Introduction

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Abstract:

The past two decades have seen a growing diversity of organizational form as organizations use new technologies to reconfigure work, distributing it more than ever across distant locations, different time zones and even diverse organizations. Companies have been able to place their staff with customers. Production and service work can be moved to low cost countries or people’s homes, or subcontracted to more qualified firms or individuals. Teams of empowered and motivated specialists can be drawn from around the world, using information and communications technologies (ICT) to communicate and share knowledge. A shirt can be designed in Italy, made in China and sold in Australia. The world is said to be increasingly “virtual”, a condition in which organizational solidity is only apparent: the reality is one of high performing, dynamic networks which connect staff, enterprises, processes and expertise, where the drive to produce or compete has displaced the need for permanency and structure.