What Defines A Virtual Organization

A virtual organization is such because of the presence a particular aspect of the organization. An organization which does not have a physical location where all employees meet to work would be considered a virtual organization. The organization does not exist outside of the use of technology in it's operations. Another facet of this is that the employees of the organization may or may not have face-to-face contact with each other on a regular basis.

I formerly worked in an organization that was based out of North Carolina but I worked out of my house in Ohio for 6 years. The organization was made up of 13 employees and I was the only one not working out of the NC offices. I went to the offices an average of once a year and met with my supervisor two times a year at industry conventions. Outside of these three meetings all of my communication was of the e-mail or phone format.

Although the organization was not virtual in design from my perspective the organization existed only in the virtual sense. I emailed communications, entered orders through a web based system, and did product presentations through electronic communications. These characteristics defined me as a virtual worker for the organization. I was there in the technological aspect but not in the physical presence.