This site is dedicated to exploration and discussion of virtual organization and its social consequences. From time to time I will post a brief article, an “occasional reflection†dealing with some aspect of virtual organization. These reflections will be collected in an “archiveâ€. A list of my own published work and links to other resources will also be filed. Visitors are invited to provide pointers to related work as well as comments on posted material.
The term metamanager derives from the interpretation of virtual organization as a management paradigm that separates the requirements of a task from the ways in which a task might be satisfied. Metamanagement refers to the various activities associated with the dynamic assignment of satisfiers to requirements over time. The separation of requirements from satisfiers provides the flexibility necessary for reaping the economic advantages of “switching,†i.e., the systematic shifting from higher to lower cost providers of goods and services, from less to more reliable providers, etc..
Virtual organization is a basic agent of social change linked to information technology. Thus it is an important key to understanding the drift of contemporary society under the influence of technological innovation. The occasional reflections will attempt to interpret contemporary social developments in light of switching.
Click here to download a PowerPoint tutorial on Virtual Organization.