Skip to main content

Reconciling visions and realities of virtual working: Findings from the UK chemicals industry

  • Chapter
Exploring Virtuality Within and beyond Organizations

Part of the book series: Technology, Work and Globalization ((TWG))

  • 62 Accesses

Abstract

In this chapter we introduce and discuss the findings from a large, UK e-science research project. The GOLD project (Morris et al., 2004) built upon earlier e-science success but was unusual in being focused upon taking Grid computing beyond its use by scientists and academics and to explore its use for commercial ends. The intention was to focus upon the development, production, and marketing of specialty, high profit margin chemicals. In this industry sector an economic case could be made that “new ways of working based around dynamic virtual organizational structures” were needed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 69.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Brown, S.D., and Lightfoot, G. (2002) “Presence, Absence and Accountability: E-mail and the Mediation of Organizational Memory,” in S. Woolgar (Ed.), Virtual Society? Technology, Cyberbole, Reality, Oxford University Press: Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Checkland, P., and Poulter, J. (2006) Learning for Action, Wiley: Chichester.

    Google Scholar 

  • Checkland, P.B. (1981) Systems Thinking, Systems Practice, Wiley: Chichester.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crook, C., and Light, P. (2002) “Virtual Society and the Cultural Practice of Study,” in S. Woolgar (Ed.), Virtual Society? Technology, Cyberbole, Reality, Oxford University Press: Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, J., Rouncefield, M., and Tolmie, P. (2002) “The Day-to Day Work of Standardization: A Sceptical Note on the Reliance on IT in a Retail Bank,” in S. Woolgar (Ed.), Virtual Society? Technology, Cyberbole, Reality, Oxford University Press: Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, P. (1994) Information-Systems Development; Systems Thinking in the Field of Information Systems, Pitman: London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liff, S., Steward, F., and Watts, P. (2002) “New Public Places for Internet Access: Networks for Practice-Based Learning and Social Inclusion,” in S. Woolgar (Ed.), Virtual Society? Technology, Cyberbole, Reality, Oxford University Press: Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morris, A.J., Shrivastava, S., Wright, A.R., Ryan, P., Dunning-Lewis, P., and Martin, E. (2004) Grid-Based Information Models to Support the Rapid Innovation of New High Value Added Chemicals, EPSRC, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moss, M., and Townsend, A. (2000) “How Telecommunications Systems are Transforming Urban Spaces,” in J.O. Wheeler, Y. Aoyama, and B.L. Warf (Eds), Cities in the Telecommunications Age: The Fracturing of Geographies, Routledge: New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nettleton, S., Pleace, N., Burrrows, R., Muncer, S., and Loader, B. (2002) “The Reality of Virtual Social Support,” in S. Woolgar (Ed.), Virtual Society? Technology, Cyberbole, Reality, Oxford University Press: Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nguyen, D.T., and Alexander, J. (1996) “The Coming of Cyberspace Time and the End of the Polity,” in R. Shields (Ed.), Cultures of the Internet: Virtual Spaces, Real Histories, Living Bodies, Sage: London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schultze, U., and Orlikowski, W.J. (2001) Metaphors of Virtuality: Shaping an Emergent Reality, Information and Organization, 11 (1), 45–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watson-Manheim, M.B., Chudoba, K.M., and Crowston, K. (2005) The Paradox of Discontinuities and Continuities: Toward a More Comprehensive View of Virtuality, http://crowston.syr.edu/papers/paradox2004.pdf (accessed: November 2006 )

  • Woolgar, S. (2002) “Five Rules of Virtuality,” in S. Woolgar (Ed.), Virtual Society? Technology, Cyberbole, Reality, Oxford University Press: Oxford, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Woolgar, S. (Ed.) (2002) Virtual Society? Technology, Cyberbole, Reality, Oxford University Press: Oxford, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, A.R. (2004) Turning Virtual Development Methods into a Reality, Proceedings of BatchPro. Symposium on knowledge-driven batch processes, Poros, Greece.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, A.R., and Bramfitt, V.J. (1999) The Reality of Virtual Process Development, Proceedings of EU99, Bern, Switzerland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wyatt, S., Thomas, G., and Terranova, T. (2002) “They Came, They Surfed, They Went Back to the Beach: Conceptualizing Use and Non-Use of the Internet,” in S. Woolgar (Ed.), Virtual Society? Technology, Cyberbole, Reality, Oxford University Press: Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Copyright information

© 2008 Paul Dunning-Lewis and Maria Katsorchi-Hayes

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Dunning-Lewis, P., Katsorchi-Hayes, M. (2008). Reconciling visions and realities of virtual working: Findings from the UK chemicals industry. In: Exploring Virtuality Within and beyond Organizations. Technology, Work and Globalization. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230593978_7

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics