A virtual company or organization is made up of people who are not located in the same physical space, sometimes not in the same locality or country.
It is an organization that has no borders and its members most of the time do not usually know each other directly.
It is a new type of organization, with a decentralized, flat and highly professional structure. A virtual organization reduces structural costs, gives more dynamism and a better adaptation to the environment in which it operates.
It has as advantages the best use of international and inter-organizational opportunities, operating with greater flexibility, reducing travel and travel costs for meetings, reducing the follow-up time of project objectives, as well as facilitating the reconciliation of work and family life of the people that work.
To compensate for decentralization, it is necessary to develop a special culture based on trust, responsibility, shared values, transparency.
In these organizations the sense of belonging to a place is replaced by that of belonging to a community, although the community is largely virtual.
What do virtual organizations need?
- New technologies: recent advances in information technology. Defining a global strategy: we cannot limit ourselves only to using modern technological equipment. It is necessary that all the components of the organization share the objectives to be achieved, in such a way that all its members (no matter how far apart they are) keep in mind at all times what are the goals to be achieved and what are the objectives of each project. Organization structure and management system: project-oriented organizational structure, a unified evaluation system based on the final success of the project. Training and motivation: the fundamental requirement for it to work is training in group work, together with the creation of a work environment that facilitates team activity. The team must be motivated, united and enthusiastic. A complete intranet with easy access: a tool that facilitates making contact with corporate material and the possibility of receiving and providing documentation.
But all this is not achieved in one fell swoop, it will be achieved with a lot of effort, will for change and dedication:
It is important to have the experience of having built a good team in the company itself. Although it seems paradoxical in the age of technology, it is necessary to dedicate more and more time and energy to people.
It is necessary to guarantee good communication. Good communication exists when everyone shares the same codes and they are sure that the meanings are the same for everyone.
It is necessary to be with the virtual team every day, it is necessary to avoid that its members isolate themselves. They should be encouraged to communicate with each other, even if there is no compelling need to do so. Familiarity breeds trust.
Virtual workers need to understand how parts fit into the whole.
What are the problems?
- Firstly, cultural differences (languages, beliefs, values, etc.) and traditional business cultural rigidity. Secondly, the same use of technology that allows virtuality. On the one hand, the new resources of technology are viewed more as labor savings than as an instrument of change. On the other hand, the equipment and the possibilities of new technologies are still used to repeat routines of the old organization. Our email boxes are filled with useless and annoying messages that are a mere translation of the same abundance of papers and envelopes that arrive by ordinary mail. A small survey recently conducted of a hundred executive users of email provided interesting data:97% report that their work has been effectively won by email and a similar percentage complain about the abundance of useless and unsolicited material. Third, the loss of control can lead to conflicts of interest between staff from different places with the organization, which can paralyze the operation or lead to the retirement of valuable people. Nostalgia for certain habits and customs. His own room or at least his own desk was for an executive as a security blanket for more than a century. A sense of place is as important to most of us as a sense of mission. Email and voicemail have many attractions, including immediacy, but it's not the same as being with people. Office talks and gossip also have their attractions,even if it is as an antidote to the monotony of how much happens in the name of work. In the survey quoted above, many express surprise "face to face".
How do you drive people you don't see?
The answer is simple: trusting them. This apparent simplicity makes organizations rethink. The rules of trust are obvious and well established, but they do not easily run with traditional ways that believe that efficiency and control are linked, and that you cannot have one without the other…
Trust is the heart of the matter:
- Trust is not blind and needs limits. It would be unwise to trust people you do not know well, whom you have not seen work and who are not committed to the same goals. Virtual organization demands learning. It is necessary to be constant in the capacity for change. They must be aware of the change, exploring new options and new technologies. A culture of learning must be created. Links are necessary. The objectives of small groups should be aligned with those of the organization. They must be supported by exhortations and personal example. Trust needs "contact" of people with other people. A spread commitment still requires personal contact to make it real. The paradox is that the most virtual of organizations needs their people to meet more personally.The meetings are different. They are more about processes than tasks, more interested in people knowing others more than what they do. They are not extra privileges; they are the lubricants of virtuality, they are opportunities to get to know people as people, to bring leaders together and also to reinforce corporate objectives and rethink their strategies.
Trust is based on loyalty, which is built through continuous dialogue between the members of the organization.
Trust building is the essential mechanism for holding the virtual organization together.
