Complexities of academic scholarship and research require international, multi-disciplinary collaborations with very efficient methods for knowledge sharing, critical analyses, creative exchanges, resolution of issues, production of scholarship, and more. The VOSS framework provides virtual communities guidance on designing the organizational structure and technical infrastructure to support successful and sustainable collaborations.

Virtual organizations are entities that operate in digital environments, primarily relying on a technology infrastructure of digital content “libraries,” multimedia synchronous and asynchronous communication tools, and “apps” that help members of organizations manage their interactions, operations, and outcomes. The technology infrastructure provides the capacities to support virtual organizations, but it is the people who have the capabilities to use the technologies to manage their collaborative efforts. As socio-technological systems, they encompass both the social aspect (people, roles, and relationships) and the technical aspect (technology and processes). This presentation aims to delve into the socio-technological dynamics of virtual organizations, exploring their structure, operation, and the challenges they face.

Virtual Organization Socio-technological Systems (VOSS) have been especially critical for many enterprises to transition and survive the COVID pandemic. A longer-term cases study is International cooperative program designed and managed by the 27-year-old virtual organization of MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching at www.merlot.org). MERLOT has over 200,000 registered members in 193 countries worldwide, with over 70 academic partnership projects at various stages of productivity. There are volunteer projects, in-kind collaboration projects, business funded projects, and there are grant-funded projects which will inform our presentation of VOSS along with the scholarship and resource in organizational psychology, business management, and human factors.

A sociotechnological system is an approach to complex organizational work design that recognizes the interaction between people and technology in workplaces. In the context of virtual organizations, the sociotechnical systems approach acknowledges the interplay between the organization's social structure, including stakeholders (employees, management, customers, suppliers, etc.), management policies and processes (human resources, business administration, marketing and sales, facilities management (technology access, security, networks, etc.), enterprise marketplace (competitors, collaborators, cultural and social organizations, etc.) and its technical structure (Information management and communication technology software, hardware, and IT management tools and procedures).

Virtual organizations differ from traditional organizations in their structure and operation. They are typically characterized by a “flatter” organizational structure, distributed decision-making, and a high degree of flexibility in operational processes because virtual organizations are frequently an organization of multiple enterprises that required interdisciplinary and interagency collaboration to achieve a goal. The shared governance of a virtual organization is needed to support the collaborative contributions and validation of the roles played by each organization. The operation of virtual organizations heavily relies on advanced information and technology tools, which can significantly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of communication, collaboration, and working toward cooperative outcomes.
Virtual organizations face several technological challenges, including data security, user privacy, regulatory compliance, system compatibility and interoperability, and maintaining up-to-date technology. These challenges can significantly disrupt the organization's operation, risk management, and efficiency. The designs of technologies also vary in their usability which impacts the ease of learning, ease of using, effectiveness, and enjoyment of members participating in the virtual organization’s events. An organization can have a technically powerful system that meets all the technical requirements but if the design creates significant and persistent difficulties for users working within the system, the organization’s operations will face many barriers and can easily fail.

The social challenges in virtual organizations include managing remote teams, building trust in a virtual environment, project management processes, change management processes, human resource management, decision making, transparency, accountability, inclusivity, maintaining effective communication, and much more. Organizational psychology and business management disciplines have extensive research findings on more optimal social and organizational strategies for businesses to be successful. With the technical ability for anyone with an internet connect to create a virtual organization, many organizations have not thoughtfully planned how to implement the social and organizational systems within the technical infrastructures. Virtual organizations frequently bring people from different enterprise together, which in turn brings different business priorities, expectations, project management processes, business operations, and more which can create conflicts, confusions, and inefficiencies. These challenges can affect the organization's productivity and overall performance when left unplanned for, uncared for, and unmanaged.

Strategies for Managing Challenges in Virtual Organizations
Begin with the social-organizational designs and management strategies. Designing your project management strategies, your shared governance and communication needs, your human resource management processes, and organizational strategic plan should be the foundation for deciding what technological systems best serve the people. To manage social challenges, virtual organizations can adopt effective communication requirements, implement team-building activities, establish clear roles and responsibilities, and operate in transparent and accountable ways. Project management processes become critical to manage the interactions and implications of different organizations trying to function with a unified organizational process. Furthermore, leadership strategies are essential for promoting trust and collaboration.

With the virtual organization’s design in mind (and often with parts in practice), performing workflow analyses that will define how people need to interact for a project to function is an important step to decide what technologies will be most useful. Knowing who will be doing the work and what work needs to be done is critical for defining the technical requirements of user-centered technologies. Human Factors research and scholarship provides a wealth of recommendations on improving the usability of technologies that can optimize human performance. Each technical tools aligned with the business operations of the organization needs to be assessed and validated for its ability of users to learn the technologies easily, to be effective and efficient in using the technologies, and to enjoy/be motivated to use the technologies.

Finally, the business sustainability of virtual organizations and their technological infrastructure is critical to plan. From compensation, rewards, and recognition for people within the community, to project-based budgets for deliverables, and to operational costs for the technology infrastructure, these business and financial management of virtual organization’s assets.
Virtual organizations, as socio-technical systems, present a unique set of challenges that require innovative solutions. By understanding these challenges and implementing effective strategies, virtual organizations can enhance their efficiency and effectiveness, paving the way for a successful digital future.

The presentation will conclude with elements of the MERLOT VOSS case study:
• What factors make a virtual organization virtual?
• What factors make an organization “high performing” and how are these factors deployed in a virtual organization?
• What are the technology strategies used to scaffold a virtual organization’s operations and what are the cost-benefits of these strategies?
• What are the characteristics and skills of personnel that perform “best” in virtual organizations?
• What are socio-technology/human factors design changes that will improve personnel performance in virtual organizations?

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