Virtual Organization
Subtitle: Toward a Theory of Societal Transformation Stimulated by Information Technology
Publisher: Quorum Books
Published: March 30, 2002
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 280
ISBN-13: 9781567205015
Subjects: Impact of computing & IT on society; Impact of science & technology on society; International economics; Management & management techniques; Hardware - Personal Computers - General; Computers; Computers - General Information; Social change; Business/Economics; Computer Books: General; Social aspects; Information Technology; Organizational Behavior; Computers / Personal Computers & Microcomputers / General; Computers and civilization; Organization
First sentence: Before Internet (BI), the historian Stavrianos (1976) wrote, "The Western world today is re-experiencing the decay and despair of its early post-Roman centuries."
Description: "Computers mediate. They serve as brokers in matching buyers to sellers, employees to employers, resources to work processes, and on it goes. The social significance of computers as mediators and brokers has tremendous political and economic consequences.

For managers, these consequences manifest themselves most clearly in the virtual organization, which is founded on the separation of requirements (e.g., inputs, such as components) from the ways in which requirements are met (e.g., suppliers and distribution networks). Separating these elements allows managers to switch easily from one way of meeting a requirement to another, for example, by laying off higher paid workers in the U.S. and hiring cheaper foreign labor."--BOOK JACKET.