The MENOS Organization

Virtual forms of organizing are becoming ever more common forms of managing knowledge resources, because working in a virtual environment offers possibilities that would not be available in conventional organizations. It is believed that the technology enabling virtual work “tricks” teams and organizations into thinking that work is being done in the same space and with the same set of organizational norms (George, 1996). Rachman and Battachryya (2002) pinpoint transaction costs as the drivers behind the disintegration of organizations into dispersed organizations. They propose that modern technology allows small businesses to gain access to the same amount information that previously required heavy investments in a large organization; operating in a network economy allows small businesses to avoid such investments, while reaping the same benefits. The MENOS (Successful Expert Teams) project aims at a creating self-employment through a networked collaboration model between SMEs and professionals in the field of content and software production in the region of South Karelia in Finland. The MENOS project is an interesting virtual venture in a knowledge-intensive information and communications technologies (ICT) industry. The classification of such a phenomenon, which exhibits features of virtual teams, a virtual community and a virtual organization, is not straightforward. This article offers a critical analysis of the contemporary conceptual confusion as well as some empirical insight obtained from the MENOS case.