Proceedings of 8th European Assembly on telework (Telework2001)

160with whom the company has already co-operated since it began operation in 1993. Specialistsprogram specific parts <strong>of</strong> the s<strong>of</strong>tware and send them to a central server that others can access. Thegeographic location <strong>of</strong> project participants is almost irrelevant.The main asset <strong>of</strong> the company, according to its CEO, is the pool <strong>of</strong> freelancers with whomtrust relationships have been established and who can be called upon when new projects requiretheir skills. Working with virtual teams instead <strong>of</strong> a permanent staff enables the company toreact quickly and flexibly to market demand. The company is not restricted by the skills <strong>of</strong> itsstaff, but can make use <strong>of</strong> other skills that are available on the global freelance market. RauserAdvertainment’s market is characterised by uncertainty. For example, in the course <strong>of</strong> only a fewyears the primary medium <strong>of</strong> distribution for Advertainment products has shifted from diskettes toCDs to the Internet, each requiring different production styles.The company has <strong>of</strong>ten been named as a typical example <strong>of</strong> a virtual organisation, but there is aclear hierarchy in the relationship between the management and freelancers. Project participantsare handpicked to take responsibility for certain parts <strong>of</strong> a project. In this sense, the company actsas a network broker (or lead operator, see Figure and Faisst and Birg 1997) that is located withinthe value chain and co-ordinates all activities.Figure 1 illustrates the relationship between ‘virtual’ organisations and freelancers. From theclient organisation’s point <strong>of</strong> view, participants in individual projects are only occasionally drawnfrom the entire labour market, but from market subgroups. These subgroups, sometimes calledfreelancer or specialist ‘pools’, comprise workers with whom a trust relationship has already beenestablished. Some small companies that operate in highly volatile markets regard their pool <strong>of</strong>freelancers as one <strong>of</strong> their key assets. These pools are not stagnant, but constantly being remodelledto take in new freelancers (as well as to exclude workers who have not met expectations). Poolmembers may have their own small network <strong>of</strong> ‘latent’ collaborators and suppliers from which theycan benefit when taking responsibility for parts <strong>of</strong> project work that are too large or diverse in skillrequirements for them to undertake alone.In the Figure, a labour market with three companies and a number <strong>of</strong> freelancers is depicted. Thecompanies act as lead operators, each <strong>of</strong> which has permanent staff (black spots) and a pool <strong>of</strong>freelancers with whom it co-operates regularly (grey spots). Some <strong>of</strong> these freelancers are workingexclusively for the company (quasi-employed freelancers), but most freelancers have more thanone client and also have their own networks <strong>of</strong> friends and partners with whom they <strong>of</strong>ten work inprojects (spots with broken lines).