Virtualization

Virtual Environment can be defined as “distributed organizations and teams of people that meet and work together online. Group members rely on support systems to help gather, retrieve and share relevant knowledge” (O’Leary, 1997). Virtual teams are growing in popularity and many organizations have responded to their dynamic environment by introducing virtual teams (Cascio, 2000). Virtual team is used to cover wide range of activities and forms of technology supported working (Anderson et al, 2007).

Companies consider innovation as their core competitive strategy. The pressure of global competitive force exerts producers to continuously innovate and upgrade the quality of existing products (Acs and Preston, 1997). And so innovation have become the most important key issue for companies to be successful in the 21st century (Sorli et. Al, 2006). And information technology offers solution to typical innovation problems. Based on conventional information technologies and Internet based platforms virtual environment can be used to sustain innovations through virtual interaction and communication (McKie, 2004). Also a virtual network structure is used to improve communication and co-ordination, and encourage the mutual sharing of inter-organizational resources and competencies (Chen et al, 2008b).
Anderson et al. (Anderson et al, 2007) suggests that effective use of communication, especially during the early stages of team development, play an important role in gaining and maintaining trust. Virtual team may allow people to generate more productivity at a distance.

There exist some advantages and disadvantages of virtual environment. Some of the advantages include reduction of travel time and cost, enables recruitment of talented employees, builds diverse teams, promote different areas, resource discrimination (Bergiel et al., 2008). Disadvantages may include requirement of complex technological application, lack of knowledge about employees about virtual teams, not an option for every type of employee and not an option for every type of company (Bergiel et al., 2008). Thus virtual team is beneficial for projects which requires cross functional or cross boundary skilled input.

The specialised skills and talents required for the development of new products often reside locally in the organization. Firms therefore have no choice to disperse their new product unit to access such disperse knowledge and skills (Krazer et al., 2005). For this reason virtualization becomes mandatory.



Virtual environment helps to get information without personally contacting the person and asking for help. It eliminates the geographical barrier and helps in effective communication of information between individuals. If the organization is large than knowledge management becomes difficult. It becomes impossible to capture all the tacit knowledge without using technology. Virtual environment thus helps in capturing the tacit knowledge across the organization. Employees can be engaged in knowledge sharing with different kinds of virtual environment. Virtual software’s like Second Life help organizations test their product or services before introducing it in real life. Some times testing of a product is not possible in a real world. Like in the case of a retail firm it becomes difficult to test new product or service as the firm in open 24/7 and is constantly filled with customers. Second Life also facilitates virtual conferencing where people are just required to appear online on second life on their computer and they can attend the conference from any where around the globe. Medical operation testing is also performed through Second Life. It also enables e-learning where live lectures are held which student can attend sitting at their homes.

So with this we conclude that virtualization though not a must is required by an organization to facilitate knowledge sharing. It eliminates the barrier for knowledge management and provides efficient means of sharing tacit knowledge. It helps in innovation and testing of new products and services. To gain competitive advantage over others, a firm must implement virtual environment through the form of different technologies. The advantages of implementing virtual environment are more over the disadvantages and so suitable consideration should be given by the organization.

References:
Acs, Z.J. and Preston, L, 1997, “Small and Medium Enterprises: Technology & Globalization”
Anderson, A.H., Mcewan, Bal and Carletta, 2007, “Virtual team meeting: An analysis of communication and context”
Bergiel, J.B., Bergiel, E.B., Balsmeier, P.W., 2008, “Nature of virtual teams”
Cascio W.F., 2000, “Managing a Virtual Workplace: The academy of Management Executive”
Chen, H.H., Kang, Y.K. Xing, Lee, A.H.I and Tong, 2008b, “Developing new products with knowledge management methods and process development management in a network”
McKie, 2004, “Innovation Management Technology”
O’Leary, 1997, “The Internet, Intranet and the AI Renaissance”, IEE Computer
Ozer M, 2004, “The role of Internet in new product performance: A conceptual investigation”
Sorli, M., Stokic, D., Gorostiza, A. and Campos, 2006, “Managing product/process knowledge in the concurrent/simultaneous enterprise environment”