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Ksenija Čulo: VIRTUAL ORGANIZATION – THE FUTURE HAS ALREADY BEGUN

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Primljeno/Received: 2015-04-14 Preliminary Communication/Prethodno priopćenje

VIRTUAL ORGANIZATION – THE FUTURE HAS ALREADY BEGUN

Ksenija Čulo
Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Osijek, Osijek, Croatia

Abstract
A virtual organization is a collection of geographically distributed, functionally
and/or culturally diverse entities that are linked by electronic forms of communica-
tion and rely on lateral, dynamic relationships for coordination. Virtual organiza-
tions provide employees the freedom to work from any place and at any time. Iden-
tification has been considered to be the glue linking virtual workers and their or-
ganizations. In this context the question may be raised how employees in virtual
organizations sustain organizational identification. However, the real question is
whether organizational identification is needed at all and whether any glue, except
communication, is needed to link virtual workers and their organization. The virtu-
al organisation in the future will have an almost infinite variety of structures, all of
them fluid and changing. The focus of virtual organizations will inevitably shift
from “who we are” to “what we are doing”, from organizational structure to pro-
jects or products.

Key words
virtual organization, organizational identification, communication, shared vision

1. Introduction a "company without walls" that acts as a col-


laborative network of group of people working
For most of the last century, large corporations together, regardless of location or who owns
have created mass-production systems that them. Today, it is widely alleged that the busi-
have required the congregation of organiza- ness organisation of the future will be virtual.
tional employees at central places of work /1/. But precise definitions of what it means to be a
The advent of information technologies, how- virtual organisation are not easy to find.
ever, has enabled a decentralization of work
/2/. Specifically, it is now possible for organiza- It is clear where from is the origin of the
tion members to work together while being phrase. It comes from the expression “virtual
spatially and temporally decoupled from one reality”, an experience in which electronically
another. created sounds and images are made to re-
semble reality. The organizational process in
Due to the rapid advances in information and virtual organizations is not restraint by space
communication technologies, virtual organiza- and time. Members of a virtual organization
tions are expected to play an increasingly im- may never meet face to face or do not have to.
portant role in the global economy. A number The virtual organization has an appearance of
of companies in some sectors will soon exist classical organization but it is certainly not. A
only at a virtual level. The main difference virtual company resembles a normal tradition-
between virtual organizations and traditional al company in its inputs and its outputs. It
ones is in the way they deal with knowledge: differs in the way in which it adds value dur-
the traditional corporation stores knowledge ing the journey in between.
by binding employees long-term; the virtual
enterprise of the future buys knowledge on the In other words, a virtual organization can be
market as the need arises! The result will be /3/ defined as a goal-oriented enterprise com-

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posed of multiple members who reside in geo- 2. Virtual organization


graphically dispersed locations and use tech-
nology media to communicate and coordinate The intensive use of information technologies
the fulfilment of a defined objective or task /4/. brings too many challenges and changes with-
First, a virtual organization is an enterprise in/through organizations that a great deal of
composed of multiple members. A member of papers has been written on new forms of or-
a virtual organization could be defined as any ganization generated by the development of
individual, group of individuals, or formally information technology. Nowadays, the real
organized enterprise recruited to serve as a debate relating to new forms of business is
satisfier of an input requirement /5/. Second, summed up to virtual organizations. What is a
members of virtual organizations reside in virtual organization?
geographically dispersed locations i.e. they do
Pang /8/ simply defines a virtual organization
not live within reasonable driving distance of
as: “a flexible network of independent entities
each other and are restricted by location from
linked by information technology to share
sharing the same physical workspace Often,
skills, knowledge and access to others' exper-
members of virtual organizations live in differ-
tise in non-traditional ways“. Despite its dif-
ent countries and across multiple time zones.
fuse nature, a common identity holds the or-
Third, members of virtual organizations com-
ganization together in the minds of members,
municate and coordinate activities through
customers, or other constituents. Relationships
technology media e.g. email and or Internet
within the virtual form are tenuous. In fact, a
applications like Skype, Instant Messenger,
key implication of virtual organizing is that
and GoToMeeting /6/, /7/.
these forms are more reconfigurable, their
What can motivate a group of people and or- boundaries are considerably more blurred, and
ganization to create a virtual organization, their relationships are more likely to be con-
considering that a virtual organization is one tractual than traditional forms. The compo-
among many of specific forms of organizations nents (individual workers, teams, depart-
from a continuum of various possibilities? The ments, units or firms) that make up a virtual
reasons for organizations becoming virtual organization are geographically distributed,
may include: functionally or culturally diverse, electronical-
ly linked, and connected via lateral relation-
 Globalization, with growing trends to ships. In such an organization, employees
include global customers; work in a virtual work environment in which
 Ability to quickly pool expert resources; human, physical and technical resources are
 Creation of communities of excellence; located where they contribute most effectively
 Rapidly changing needs; to attaining business objectives.
 Increasingly specialized products and
services; or The process of virtualization may be taken at
 Increasingly required to use specialized different levels. There can be several levels in
knowledge. the process /9/:

