtual’ is usually used in the field of banking is to indicate the replacement of the old, authoritative, centralized, and bureaucratic organizational structure with a highly sound information and communication technology.

The writers, Hughes and Others (2001) in their scholarly articles pointed out clearly the term “Virtuality’ as a theoretical paradigm, aims at showing how the existing social, economic and technological phenomena can be attributed with virtual organization and virtual team with citation from a number of journals’ articles, books and other resources. For smooth running of the organization, connectivity is to be established between the workers of the different organizational units and the information communication technologies. The objective of the article is to show how components of virtual organization or virtual team such as communication, monitoring, controlling, and above all, doing managerial activities with the help of technology in the retail banking system. It promotes service and selling culture in place of previous administrative culture and the extensive use of IT in decision making. It works to determine the relationship with the customers in this new perspective in which the customers are thought to be customers in machines. It makes the workers’ able so that they can respond quickly to the demands of the customers.

This article also tries to analyze the tension originated by the introduction of the idea of the virtual organization in the existing phenomena. We can not but accept it as we are heading towards a world in which technology will ultimately rule. This article shows different dimensions of coping with the newness the existing organizations will face in accommodating virtuality in their organizations.


Article Two - Wright, D, and Burn, N. (1998), New organization structures for global business: an empirical study, in International Journal of Operations & Production Management , Vol. 18, No. 9/10, MCB University Press. Pp. 896-923.

New Organisation structure for global business

The article, New organization structures for global business: an empirical study, discusses different business agencies and their sizes considering their structure, technology and working people. The study by Wright and Burn (1998) shows that medium sized business firms are in abundance. It shows that the existing IT phenomena used by the business sectors are not adequate enough to cope with the upcoming challenges. So it advocates for WWW or World Wide Web for the business firms.

With a view to coping with the term, virtual organization, understanding of the term is very important. The article tries to analyze the qualities of an organization to be an authentic virtual organization. It also shows a comparative study between the present business strategy and the strategy it will follow after entering to the virtual world. Thus the article introduces some hypotheses which are thought to be authentic for any virtual organization.

It also tries to authenticate the use of WWW in coping with the global business. It accommodates some analyses given by Leavitt, Porter, Mintzberg and Wheelwright for introducing a questionnaire to determine the characteristics of different organizations such as organizational characteristics, types of strategies, the revenue, working people, management, manufacturing literature, and IT accessibility etc. It examines the hypotheses in the light of these analyses to find out how far they are working in the global business.

Finally the article aims at considering the question-project in the light of existing theoretical phenomena with a view to open more facilities for the organizations. The conclusion is drawn showing how these analyses work in implementing WWW to make the organization a virtual one.


Article Three - Hindmarsh, J., Heath, C., and Franser, M. (2006), (Im) materiality, virtual reality and interaction: grounding the ‘virtual’ in studies of technology in action, in The Sociological Review, Vol. 54, No. 4. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Oxford.

Virtual Reality and Interation

Virtuality is a reality in the present world of global business. There is a social interaction among the participants functioning in the virtual domain namely multi- user virtual reality. The article aims at analyzing the reciprocal interaction of the participants in the virtual world.

Here we discover the different ways how the participants have to surpass the limitations of physical world to cope themselves with the visual world introduced by the virtuality. The authors’ aim is to introduce a singular version of virtual language so that all participants in the world of virtual technology will be able to cross their social barriers to establish their communication.

In order to develop the project, the researchers have collected data from Massive 2, a project on the development of virtual environment. It discusses different examples of virtual interaction of different people with their desktops. For exploring social interaction, the researchers have used many novice users in artificial trials. The researchers have named the methods as ethnomethodology and conversation analysis respectively. In this way, they are able to create a virtual domain which is different from the real world where the virtual self of the participants can be brought into existence.

The researchers have gone through extensive presentation of the materials related to the fields. They are able to analyze the existing theoretical components related to the fields and further it to the intended level using the practical experiments following their methodology. The research will undoubtedly open a soothing window in expanding the accessibility of the virtual domain in the global business.


