[6] This definition precisely outlines the leading principle of this unconventional organization, which holds the form of a real (conventional) corporation from the outside but does not actually exist physically and implicates an entirely digital process relying on independents web associates.
[3] Virtual organizations necessitate associations, federations, relations, agreements and alliance relationships [4] as they essentially are partnership webs of disseminated organizational entities or self-governing corporations.
Indeed, this process has dramatically changed the way organizations consider partners and has raised their awareness concerning the benefits smart alliances can offer.
[7] Though, until the early 1980s, this extremely bureaucratic organization arrangement (involving challenging, complex and slower decision-making) was considered adequate to manage a vast number of employees.
[8] Virtual organizations are supported by primary technologies such as the Internet and the World Wide Web, EDI, telecommunications, e-mails, groupware, and video conferencing.
EDI could be a benefit to virtual organizations in numerous ways as the exchange of information between associates is facilitated and more efficient than with non-electronic transfer: better inventory management and shipping performance, amount of time saved and faults escaped by the fact that data requisite to be entered only once, as well as a rise of the speed and accuracy of processes.
[11] Virtual organizations can be supported by groupware systems as it delivers a shared core of information to partners and a platform to collaborate regardless of the associates’ physical position.
[11] Many virtual firms have chosen the internet-based WWW in order to support organizational communication, as it constitutes a practical alternative to the EDI and groupware’s inflexibility.
The web permits all co-workers (even the isolated ones) to share their thoughts, opinions and every part of any mutual mission as it was shaped to be a sort of data gathering of individuals’ knowledge.
Clearly information technology offers an efficient and largely beneficial platform but we should not neglect the necessity, especially in a virtual organization, of the individuals’ skills and manner to collaborate.
Virtual organizations must find a way to overcome cultural differences, which involve dissimilar approaches of working (such as time and deadlines) and living (punctuality for instance), in other words, distinctive philosophies.