Some Reflections about Virtual Organisations

One problem that arises with virtual organisations is to keep coherence. Electronic communication should not only be available but also be moderated. This is shown for email as well as for Internet-based voice communication in two different case studies: a co-operative university seminar between two countries and a commercial qualification project with participants from all over Germany. The problem of process design in virtual organisations is addressed. A way of establishing continuous negotiation processes for trading with behaviours, values and rules is given. Different contexts and views of technology are offered as a means for understanding the observed phenomena.