Aligning IS Research and Practice: A Research Agenda for Virtual Work

Abstract

Recent advances in information technologies have led organizations to diversify their organizational structures. One of the most prominent trends in this diversification is to conduct work in distributed or virtual environments. Distributed work alternatives are numerous, but the common characteristic that defines these alternatives is the physical separation of employees from each other and/or their organization’s workplace. Several corporations have reported their efforts, successes and failures at implementing some form of distributed work. Practitioners face a number of issues when considering virtual work alternatives. However, research does not seem to successfully help in understanding and solving some of these key issues. This chapter attempts to develop a new and broader research agenda that takes into account emerging issues and concerns of practitioners, existing published work and interdisciplinary perspectives on the topic. In doing so, emerging trends in virtual work and supporting technologies are explored.