Theorizing Virtuality in Enterprise Social Systems

Abstract

This chapter has built on research on today's modern organizations to lay the foundations for a comprehensive and systematic theorization of enterprise social systems. Theorizing virtuality marks a fundamental transformation in space-time parameters in communications. This is especially so in the context of rapid current advancements in IT such as cloud computing, as well as numerous other technological fronts. Current IT trends show that increased spatio-temporal plasticity heightens the effectiveness and the efficiency of modern enterprise social systems. In particular, subject-oriented asynchronous communications experience greater inferred plasticity and event-oriented synchronous communications experience greater referred plasticity. Finally, enterprise social systems vary in their degree of virtuality based on the perspective of the relevant stakeholder group considered.