Virtual Workforces and the Shifting Frontier of Control

By Kerry Brown, Susanne Royer, Jennifer Waterhouse and Stacy Ridge

It is argued that adopting a networked organisational model improves organisational performance and provides opportunities for innovation and creativity.

The model is premised on introducing a range of information and communication technology (ICT) into the work environment. ICTs establish a fundamentally different interface between workers and their tasks and also connect managers and workers in new ways that require re-conceptualising of labour management relations. This process necessitates adapting existing organisational structures and systems to account for changes in the way work is scheduled and the way workers are managed. It is argued that organisations implementing such new organisational forms create non-traditional organisational boundaries and fewer bureaucratic structures through forming networks. These network arrangements may present an opportunity for shifting the labour management control.

(Journal of Industrial Relations; vol. 47, no. 3, September 2005;pp310-25)