Becoming virtual : Knowledge management and transformation of the distributed organization

Becoming virtual : Knowledge management and transformation of the distributed organization

Author
Paul D. Jackson
Publication Year
2008
Publisher
Springer
Language
English
Document Type
Book
Faculty / Subject Heading
Business Administration

This book examines the capabilities needed to transform a globally distributed organization into a virtual organization (an organization that exists and operates across time and distance with the support of global communications technologies such as the Internet). It introduces techniques for definition of goals for virtualization, for monitoring progress toward virtualization and for studying the impact of virtualization on social uncertainty, knowledge sharing and knowledge transfer, organizational memory, transactive memory, communities of practice and organizational commitment, power and control. These techniques are applied in an extended case study of a development aid organization's attempts to use knowledge management for virtualization over a two year period. The multidisciplinary team of authors examines virtualization from points of view ranging from the organizational to the technological to the sociological and psychological.


Keywords: Business and Economics / Alignment / Distributed Organizations / Internet / KMS / Knowledge Sharing / Management / Manager / Virtual Companies / Development / Knowledge management / Knowledge transfer / Organization