Virtual Organizations: An Examination of Structure and Performance In Air Force Acquisition Teams.

Abstract

Increasingly, organizations are facing more dynamic environments. Often the time frame involved is too small for the organization to adapt formal structural changes in response to these environments. In response to these changing and dynamic environments, organizations are turning to virtual organizations. Virtual organizations are temporary groupings of workers that meet task needs without formal change to the organization's structure. Through the use of virtual organizations, the flexibility of the traditional organization is augmented. A research model is formulated that relates the strength of the virtual organization to its performance. The model is tested with a sample of 273 Air Force acquisition managers comprising 84 teams. A measurement scheme for the strength of the virtual organization is developed and validated. A hierarchical regression scheme confirms that stronger virtual organizations perform well in complex task situations. The implications of these findings are explored.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 1994
Accession Number
ADA292699

Entities

People

  • Caisson M. Vickery

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Agreements
  • Air Force
  • Air Force Facilities
  • Applied Psychology
  • Business Administration
  • Climate Change
  • Factor Analysis
  • Information Systems
  • Management Personnel
  • New York
  • Organizational Structure
  • Pilot Studies
  • Psychology
  • Regression Analysis
  • Social Psychology
  • Surveys

Readers

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