PARALLEL VIRTUAL ORGANIZATIONS - MANAGING AND WORKING IN THE VIRTUAL WORKPLACE

The growing presence in the workplace of computers that are linked tog ether to form intraorganizational networks(intranets), thus enabling u nprecedented electronic employee connectedness, contains within ha col lision between the traditional hierarchically organized physical workp lace and the potentially chaotic virtual workplace. This article descr ibes this new workplace context as a parallel virtual organization (PV O) that possesses its own values and culture independent of its host c ulture, the traditional bureaucratic hierarchical organization (BHO). The growth of PVOs means that a transitional spare must be developed i nitially between them and their BHO counterparts to enable the eventua l merger of the two organization forms to create a new, more dynamic a nd fluid organization that, by its nature, innovates to keep pace with rapid and unrelenting change in the marketplace. The psychological so cial, and technical aspects of the rise of the parallel virtual organi zation are discussed.