The Balacing Act of Managing Virtual Working in Knowledge-intensive Organisations

In knowledge-Intensive Organisations (KIOs) the creation of knowledge is central to achieving the innovation and flexibility needed for survival and sustainable success in the new, knowledge based economy. Key factors in KIOs are virtual teamwork, knowledge sharing, and managing the brainpower. In a virtual situation, the development of trust is crucial to achieve knowledge sharing, but the realisation of trust by e-communication is complicated. Managers play an important role in creating the communication and social interaction needed to build and maintain trust. They also need to apply appropriate control systems, to align individual and group actions with the interests of the organisation. ‘Just’ working along the line of a very long list of tasks needed to be carried out in a complex, continuously evolving environment, trust building processing and social interactions, could – at best – end up to be a daunting task for most managers. Therefore we argue that a change in the organisation’s culture and managers’ underlying mental models is needed. Nonaka and Teece’s [29] concept of ba supports this view, and is used to argue that managers should provide the physical (meeting rooms), virtual (ICT), and mental (common goals) space for creating knowledge. To illustrate and enhance the analysis, two case studies are introduced, one an established, very large ICT solutions provider, the other a young, dynamic multimedia designer. The cases show the difficult balancing act managers in KIOs have to perform in order to fulfil their essential role in realising the optimal alignment of individual talents and characters with organisational goals towards profitable knowledge creation and sustainability.