Communication, relationships and practices in virtual work /

Long (Univ. of North Carolina) has compiled a compendium of articles by dozens of contributors, mostly US academics, who address various issues relevant to working in virtual communities. The 16 articles are subgrouped by communication, relationships, and practices in virtual work. The book's hefty physical size is unwieldy (9 x 11 inches, 365 pages). Each article is summarized at the beginning of the volume, and references and endnotes conclude each chapter (with a few term definitions). Contributor qualifications are summarized at the end of the book. While the research presented is academic in nature, the writing style is accessible. Thus, practitioners seeking a better understanding of the dynamics of creating and managing virtual organizations would benefit from reading this work. The extensive chapter-end references will be useful to academics conducting their own research. See related, Handbook of Research on Virtual Workplaces and the New Nature of Business Practices by Paval Zemliansky and Kirk St. Amant (CH, Dec'08, 46-2187). Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through practitioner collections. N. J. Johnson formerly, Metropolitan State University