Virtual Organization: Toward a Theory of Societal Transformation Stimulated by Information Technology

(Hardback)

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Examining today's prevailing factors and modes of production in the tradition of Adam Smith and Karl Marx, the author analyzes the virtual organization and its management in the context of global markets and an emerging neofeudal political economy. Computers mediate between individuals by providing channels of communication in the form of messaging sytems. They act as brokers in matching buyers and sellers, employees and employers, resources and work processes, and so on. The explosive growth of electronic commerce on the Internet has made such functions commonplace. Computer-based mediation and brokerage, along with the expanding role of information technology in the continuing globalization of the economy, has tremendous political, social, managerial, and economic consequences. For managers, and for the concept of organization in general, these consequences manifest themselves most clearly in the virtual organization, a new paradigm that has been evolving for decades and that is swiftly gathering steam and overtaking traditional organization. Virtual organization is founded on the separation of requirements, for example, inputs such as components, from the ways in which requirements are met, or satisfiers, for example, suppliers and distribution networks. Separating these elements allows managers to switch easily from one way of meeting a requirement to another, by, for example, laying off higher-paid workers in the United States and hiring cheaper labor overseas or south of the border. Used systematically, switching brings huge increases in productivity, provided that transaction costs are held in check. The price of this increased inefficiency is that, practiced regularly, switching weakens personal, political, and business loyalties. Absent a sense of loyalty to persons or places, virtual organizations distance themselves--both geographically and psychologically--from the regions and countries in which they operate. This process is undermining the nation-state, which cannot continue indefinitely to control virtual organizations. A new feudal system is in the making, in which power and authority are vested in private hands but which is based on globally distributed resources rather than on possession of land. The evolution of this new political economy will determine how we do business in the future. Management scholars, political scientists, policy analysts, sociologists, economists, legal scholars, computer scientists, managers, government professionals, information technology professionals, and even students of philosophy will find Mowshowitz's valuable insights useful in their respective efforts to determine the highly variegated meanings of virtual organization.

Reviews

"Does what few, if any, works on information technology and its impact on society do--it goes beyond mere descriptives to offer a carefully argued theory of how it is that this technology has so dramatically and permanently reshaped social institutions the world over. Like Karl Marx and Adam Smith before him, Mowshowitz turns to the forces of production as the key to understanding the essence of this technology. The neo-feudalistic picture of society that emerges is surprising and provocative. This book is a "must read" for anyone interested in technological innovation and the future of society."-Dorothy McKissick President, Jacquard Corporation
"Mowshowitz has an enviable knack for bringing social and historical factors to bear on our understanding of the consequences of technological change....Some of his views of potential outcomes may be shocking and disturbing, but they cannot be ignored. In other writings he has pointed out the need for "radical criticism" as a necessary perspective on understanding technology and guiding society. In this book he has clearly taken his own advice. The result is a very refreshing and stimulating view of the future and the issues we must face."-Murray Turoff, Distinguished Professor Information Systems Department, New Jersey Institute of Technology
"With historical analogy, and interdisciplinary acumen, Abbe Mowshowitz dissects the global virtual organization which, if not checked, is likely to usher in what he calls virtual feudalism. With concepts borrowed from mathematics, computer science, and international business, Mowshowitz shows that the new virtual organization has the hallmark of displacing the nation-state as the main wielder of authority and appropriator of social services and basic needs of the citizenry....An intriguing book which puts it into a class by itself."-Elia Zureik Professor of Sociology, Queen's University
.,."is a meditative and thought-provoking discourse on how modern information technology molds and trasforms society itself...Virtual Organization is highly recommended reading which delves deeply into serious and complex forces driving the growth and change of our modern society."-Library Bookwatch
...is a meditative and thought-provoking discourse on how modern information technology molds and trasforms society itself...Virtual Organization is highly recommended reading which delves deeply into serious and complex forces driving the growth and change of our modern society.-Library Bookwatch
..."is a meditative and thought-provoking discourse on how modern information technology molds and trasforms society itself...Virtual Organization is highly recommended reading which delves deeply into serious and complex forces driving the growth and change of our modern society."-Library Bookwatch

Author Bio

Abbe Mowshowitz is Professor of Computer Science at the City College of the City University of New York and Visiting Professor at the Rotterdam School of Management. He has been thinking and writing about social and organizational issues in computing since the early 1970s. His book The Conquest of Will: Information Processing in Human Affairs (1976) was one of the first systematic studies of computers and society. Mowshowitz became interested in virtual organization (and arguably coined the term) in the late 1970s, and has been delving into its nature and consequences ever since.