Discontinuities and continuities: a new way to understand virtual work

`̀ Virtual’’ is a potent buzzword, freely applied to many situations, with many meanings. In this exploratory study, we develop a more precise understanding of `̀ virtual’’ to describe changing work environments. Specifically, we propose a framework to classify work environments based on the type of discontinuities involved. Discontinuities are gaps or a lack of coherence in aspects of work. The framework allows us to compare research across different topics and work settings. We use the framework to classify 75 published articles on virtual work environments or earlier, related research streams. We observed that many studies were simultaneously addressing existing or emerging continuities, factors or strategies for overcoming discontinuities. The focus of `̀ virtual’’ is on changes in the work environment; however, our analysis suggests the need to be equally aware of factors that have not changed and which may become more critical with the introduction of discontinuities. Introduction Organizations increasingly find that virtual work structures are one strategy they can follow to provide increased flexibility in an economic environment of continuous change. Advanced information and communication technologies have enabled new options in organizational structure and design (DeSanctis and Monge, 1998; Davidow and Malone, 1992). Dramatic changes in work environments are evidenced as boundaries of time, space, and even organization are transcended. The word `̀ virtual’’ has become a compelling catchphrase to describe these changes and, as such, is freely applied to many situations, with many meanings. As a result, it is in danger of meaning nothing. Overuse of the term `̀ virtual’’ creates two problems. Since the term is used non-systematically and to describe many different work environments, it is not clear if and when results from different studies should be compared. For example, should researchers investigating `̀ virtual work’’ where employees are The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0959-3845.htm An earlier version of this work was published in the Proceedings of the 35th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, January 2002.