Teleworking and Virtual Organization in the Urban and Regional Context

Résumé En

The globalization process taking place in the context of information society provides a broad range of opportunities to the actors involved in more efficient organizational forms, new trading opportunities, restructured educational perspectives, new employment challenges, etc. Employment patterns so far have been dramatically influenced by the rapidly evolving technological innovations and their potential role on spatial structuring both at the urban and regional level. One prominent application of the newly offered possibilities is teleworking which alters considerably traditional patterns of work, mobility patterns, energy consumption patterns, personal relationships, etc. While teleworking has induced new forms of work organization, technological developments have also advocated radical changes in the structure of firms, where “virtual organization” is emerging as a response to increasing competition and need for efficient use of resources. Virtual organization is characterized by three distinct elements, namely-, new organizational forms, being active beyond the limits of the traditional company model, a network function support, where various firms are trying through networking to seize business opportunities, which none of them would be able to realize on their own and the ability to overcome time and space barriers in a rapidly changing global marketplace. The focus of the paper will be to explore the new perspectives opened to spatial restructuring due to the introduction of virtual firms.