 Group level is regarding local tasks in-


The creation process raises new challenges for
volving a group of people in a distinct or-
organizing in a virtual setting. Traditional
ganization via distance communication
organizations can rely upon relatively explicit
process.
and concrete factors to serve as the basis for
 Organizational level where information
linkages between employees and the organiza-
technologies are used to coordinate the
tion. These elements are less readily available
activities of the organization as integra-
and less indicative of meaning in a virtual
tion.
context. So the question is what is the “glue”,
 Inter-organizational level is the highest
besides communications, that links employees
layer where numerous organizations uti-
in a virtual setting?

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lize the information technologies to coor- operation and trust. Integration leverages
dinate an economic activity. the synergy of individuals.

Outcomes of the virtualization process of an Identification is a means by which organiza-


organization may be /10/: tional members define the self in relation to the
organization. Thus, identification represents
 Virtual team as the simplest form of a vir-
the social, psychological and spiritual ties
tual organization using information tech- binding followers and the organization, a tie
nologies to coordinate their connectivity that exists even when identification determines
and share their knowledge at lower cost.
some critical beliefs and behaviours. Identifica-
 Virtual project can involve several people tion motivates members to coordinate their
or organizations in the realization of cer-
efforts to achieve organizational goals by en-
tain task with a beginning and designated hancing interpersonal trust and cooperation.
end.
 Temporary virtual organization is likening a In a virtual setting the same technologies that
virtual project involving several organiza- offer followers the flexibility to work “anytime
tions in a designated period of time. and anywhere” may also separate the ties that
 Permanent virtual organization with an bind organization members to each other and
indefinite period of existence. to their employer. Specifically, the clues that
pull followers together in more traditional
organizational settings include dress codes,
Pang /11/ noted the attributes of virtual organ-
shared language, shared organizational rou-
izations as: tines, and organizational identifiers such as
organization charts, office buildings, and co-
 A dispersed network of skills and capabil-
located followers. The links between virtual
ities - The structure of a virtual organiza-
followers and their organizations may be less
tion is distributed among multiple loca-
tangible and more social and psychological in
tions resulting in the capacity of bringing
nature. Additionally, the dispersion and dislo-
in a wider pool of skills and capabilities.
cation characterizing employment in virtual
 The use of communications and compu-
systems strain the psychological ties between
ting technologies - These technologies
organizations and their members.
serve as the enabler that makes a virtual
organization exist. Barriers of distance It seems that it is organizational identification
and time have been overcome by technol- which helps organizations meet some of the
ogy. most critical challenges of the virtual work
 Flexible, dynamic, restless - Organizations context, such as ensuring coordination and
no longer are constrained by traditional control. Research suggests that members who
barriers of place and time. Virtual organi- identify strongly with the organization are
zations support dynamic changes to the more likely to accept organizational goals as
organization including employee work their own personal goals, are more likely to
environments and processing structures. attend to superordinate goals, and are more
Restlessness refers to the attitude to will- likely to be loyal and obedient /12/ . Organiza-
ingly change products and services, geo- tional identification is expected to correlate
graphic dispersion or communication pat- with work effort, willingness to perform extra-
terns. This has the potential of leading role behaviours, and task performance. Thus, it
toward higher levels of innovation and has been believed that through its impact on
creativity. employees’ motivations, organizational identi-
 Integration - When different individuals, fication facilitates coordination and control
groups and organizations get together in without the need for costly systems of supervi-
a virtual organization, they need to inter- sion and monitoring.
act collectively to achieve success. This
implies greater levels of collaboration, co-