Article Four- Vakola, M. and Wilson, I., (2004), The challenges of virtual organization: critical successs factors in dealing with constant change, in Team Performance Mangement, Vol, 10, No. 5/6, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.112-120.

The challenges of virtual organisation

The introduction of virtual organization is responsible for the emergence of different challenges such as technological and human aspects of organization. The article, The challenges of virtual organization: critical successes factors in dealing with constant change, deals with these two paradigms in the light of OSMOS project. Four major organizational issues namely information sharing, organizational culture and team-working, acceptance of change and training have been discussed in this article. It discusses the topics from different critical points of view and finds out different alternatives to the problems and their solutions.

The authors, Vakola and Wilson (2004), discusses different industrial organizational strategies for finding out the intended data. It tries to show how the existing phenomena of the industries concerning those factors can be analyzed within the critical perspectives. It shows how an organization goes through fundamental changes in organizing and operating daily functions after its collaboration with the virtual realities.

The research points out the fact that for implementing virtual realities, changes must be brought to individual, group and organizational levels. This is also to be confirmed that the proposed changes must cope those indicated by OSMOS project. The researchers have also advocated for two cluster projects namely Innovation Co-ordination, transfer and deployment through network Co-operation in the construction industry and virtual organization cluster. The article aims at incorporating OSMOS with the cluster mechanisms in order to reach the target point.

In conclusion, it can be said that the article records the challenges of the implementation of the virtual realities in the organizations.


Article Five-Walters, D., and Buchanan, J. (20010, The new economy, new opportunities and new structures, in Management Decision, Vol. 39, No.10., MCB University Press.

The new economy, new opportunities, and new structures

Virtual organization has opened up unending opportunities in the field of organizational activities of any company. It can also be used in evaluating conventional balanced sheet, the assets, the business and the shareholder value. The article aims at implementing the realities opened up by the virtual organization in the reconsideration of the company’s activities and thus allowing the company to face the upcoming challenges in virtual world.

From different critical approaches, the authors of the article have tried to analyze the newness the market is going to face in the global world. They have analyzed very profoundly how changes are available in different mechanism related to company such as production, distribution, interaction, and above all managerial activities. Even the approach to the evaluation of company’s different orgasms are also subjects to change because of the inevitable realities available in the global business. The article discusses very authentically how organizations are working in virtual technologies. The authors have also attempted to find out the new evaluation of the company’s activities in the light of virtuality. Then they have introduced a new business model where new approach must be implemented.

The authors have analyzed different organs of a virtual organisation such as planning model, structural approach, and balanced scorecard approach through some diagrams and thus proposed for new approach to virtual business.

The authors have also shown a comparative picture of the virtual model of the past and that the organizations need now. They propose for a more flexible virtual organization in future which will be more dynamic and progressive.


Article Six - Franks, J. (1998), The virtual organization, in Work Study, Vol.47, No. 4, MCB University Press.

The Virtual Organisation

The author has tried to bring out the historical context of the virtual organization which shows the fact that the world is heading towards a technological one in which the business organization will be controlled by the extreme use of technologies in different components of the organization. It also tries to locate the areas in which people working in the organization suffer from multidimensional tensions because of the introduction of the new organizational strategy.

The author shows that the new trend is a reality in the rapid changing global phenomena which is destined to embrace newness. In the business arena, these realities are in the extreme application of technologies in the organizations. He shows how every organization has to device specialization in different mechanisms of the organizations such as technological, managerial and knowledge based issues. This is a reality that virtuality in the organizational issues is knowledge based which must be incorporated with the other branches of it in order to get the maximum result.

The author synthesizes the fact that it is very important for any organization to be knowledge based. He also focuses on some realities such as differentiation which is the key point in the modern diversified world. Thus the author advocates for flexible production method, outsourcing system, regular homework, information sharing, social interaction in a virtual organization.

Mentioning all the available literature on the topic, the author the author advocates some suggestions for the future virtual organizations in different sectors which will make the field more effective and appropriate.


