Virtual organization
A virtual organization (VO) is a form of organization in which legally independent companies and / or individuals come together virtually (usually via the Internet ) for a certain period of time to form a joint business association. The virtual company acts like a uniform company towards third parties or clients. Due to the virtuality, the physical location of the individual participants is not important. The aim is to optimize the value chain through cooperative collaboration between partners with specific core competencies and thereby achieve particularly customer-oriented and competitive service provision. The information and communication technology (ICT) in this context to fundamental importance as it only allows the required overcoming space and time.
features
The characteristics of the virtual organization are flexibility, no direct communication and customer orientation. Virtual companies cooperate without founding a company, looking for a location, hiring staff or building an organization. Time-limited market potentials are exploited through cooperation. In contrast to other forms of cooperation, such as joint ventures , central management functions are not institutionalized. There is no specialization on a sub-area of the value chain , but the whole chain can be included. Individual sub-processes are distributed to the cooperation partners according to their core competencies and then processed in a decentralized manner. The virtual organization is particularly suitable for the production of customized solutions, since traditional forms of organization are more suitable for mass production.
The merger into a virtual organization makes it possible to make the temporal, spatial and functional limits more flexible and to enable a new perspective on the emerging organization. The development of this form of organization has its origin in the use of virtual IT storage . The resulting further developed virtual reality and the now ubiquitous virtual offers in the form of online department stores or online music stores have paved the way for virtual organizations.
Legal classification
Since virtual organizations are only a group of legally independent participants, there is no corporate form . The cooperation usually only takes place according to service exchange agreements . In Germany, the virtual company falls under the BGB society, unless you regulate another social form, such as a GmbH or AG . Tax aspects must therefore also be taken into account.
Dimensioning: the forms of virtualization
While the classics of virtualization research are still based on a standard model, some authors are already beginning to see virtual organization as the result of continuous development in multi-dimensional space. The following models are available for this. The three-step model is more information technology oriented, while the virt.cube model is more organizationally oriented.
This model is a combination of specific skills and attitudes. This mindset is not only intended for high-tech companies, but also relates to the general interlinking of companies with the environment. For this purpose, Venkatraman and Henderson postulated three development vectors:
- Virtual offering and possibly consumption of products and services (virtual encounter)
- Leverage effects through the virtualization of the internal and inter-company procurement process (virtual sourcing)
- Knowledge leverage through efficient and bureaucracy-free form of "production" of expert knowledge (virtual expertise )
These three vectors cannot be selected independently, but rather are successful if the companies move on all three vectors at the same time. Therefore one speaks correctly of a step model. It works with these virtuality levels
- at level 1, the virtualization of individual aspects or units
- at level 2 for the coordination between the units and
- at level 3, it is about bringing the units together, creating a (virtual) community.
The virt.cube model
The virt.cube is based on three dimensions:
- Virtual reality through the creation of a computerized object → organizational replica
- An organizational unit is completely or partially relocated to the computer. This should increase networking and the speed of the flow of information and increase the knowledge base.
- Realignment of the core competencies through restructuring of organizations → organizational realignment
- Successful companies have to adapt quickly to changed requirements in order to ensure sustainable value creation. These ongoing changes lead to ongoing and extensive reorganization measures and restructuring of the value chain.
- Soft integration through organizational consolidation
- By splitting up according to the core competencies, familiar structures are broken up, so that companies (departments, employees) no longer appear as a "unit" to the customer. This is counteracted by creating a common vision in order to generate the image of “one face to the customer” for the customer.
Advantages and disadvantages
The enormous cost savings potential that arises from the elimination of space, organization and travel costs must be mentioned as a major advantage. With traditional company forms it would not be possible to adapt to new market requirements in a dynamic environment as well and flexibly as with virtual organizations. As each participant contributes his or her core competence, the work result is very efficient. Furthermore, the cooperation will split the market development costs and lower barriers to market entry.
Often only the advantages of this organization are seen, but on closer inspection, the flexible, loose, project-oriented structure of the virtual organization is exposed to several sources of danger. The loose organization is difficult to control. Due to the strong dependency between the partners, it can happen that individual partners use this to their own advantage (e.g. disclosure of confidential data to third parties). Sanctions for such participants are difficult to enforce. It is therefore advisable to enter into virtual organizations only with "trustworthy" or long-standing business partners.
Problems can also arise for employees. It is difficult for them to develop a sense of belonging and identify with the company. Furthermore, it can be doubted that all communication can be carried out completely virtually. In addition, the total dependence on fully functional information and communication technology must be viewed as a disadvantage.
Virtual company
Virtual companies or virtual factories are a time-limited cooperation between several legally independent companies or corporate divisions. Your goal is to create a product or service, whereby the individual partners bring in those activities in which they have particularly specialized and which they have particularly mastered. A virtual factory is a dynamic production network, which means that it works on an order basis and appears to the customer like a real factory. After the order is completed, the network is dissolved again.
application areas
- Grid computing
- Association of experts who are based in various countries around the world to form a pool of experts.
- Cooperation in markets with high product complexity and market uncertainty
- Development of open source software (e.g. the Linux kernel )
See also
literature
- Heidi Heilmann, Rainer Alt, Hubert Österle (eds.): Virtual organization . dpunkt.verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-89864-314-X .
- Oliver Fischer (Ed.): Computer-mediated communication - theories and organizational applications . Pabst Science Publishers, 2005, ISBN 978-3-89967-237-4 .
Literature sources
- see. Mowshowitz, A. 1986
- see. (Hakansson / Johanson 1998)
- see. Gora / Scheid 2001
- see. Gesmann - Nuissl 2001
- see. Picot, A .; Reichwald, R .; Wigand, RT, The limitless enterprise, Wiesbaden 2003
- see. Fimmen, P .; Virtual companies - innovative strategies for the internationalization of SMEs, Saarbrücken 2005