New organization forms and workgroups

The rapid advance of information technology has led to the creation of new business models and new organizational forms. We argue that these new business models have a profound impact on workgroups. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the impact of these new organization forms on workgroup structure and process. The chapter offers a number of propositions about group structure and processes, and explores their implications for workgroups found in technologically enabled firms. The groups that develop in technologically enabled organizations are characterized by a focus on self-organizing, a variety of skills, fluid membership, extensive information and knowledge sharing, relational governance, membership from a variety of organizations, extensive boundary spanning, negotiated meaning and potential conflicts between skills and values.