I'm studying international business administration at the University of Vienna. My majors are organization and planning. Currently I�m writing my thesis on organizational culture in virtual organizations. At the beginning of this work (spring or summer 2001) I had to answer two questions: 1. What is a virtual organization? 2. How will I be able to measure culture? The first question was answered by defining a specific form of virtual organization, which structure looks very much like apache and all its sub-projects. The second question could not be answered - so I decided to go for a qualitative research - trying to describe a special type of culture rather than measure it. To generate data from the field, qualitative researches offer and recommend to use multiple methods and techniques to gain a wide view of several aspects: a) Group discussion - which can be done here => the questions following below should serve as startingpoint. the ones with the * are even more optional. b) Observations - which will be done on the interface of the organization - during the last days i read a lot :-) also part of the archives ted!
1. Could you shortly characterize the environment you are working in? 2. How did you start to work on this project? Is there an anecdote which everybody remembers? 3. Why are you working in an Open Source Project? 4. What do you understand by the term "organizational culture"? 5. Could you characterize the organizational culture of the project you are working in by using six terms? 6. Could you imagine using the term "to dock" in combination with the term "culture"? 7. If yes, could you describe the connection between these terms? 8. Which factors are making the working process easier? 9. Is there a slogan for your work? 10. Could you describe a situation where you didn't trust the person you were talking to online? *11. Do you think trust between strangers is possible or do people need to know each other to build up trust? *12. Do you think frequent communication improves trust or do you think that there is no relation between communication and trust? 13. Which influence does "experiences in virtual worlds" have on your work? *14. How many hours is your daily online time on average? *15. Do you think online communication is easier with people who have the same experiences as you, or do you think that experiences do not influence the understanding between people? *16. Do you think online communication needs to be learned like a new language or do you believe that everybody is instantly able to communicate online? 17. Why are you getting involved into new projects? *18. Life is learning - do you consider this as true? *19. Do you think people who work in virtual organizations tend to have fun while learning, or do they learn the same way as people working in "normal" work environments? 20. Which kind of risks do you usualy take in your workplace - could you shortly describe? *21. Do you think risk can be taken at workplace or should the work environment be a secure place? *22. Do you think working at new technologies involves risk for you or do you think the risks you take are the same as working in an old fashion business? 23. What do you think about information - and knowledge sharing? How far would you go? *24. Do you think people who actively share information are getting more knowledge by communicating with people who also actively share information? *25. Does the sharing of information need to be a 1:1 relationship - giving and getting information is equal between 2 persons or is it not important that you receive information in return of giving information to another person? The interpretation of the generated data will be done over during Christmas and New Year - Im realy late i know. This wokrk will be finished on 01.05.02 and be presented on 01.16.02 at University of Vienna. After this I would like to translate the results into English for all of you. It would make me happy if some of you could answer some oft the questions. Sari -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
