Trust and the Virtual Organisation

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by Charles Handy

Excerpt "It is easy to be seduced by the technological possibilities of the virtual organization, but the managerial and personal implications may cause us to rethink what we mean by an organization.

At its simplest, the managerial dilemma comes down to the question, How do you manage people whom you do not see! The simple answer is, By trusting them, but the apparent simplicity disguises a turnaround in organizational thinking.

The rules of trust are both obvious and well established, but they do not sit easily with a managerial tradition that believes efficiency and control are closely linked and that you can't have one without a lot of the other."