Working Title: Developing and Nurturing a Knowledge Sharing Culture in Virtual Organizations

My research starts with the observation that business opportunities tempt management to create virtual teams as a cost effective way of establishing a „unité de doctrine“  and a common practice in dispersed, but functionally related  organizations.  However, „unité de doctrine“ does not easily transform into common understanding, let alone common practice. In the transformation from „unité de doctrine”, practice emerges as an adaption of doctrine to local structures, habits, and values, i.e.  the same practice may vary in different settings.  These variations, justified through local references, are only acceptable in organizations that are rooted in mutual trust.  However, research seems to suggest that in dispersed virtual organizations trust develops mostly in settings where the members meet in person in an informal way. Communities that do not have an opportunity to meet physically, seem to develop a focus on content that rapidly narrows the scope of acceptable views and fosters zealot behavior among the members. In collocated groups multi-context relationships create more tolerant views that welcome variety in values, view, and behavior.

My PhD project focuses on the above mentioned impacts in organizations that are involved in knowledge sharing initiatives.  They come from the armed forces, students, and  artists. The goal is to learn by means of appreciative inquiry in each of these groups which behavior virtual organizations need to develop to establish rich, engaging, multi-context relationships that carry collaboration beyond known facts.  

Ulrich Emanuel Gysel is a lecturer at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences in Winterthur, Switzerland. He teaches at the School of Management and Law in the field of business information technology with a focus on web collaboration as well as techniques and technology in knowledge management. He has received a Master of Arts in history and German literature from the University of Bern. He also received Masters of Science in computing from the Computing Mathematics Dept, University of Wales, Cardiff, and in organizational learning from the ODKM Program in the School of Public Policy, George Mason University, Fairfax VA.