Managing Virtual Public Organizations

Abstract

The term virtual organization is used in the literature to describe a range of public and private online work settings from telecommuting in traditional organizations to sophisticated arrangements for project members in different institutions and multiple locations to share information and interact online on a joint undertaking. Though virtual governmental organizations are increasingly common, the management challenges they pose are only beginning to be studied. Here, an exploration of management process in these virtual settings begins by distinguishing among forms of virtual organizations based upon whether members represent single or multiple organizations and whether their contact is continuous or intermittent. While the literature on virtual organizations suggests that all virtual organizations will be decentralized and self-organizing, here, differences in the forms of virtual organization are expected to be associated with differences in management practices. Citizens are engaged by these new forms both as clients and as members, with a range of anticipated advantages. Primary and secondary case materials and published research on virtual organizations in the United States are used to answer questions about the use of information and communication technologies, the management of coordination, and leadership in two forms of virtual organizations. The differences found are not entirely as expected. Actual patterns of management are complex; both hierarchical and self-organizing managerial patterns can co-exist.