Configuration Management & The Mystery of the Virtual Organization

The Virtual Organization, ah yes, there is nothing quite like the Virtuality of the office. Wherever I go, I take my office with me. Simply wonderful! Freedom at last. Really? Freedom from what? Didn't you get paid for working in the office? Of course you did. Slavery is not a virtue in the 21st Century. If you work without ever being paid, you must be a good-natured volunteer. If you are not a volunteer and work without pay without choosing to do so, you are a slave and Slavery is a very serious crime in this country. It is your pay for working that contributes to the social freedoms you enjoy.

This book explores the deep and wider look at the nature of the Virtual Organization. You can say that it examines Virtuality virtually, in the here and now. I raise a number of issues, probably a mixture of old and new. Every now and then, I include a "Thought Break" as a way of reviewing the ideas about Virtuality previously presented as a way to connect one section with another to strengthen the message implicit in each section. These "Thought Breaks" are important to the wider and deeper development of the book's message. Each person can choose to resolve the Thought Breaks to deepen his or her understanding of Virtuality, or not. This is not a course on Virtuality. There is no grading here except you the reader assessing your own understanding of the Virtual Organization for yourself. I wrote this book to assist you in working as a virtual employee now or in the future if the opportunity already has arisen or will arise sooner or later down the road of modern life. What you read here today, you can use tomorrow means something real to me and I hope to my audience. I suppose some readers can use this book kind of like a "personal consultant" to deepen their understanding of the range of Virtuality in the current office landscape. This book questions much of the current thinking about the rationale for adopting the Virtual Organization.