What Makes a Virtual Organization Work Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Workforce today are increasingly made up of volunteers - at least in spirit if not in fact. Like traditional management tasks, motivation and change management in the face of the new reality? The authors answer this question by studying the example of economic enterprise, which operates much like a voluntary organization: the open source movement. The authors present the following key questions: What motivates people to participate in open source projects? As the participation of the governed in the absence or fee for service contracts? The answers revealed some important lessons for the traditional organizations of the problems of conservation and motivate knowledge workers and management processes in the new arena of network or virtual organizations. First, the traditional organizations need to plan for a wider range of staff motivation than they often do today. Money is only one. Professional participants are also motivated by personal gain through improved software and a range of social values, such as altruism, reputation and ideology. Second, traditional organizations should consider ways to move from knowledge management working knowledge of self. Despite the obvious potential for chaos, open source projects are often remarkably disciplined and successful with the help of several interacting control mechanisms. Membership management, rules and institutions, control and sanctions, and reputation based on the premise of general culture of self-regulation of open source projects. "Hide
by M. Lynne Markus, Brook Manville, Carole E. Aggressive Source: MIT Sloan Management Review 16 pages. Publication Date: 01 Oct 2000. Prod. #: SMR052-PDF-ENG