Virtual teams and organizations: Using complex systems logic to understand emerging organizational forms

Abstract

Information Age (Davidow & Malone, 1992) is here and critically impacts work life. Such work systems have the characteristics of complex systems which move between ordered states near attractor points and disordered states. Some ordered states have bifurcation points where order is redefined and a qualitative change of the system occurs. We suggest that such points have occurred repeatedly in our economy over the past decade due to advances in information technology.

As our economy moves from one stable state to another, the organizing rules change. Our assessment reveals that virtual teams or organizations emerge as a logical form for organizing. This new form also meets Brown and Eisenhardt's (1998) call for a new organizing form. A new set of organizing rules is derived from a literature review and should facilitate understanding boundary issues, time issues and information management for practitioners.

Citation

Black, J.A. and Edwards, S. (2001), "Virtual teams and organizations: Using complex systems logic to understand emerging organizational forms", Beyerlein, M.M., Johnson, D.A. and Beyerlein, S.T. (Ed.) Virtual teams (Advances in Interdisciplinary Studies of Work Teams, Vol. 8), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 127-147. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1572-0977(01)08022-0