Virtual Organisations: Exchange and Context

Abstract

Virtual organisations have been cast into various forms by researchers in attempts to explain and predict their structure. Researchers have used metaphorical terms such as ‘clusters’ (Goldman et al 1995); ’alliances’ (Boudreau et al 1998); and ’hybrids’ (Wassenaar 1999). However, those that have described virtual organisations as analogous to a fluid (Crandall and Wallace 1997; Grabowski and Roberts 1998; and Mowshowitz 1997) may be the most accurate. Like a fluid, a virtual organisation can take on many different forms, limited only by its scope. ’A virtually organised company can have centralised or decentralised control structures, centralised or decentralised units, and centralised or decentralised functions’ (Mowshowitz 1997: 36). These findings suggest that a more fundamental task of studying the virtual organisation at the ’molecular’ or transaction level is required. Like an amorphous fluid, the virtual organisation has macro properties, which are based upon its molecular, or micro composition.