
Communicating for Advantage in the Virtual Organization
http://www.ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/47/17506/00807959.pdf
access restricted (by the publisher) to members/subscribers/customers only
peer-reviewed
Burn, Janice and Martin Barnett
IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
1988
Abstract:
This paper looks at the virtual organization in an electronic market environment and the different models of communication and management that may be required. The authors begin by providing
some clear definitions of virtual cultures and different models of virtuality
that can exist within the electronic market. Degrees of virtuality
can be seriously constrained by the extent to which organizations
have predefined communication linkages in the marketplace and the
extent to which these can be substituted by virtual ones, but also by the
intensity of virtual linkages which support the virtual model. Six virtual
organizational models are proposed within a dynamic framework of
change. In order to realize strategic advantage, virtual organizations
must align their management models and communication processes
with their virtual culture.