What are virtual tribes?
If you believe Top Voices on LinkedIn, virtual tribes are ‘new’. The inconvenient truth about that is….virtual tribes are not new, they are new for them! Another good example of what we call sacred cows in management.
What are virtual tribes?
Virtual tribes are informal groups of people who share a common interest or goal, often connected through technology. They can exist within or outside of formal organizations, transcending geographical boundaries and internal formal organizational structures.
There are two different types of virtual tribes.
1) Virtual Tribes Inside Large Bureaucratic Organizations
- Informal Networks: People inside these virtual tribes often emerge organically, based on shared interests, projects, or experiences. They can provide a sense of community and support for employees.
- Knowledge Sharing: Virtual tribes can facilitate the exchange of information and expertise, leading to innovation and problem-solving.
- Resistance to Bureaucracy: In some cases, virtual tribes can become a counterbalance to rigid hierarchies and bureaucratic procedures, fostering a more flexible, creative & productive environment.
- Challenges: While virtual tribes can be beneficial, they can also pose challenges, such as difficulty maintaining trust and cohesion, potential conflicts with formal organizational structures. And not to forget manipulation by harmfull tricksters.
Corporates and global banks have supported virtual tribes since the beginning of the Nineties to promote internal collaboration and knowledge sharing across geographical boundaries and across internal business units and traditional formal structures of corporates and other large bureaucratic organizations.
They have also been discussed and implemented as innovative ways to organize companies and promote organizational learning in corporates, global banks and global management consulting companies since the beginning of the Nineties.
More: Breaking Down Bureaucracy, Red Ocean Strategy Cashcows & Book Tony For A Video Consultation
2) Virtual Tribes Outside Large Bureaucratic Organizations
- Online Communities: These tribes often form around shared hobbies, passions, or causes. Examples include gaming communities, fan groups, and activist networks.
- Global Collaboration: Virtual tribes can enable people from different parts of the world to collaborate on projects and initiatives.
- Social Impact: Many virtual tribes are involved in social and environmental causes, using technology to mobilize and organize.
- Challenges: Maintaining engagement and preventing fragmentation can be difficult in virtual communities.
Virtual tribes have emerged after the launch of the internet around the year 2000 in many different forms and for many different reasons including in open and closed groups on different social network sites including on LinkedIn.
Key characteristics of virtual tribes:
- Shared identity: Members often feel a strong sense of belonging and connection.
- Technology-enabled: Communication and collaboration primarily occur through digital platforms.
- Self-organization: Tribes are often self-governing, with minimal formal structure.
- Diverse membership: Members can come from different backgrounds and locations.
In conclusion, virtual tribes have become just as virtual teams and different forms of the networked organization including the virtual organization in general, a popular organizational structure, an example of a networked organization and the virtual organization as part of the organizational model since the beginning of the Nineties for corporates and other large companies and after 2001 online for all of us using the Internet.
They offer opportunities for positive and negative collaboration, organizational innovation, and community building, but also present challenges related to maintaining trust, cohesion, and alignment within formal structures according to traditonal digital transformation and change management false experts.
Understanding the advantages and dynamics of virtual tribes is essential for decision-makers in any type of organization, large and small. And individuals seeking to leverage their potential, including virtual solopreneurs and people that want to start, grow and scale their company-of-one, their startup, scaleup and SME ‘staying small’, flexible and responsive using ICT and AI.
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