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Research /13/ provides a theoretical link be- can contribute on one hand to improving the
tween organizational identification and com- performance, and on the other hand it can
munication. Specifically, research has found affect negatively the cohesion of the group,
that communication can affect employee atti- because of some lacks in the communication
tudes that may be strongly related to organiza- process. Cultural diversity within virtual
tional identification. Communication can teams can lead to an inexact understanding of
strengthen member identification because it the message, especially if taking into consider-
provides organization members with an op- ation the lack of body and nonverbal language
portunity to create and share their subjective that, in some cases, has the role of emphasizing
perceptions of the organization's defining fea- or completing certain essences of the message.
tures – its norms, values and culture.
Communication limitation is due to the lack of
Communication is fundamental to any form of expressivity of the message that has been sent,
organizing, but it is preeminent in virtual or- since the exchange of some informal infor-
ganizations. Without communication, the mation is practically limited both in time and
boundary-spanning among virtual entities in space due to the lack of “face-to-face” com-
would not be possible. Electronic communica- munication. Messages within a traditional
tion enables parties to link across distance, team include series of formal and informal
time, culture, departments, and organizations, signals or information that gives the recipient
thereby creating "anyone/anytime/anyplace" more clues about the way how to interpret the
alternatives to the traditional same-time, same- message.
place, functionally-centred, in-house forms of
organizational experience /14/. Communica- This puts limits on the kinds of work that
tion in a virtual organization is critical for suc- might be managed via external, contractual
cess. Virtual groups must share a broad range relationships among entities in the virtual
of information. If they are to act together as a network. Further, it suggests that some tasks
single strategic unit, they must be capable to may require more structured or formal rela-
share relevant and consistent information. It is tionships when managed across boundaries
also necessary to develop the technological whereas others might be effective with less
capability and compatibility to accomplish this structured or formal relationships.
goal.
In virtual context two facets must be consid-
Culo and Skendrovic /15/ describe the com- ered (i) the “system of work”– which refers to
munication within in virtual organizations as the technical facets of production of goods or
interactive, complex and limiting process: services in the organization; and (ii) “system of
Communication interaction is due to the facilities meaning”– the institutional facets of the organ-
given by information technology. Sending the ization, specifically the values attached to the
message by means of Internet technology work engaged in. Certain visible signs of affili-
makes the relation between sender and receiv- ation, such as shared dress and other artefacts
er to be established in a very short time even if surrounding one in a conventional office (e.g.,
the messages are not directly sent to the re- architecture and mementos that remind em-
ceiver. Due to the use of information technolo- ployees of their link to the organization) facili-
gy, coding and decoding the messages are tate organizational identification /17/ . This
made automatically without important modifi- model of organizational identification seems
cations of the message. primarily applicable to individuals who work
under traditional conditions, but much less in
Communication complexity is the result of di- virtual settings.
verse competences of the virtual team mem-
bers, instability and weak demarcation of the 3. Debate
roles within the virtual team. The members of
a team with diverse competences gather much The question, however, is whether organiza-
more abilities, skills and knowledge /16/ that tional identification is or will remain the

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Ksenija Čulo: VIRTUAL ORGANIZATION – THE FUTURE HAS ALREADY BEGUN
Media, culture and public relations, 7, 2016, 1, 35-42 39

