Virtual Interactions: Creating Impressions of Boundaries

Abstract

Virtual organizations have been gaining increasing attention as an emergent and highly significant form of work organization. Discussions on the significance of virtual organizations and how information and communication technologies enable organizations to transform themselves away from their traditional physical boundaries, have improved our understanding of what such emergent organizational arrangements are or what they are not. However, although boundaries appear to play a central role in our understanding of virtual organizations, scholars have not sufficiently explored the role of individual virtual workers in the formation and transformation of boundaries in virtual settings. A fundamental issue with regard to this is how individuals as actors (and thus the most visible players in virtual performances) create impressions of boundaries in order to cope with the challenges of distantiation and flexibility set up within the virtual context of work. The purpose of this chapter is to explore this issue. In so doing, the study adds a different dimension to the current literature and existing views by adopting the theory of impression management in our understanding of virtual boundaries.