Abstract

A virtual organisation is a network of legally independent organisations and/or individuals that produces products and/or services based on a common business understanding. The characteristics of today’s new, virtual organisation forms are that they are dynamic, networked, distributed, flexible, collaborative and innovative, and driven by information technology. Yet the challenge is to scientifically determine which organisation as a subject employs a virtual form and which not. The answer to this question is decidedly complex as most organisations have some virtuality elements that are more expressed than others. Therefore, it is usually only possible to determine how virtual a single organisation is in certain aspects. In this paper we investigate and present all published virtual organisation models that are publicly available in world literature. As none of the available models proved to be applicable for the research into virtual organisations we would like to conduct, we decided to develop a new model for assessing an organisation’s virtuality. The purpose of this paper is to present our experience with the design of the new model, which is the framework for our ongoing research.

Key words:     Virtual organisation assessment, virtual organisation models, organisation virtuality.