“glue” which keeps the employees together in strangers will be required to produce an excel-
a virtual setting as it has been argued earlier. lent result within the briefest space of time.
In other words, will the organizational identi- While today industrial production requires
fication be needed at all as a vital characteristic transportation of the production factor “hu-
of future virtual organizations? man being” to production facilities, computer
networks bring the production factor “infor-
Guyverson /18/ defines more recently a virtual mation” to us. Therefore, in a world in which
organization as: data can be conveyed at the speed of light on
to wherever it is needed, there is no longer any
 A network of people or organizations
point in making armies of staff march into the
which are independents.
office every morning. The virtual organisation
 Those people and organizations are realiz-
is becoming inevitably ephemeral because it
ing a common project or common economic
has no repository of long-term memory, no
activity.
individuals who have worked for the same
 The communication and information pro-
organisation for years and years. Nor has it
cesses are hold through information tech-
any long-term geographical presence or a local
nologies.
community that remembers the company. The
 The organization does not depend on time
virtual organisation has few physical assets,
and space to be made up.
reflecting the fact that adding value is becom-
It is important to note here the three essential
ing more dependent on (mobile) knowledge
characteristics of the virtual organizations as
and less dependent on (immobile) plant and
described above: (i) a virtual organization is a
machinery. As companies withdraw more and
network of independent people or organiza-
more into their core competencies, so they
tions who work jointly in teams of core compe-
become more virtual. The virtual organisation
tence groups, (ii) the “shared vision” and (iii)
is able to leverage this core into almost any
the importance of communications. Further-
industrial sector. Thus it can be in the pensions
more, the reason for working together can be
business and the railway business at the same
“a common project” or “economic activities”.
time. It can then rapidly desert any one of
The virtual organisation of today, and even
those businesses, and equally rapidly move
more so in the future, has an almost infinite
into something completely different by estab-
variety of structures, all of them fluid and
lishing strategic alliances with organisations
changing. Some of them need virtually no long
that have the essential skills that it lacks. It can
term employees. This can be achieved by tight-
do this anywhere in the world. The “glue” that
ly focusing on the company’s core competence:
keeps the members of these unrelated groups
its marketing. Everything else can be done by
together cannot be anymore the organizational
someone else. A virtual organisation relies for
identification, because the team members do
the most part on a network of part-time elec-
not necessarily belong to the same organiza-
tronically connected companies, groups or
tion. Actually, the “glue” is the “shared vi-
individuals. Hollywood is often cited as a
sion”.
template for the virtual organisation. The way
that movies have been made since the film Peter Senge /19/, in his book "The Fifth Disci-
industry freed itself from the studio system pline" describes a shared vision as "... a force in
has been virtual. A number of freelancers, people's hearts, a force of impressive pow-
from actors to directors via set builders and er....At its simplest level, a shared vision is the
publicity agents, come together with a com- answer to the question "What do we want to
mon purpose: to make a movie, to tell a story. create?". He describes shared vision as shared
They then go their separate ways and another pictures of the future that foster genuine com-
(unrelated) bunch of people (with a similar set mitment and enrolment, rather than compli-
of skills) comes together to make another mov- ance to organizational goals. With shared vi-
ie. And so it goes on, very productively. The sion it no longer matters what we think but
economy in the future will work largely in the what thoughts and concepts we share with the
same way movies are produced: complete team. It allows everyone to work together. It

