Virtual and conventional organizations (Essay Sample)

Virtual Organizations and Conventional Organizations
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Virtual Organizations and Conventional Organizations
A virtual organization is an imaginary or mental representation of the reality about organizations, which goes past conventional boundaries of a logical or rational organization. In other words, virtual organization is a group of people or organization possessing certain competencies or skills, which can be used to deliver a variety of services to meet one or more requirements (HEDBERG 1997). On the other hand, conventional organization is a type of an organization, which can be physically represented and it has an intelligibly defined bureaucratic and hierarchical structures, well-defined rules, and constituted decision-making processes (PAPASTEFANOU 2008). The differences between the two types of organizations are immense, and range from structural to management of the organizations. This paper examines the underlying management differences between virtual organization and conventional organization.
The first difference between the two organizations is that virtual organizations are formed solely to achieve a certain particular objective or several related objectives, and once these objectives have been met, the organization can cease to exist. On the other hand, conventional organization entails objectives related to the overall management of resources and people. In addition, conventional organizations continue to exist even after the set objectives are met.
Communication forms an integral part in management of any organization. Means of communications vary from one organization to another. For instance, the sophistication needed to maintain efficient communication in virtual organization is to some extend higher than in conventional organizations. Communication in conventional organization occurs within a certain hierarchical pyramid known as organizational structure. Workers mostly rely on telephone interaction or face-to-face communication. On the other hand, communication in virtual organizations involves use of improved technologies. For instance, workers rely on the internet to send and receive emails.
Virtual organizations normally employ more competent employees than conventional organizations. In other words, managers in virtual organization tend to be more sensitive and responsive than their counterparts in conventional organizations. In addition, the hiring team in virtual organizations uses more sophisticated techniques and systems as compared to conventional organizations. Virtual organization creates a relationship management through the integrated network of partners, processes, vendors, and suppliers. As a result, managers in virtual organization spend more time to nurture and support an elaborate network between people. This is not the case in conventional organization as interaction between workers is governed by a specific organizational structure (PAPASTEFANOU 2008).
In virtual organizations, assessment of goals and objectives is conducted in a frequent and continuous way as compared to conventional organizations where assessment is conducted after quite a long time. Moreover, virtual organizations depend on ‘knowledge of assets’ as compared to ‘physical assets’. As a result, they require a more complicated knowledge management system. For the case of conventional organizations, they depend solely on physical or tangible assets. Thus, their management systems are less sophisticated.
In conclusi...