Benefits for virtual organizations from distributed groups

The rapid spread of capitalism around the world since the end of the Cold War in 1990 has been accompanied by a sharp increase in global business competition. Many computer technology advances have occurred in the same period, focusing on organizational computer networking. In such an environment, most organizations increasingly face two external pressures to produce and deliver higher quality and cheaper products and services than their competitors, and to adapt to the fast pace of technological change. Allowing network-supported groups to make incremental process improvements can result in quantum-leap competitive advantages over the long run. As organizational development approaches including total quality management and business process reengineering, one of the best ways to surmount these challenges is to make incremental or radical improvements in organizational processes, or sequences of interrelated activities.