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creates a common identity and a sense of pur- departments, and organizations, thereby creat-
pose. The discipline of shared vision moves us ing "anyone/anytime/anyplace" alternatives to
into the realm of group process. In other the traditional same-time, same-place, func-
words, shared vision is the point where we tionally-centred, in-house forms of organiza-
actually “harness the horses” so that we can tional experience. Virtual groups must share a
get some work done. The key here is that the broad range of information. If they are to act
project is based on the vision of delivering a together as a single strategic unit, they must be
product that meets or aligns with certain goals. capable to share relevant and consistent infor-
With a shared vision everyone has a common mation. Communication in future virtual
destination and a common picture. They then forms is expected to be rapid and customized
work together as a team, supporting and en- in response to customer demands. This implies
couraging each other. Shared vision allows that communication content and direction are
everyone to work together. It creates a com- likely to be more temporary, as links between
mon identity and a sense of purpose. A virtual virtual network entities are formed and dis-
organization can be developed through two solved over time. To the extent that lateral
different mechanisms: (i) strategic partner- relationships in the virtual form substitute for
ships, and (ii) outsourcing. A strategic partner- hierarchical channels, greater volume of com-
ship is formed when two business partners munication should occur, as two-way ex-
(e.g. supplier and manufacturer) agree to act changes among a greater number of people are
together as a single strategic unit in order to more likely. To the extent that communication
realize a common project or product. Out- volume is greater, there may be pressure to
sourcing occurs when a business elects to have make some communication more formal or
an external organization assume a business programmed in order to gain efficiencies and
activity that had formerly been accomplished bring routine to otherwise customized work.
on an ”in-house“ basis /20/. Simultaneously, some communication is likely
to become more relationship-based. Parties
Based on the above considerations, we may may seek a relational basis for transactions so
foresee that a future virtual organization will that intimacy can be created in the face of dis-
be a network of independent people or organi- tance, and trust can be established and main-
zations who: tained. Consequently, a likely tension in the
virtual form will be simultaneous needs for
 does not depend on time and space to
more and richer communication, on the one
be made up;
hand, and pressures for greater transaction
 realize a common project or product;
efficiencies, on the other.
 have a shared vision;
 cluster activities around their core 4. Conclusions
competencies; and
 process and distribute information in The focus of virtual organizations in the future
real time throughout the entire net- will inevitably shift from “who we are” to
work, which allows them to make “what we are doing”; from organizational
decisions and coordinate actions structure to projects or products. Therefore,
quickly. organizational identification will become of
much less importance if important at all. The
Communication is vital in creating and main- structure of an organizational network will be
taining shared vision. According to Wilkins changing as projects/products are changing
/21/ communication is the core of the shared and the only “glue” that will keep the team of
vision creation process. Communication is people or organizations together will be the
fundamental to core existence of virtual organ- “shared vision”.
izations. Without communication, the bounda-
ry-spanning among virtual entities would not Companies which stick to dated traditions that
be possible. Electronic communication enables require “all the chickens to be present in the
parties to link across distance, time, culture, henhouse” for most of their working hours

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will inevitably lose out to those businesses that /9/ Mowshowitz, A.: Virtual team culture and the
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Ksenija Čulo: VIRTUAL ORGANIZATION – THE FUTURE HAS ALREADY BEGUN
42 Media, culture and public relations, 7, 2016, 1, 35-42

VIRTUALNA ORGANIZACIJA – BUDUĆNOST JE VEĆ POČELA

Ksenija Čulo
Građevinski fakultet, Sveučilište u Osijeku, Osijek, Hrvatska

Sažetak
Virtualna organizacija je skup više geografski distribuiranih, funkcionalno i / ili
kulturno različitih subjekata koji su povezani elektroničkim oblicima komunikaci-
je i oslanjaju se na lateralne, dinamične odnosa za koordinaciju. Virtualne organi-
zacije daju zaposlenicima slobodu da rade s bilo kojeg mjesta i u bilo koje vrijeme.
Identifikacija se smatra ljepilom koje povezuje virtualne radnike i njihove organi-
zacije. U tom kontekstu, može se postaviti pitanje kako zaposleni u virtualnim
organizacijama održavaju organizacijsku identifikaciju. No, pravo je pitanje da li
je organizacijska identifikacija uopće potrebna i da li j bilo koje ljepilo, osim
komunikacije, potrebno da poveže virtualne radnike i njihove organizacije. Virtu-
alna organizacija u budućnosti će imati gotovo beskonačnu raznolikost struktura,
a sve će biti promjenjive. Fokus virtualnih organizacija neminovno će biti pomak
od "tko smo" prema "ono što radimo", iz organizacijske strukture prema projek-
tima ili proizvodima.

Ključne riječi
virtualna organizacija, organizacijska identifikacija, komunikacija, zajednička
vizija

ISSN 1333-6371

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