Interview with Author of Organizational Behavior and Virtual Work

With the globalization of work and technological advancements in recent years, and with emphasis on service quality today, organizations have changed. Virtual work has emerged as the new employment relationship, and it has been embraced by employees and employers in many industries. This book explores the dynamics of changing organization structures, theories of leadership and trust, and how dimensions of self-efficacy works in this new work relationship.Organizational Behavior and Virtual Work: Concepts and Research shows the enormous impact of technology and globalization on employment relationships and also predicts how they will contribute to the changing dimensions of organizations in the future. With a unique blend of theory and application in the real world of virtual workers, the authors present the most recent research and developments in the relatively new and still emerging area of virtual work. They take an in-depth critical look into the key factors affecting the virtual work environment with practical inputs of suggestions and recommendations. 

Why this book:
With the changing times of a shrinking world brought about by the Internet and the globalization revolution, work and organizations have changed into a new emerging world of virtual reality. This new work scenario also has set new rules, expectations, and challenges, with opportunities for employees and employers of global businesses. This book explores this enormous impact of globalization and technological advancements on employment relationships and behavior in organizations covering both theoretical and empirical bases of virtual work aspects, underlining application-based suggestions for managers, researchers, policymakers as well students of management.

Who will benefit from this book?
Executives, researchers, leaders, policymakers, managers and students will be able to understand the future work relationship known as the virtual work concept and how the organizational behavior dimensions—importantly, leadership, trust, self efficacy and organization climate are being affected by this new employment relationship as very little research is available specifically from a South Asian perspective.

Why did you decide to write this book?
I decided to write this book to explore and cover the new work scenario that is fast catching on due to its various advantages but yet not explored with strong conceptual knowledge or in a research-based manner . . . till now.

How did you become involved with the subject or theme of your book?
As a part of my research work, I got involved in interviewing and exploring the different dimensions of the topic with employees working as virtual workers within service sectors, especially covering IT, hospitality online portals and ITES (Information Technology enabled Services).

What advice do you have for managers who want to implement virtual work?
Although virtual work brings many advantages for organizations, it brings challenges, so it is not everybody’s cup of tea. And old theories and concepts of behavior in organizations such as leadership and motivation don’t seem to be always working in this work scenario. Managers need to be aware of its pros and cons to have it effectively implemented in organizations, as it can be valuable to relationships and performance, causing satisfaction for both executives and managers.

Can you tell us a particular success story that resulted from using something in the book?
Yes, in reading about the advantages of working virtually, many young working mothers and fathers can balance their work life with opting to work from home or working as virtual workers as it gives them more freedom and control over their lives and helps them to accomplish their personal responsibilities and increase satisfaction.

What do you expect people to get out of this book?
In general people can get a peep into and understand the future business scenario and work relationship, which will affect their personal lives also, as working virtually 24X7 in the future may enhance for some the work-life balance issues, physical and mental health, and other arenas of one’s life. 

ABOUT THE AUTHORS / EDITORS:

Arvind K. Birdie, PhD
Associate Professor and Acting Principal, IIMT School of Management (Oxford Brooks University), Gurgaon, India

Arvind K. Birdie, PhD, is an Associate Professor and Acting Principal at the IIMT School of Management (Oxford Brooks University), Gurgaon, India. For more than twelve years she has been taking postgraduate and graduate courses in management. Dr. Arvind has been consistently recognized for her teaching abilities. She is an avid reader, and her strength lies in teaching various interdisciplinary subjects with equal ease. Besides academic teaching and training, she has organized management development programs for corporate and academicians. She is a regular presenter at international and national conferences and has published papers in several referred journals. Her areas of interest include leadership, work-life balance, virtual work, and positive psychology. She enjoys travelling and spending time with her family in her free time. 

Madhu Jain, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, and Director, Department of Life Long Learning, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India

Madhu Jain, PhD, is presently Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India, where she is also Director of the Department of Life Long. She has been teaching and guiding postgraduate, graduate, and PhD students for over two decades, and has supervised several research projects and work at the MPhil, postgraduate, and PhD levels. Dr. Jain has published nearly forty papers in scholarly national and international journals and also published four books in the area of psychology. In addition, Dr. Jain is associated with many national and international associations.