Website One- Virtual Organisation Management Institute
Available at: http://www.virtualorganizationinstitute.com/ (accessed on 03/05/2011)

Virtual management organisation

The site is about Virtual Management Organization Institute which deals with the application of virtual management in different organizations throughout the whole world. Particularly, it provides a report on the global CEO summit 2011 where world leaders, thinkers, visionaries, and the academicians involved with the business arena based on virtual management organization gathered with a view to exploring some areas related to virtual management in the business world suitable for both local and global communities.

It also works with the problems of an organization intended to jump to virtual management. It gives solution to the virtual chaos faced by the organizations with the alignment of virtual management.

It shows the fact that the new field is an innovative field where research is going on every time. The site shows how these researches can be applicable for different organizations. Surveys on different organizations with virtual management are also available here.

The site deals with the career information in this particular field of virtual management and shows how an organization can be transformed with the application of the knowledge on virtual management. In order to accelerate the project, they provide research works to the researches. This also discloses the fact that they work with the leading companies of the world and so they can claim as the best in their field. They invest a lot of money for scholarship through out the whole world for the works on the virtual management of different organizations.

The site shows the shifting of business strategy in the global arena concentrating on the application of virtual management in different organizations throughout the whole globe.


Website Two - ISACA, Understanding Virtual Organisation
Available at: http://www.isaca.org/Journal/Past-Issues/2001/Volume-6/Pages/Understanding-Virtual-Organizations.aspx (accessed on 05/05/2011)

Understanding Virtual Organisation

The article deals with the different literatures related to virtual organization (VO) particularly its technical and managerial aspects and the newly emerged problems because of its migration from the past method to a new one namely virtual organization.

The author tries to define a virtual organization from different literary point of view which includes critical resources, personnel and available logistic issues. It tries to bring out the aspects that are responsible for the sound running of an organization virtually equipped. It also examines the aspects of the virtual organization very carefully so that they can be implemented soundly. There are different approaches of the implementation of the virtuality in an organization which are carefully examined by the author in this article.

Here the author is very keen regarding the technological paradigms needed for a virtual organization. It also shows how the technological paradigms can be incorporated with the knowledge management technologies which is very important for a global virtual organization
In order to authenticate the proposal, the author has given some case studies both private and public organizations. The article shows the existing phenomena of the virtual business world and tries to bring out the problems if migration is intended in the organization. It tries to bring out the core items of a virtual organization particularly in the field of managerial and technical issues and show how these can be accommodated in the new phenomenon of virtuality in an organization. The article also works with the trends of the people working in the virtual organization. Finally the article tries to venture the future fields of virtual business in which more authentic and appropriate issues are to be brought into light. The author has given some very concrete proposals for reaching the goal in the field of virtuality in future.


References

Franks, J. (1998), The virtual organization, in Work Study, Vol.47, No. 4, MCB University Press.

Hughes, J., O’Brien, J., Randall, D., Rouncefield, M., aand Tolmie, P. (2001), Some ‘real’ problems of ‘virtual’ organization, in New Techonology , Work and Employment, Vol.16, No.1, ISSN. 0268-1072, Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

Hindmarsh, J., Heath, C., and Franser, M. (2006), (Im) materiality, virtual reality and interation: grounding the ‘virtual’ in studies of technology in action, in The Sociological Review, Vol. 54, No. 4. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Oxford.

Vakola, M. and Wiulson, I., (2004), The challenges of virtual organization: critical successs factors in dealing with constant change, in Team Performance Mangement, Vol, 10, No. 5/6, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.112-120.

Walters, D., and Buchanan, J. (20010, The new economy, new opportunities and new structures, in Management Decision, Vol. 39, No.10., MCB University Press.

Wright, D, and Burn, N. (1998), New organization structures for global business: an empirical study, in International Journal of Operations & Production Management , Vol. 18, No. 9/10, MCB University Press. Pp. 896-923.

Websites:

Virtual Organisation Management Institute
http://www.virtualorganizationinstitute.com/

ISACA, Understanding Virtual Organisation
http://www.isaca.org/Journal/Past-Issues/2001/Volume-6/Pages/Understanding-Virtual-Organizations.aspx

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