Globalisation and the Internet have
made businesses more mobile. People
and organisations are becoming more flexible about how they work
and how they deal with new business opportunities. As the number
of partnerships explodes, the need to work in virtual teams has
increased. Virtual working will not replace traditional
organisations and people physically getting together to work,
but it has some distinct advantages:
In a world where change is rapid, a virtual corporation can
allow an organisation, or group of organisations, to address new
opportunities or threats quickly and efficiently.
The Internet and other telecommunications advances, such as
audio and videoconferencing, make it easier for members of an
organisation to collaborate more efficiently.
More and more people are working from home for at least part of
their week as a result of these advances.
However, there are some key questions to be addressed.
Where does virtual working work best?
Where there is a specific output or objective that needs to be
achieved. It is, by definition, not 9 to 5 working. Rather, you
set someone or some group a task, and they go about achieving
that task. They can spend all weekend and then take days off,
once they deliver a result.
What are the key trends that are driving virtual working?
Globalisation, rapidly changing environments, and the advances
in the Internet and telecommunications are key drivers. Many of
the new opportunities are crossing traditional business
boundaries - the telecommunications and content industries are
intermingling, for example. Very few organisations have all the
skills required to meet these new opportunities. These business
changes underpin a social trend for skilled individuals to want
more flexibility in how they live and work. The result is that
virtual working can bring together a mix of skills and
capabilities that would be very difficult to assemble in a
single physical setting.
How do virtual organisations, collaborative working, and
telecommuting differ?
Virtual organisations are legal entities that are established
with clearly defined objectives, such as developing a product,
or exploiting a particular market opportunity. In collaborative
working, the focus is very much on knowledge work. This is
better suited to small multi-disciplinary teams of five to ten
people. Collaborative teams can be established and disbanded
according to the current need. Frequently, it may be the case
that a person is a member of several teams at the same time.
Telecommuting can, of course, support collaborative working, but
is also used for processing the data in batches. For example, a
hospital's handwritten records may need to be filed
electronically every day. Another example is the personal
assistant who works from home for an executive who is constantly
travelling.
Have virtual workplaces been overhyped?
Yes. Like many new-economy developments, there were wild
predictions that we'd all be working in our pyjamas.
The reality is that people still like to go to work to get out
of the house. But virtual working still remains an important
trend.
Sanjiv Anand is the Managing Director and Rajesh Iyer is a
Director at CedarManagement Consulting International. |
