| The idea of rent collector is as old as civilization, as collecting rents occurred in ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt (Evans, 2008, p. 3). The transformation from rent collector to property manager occurred during the difficult economic conditions brought on by the great depression (Evans, 2008, p. 3). The property management field further developed throughout the Industrial age and continues to operate using many of those same procedures in the Information age (Evans, 2008, p. 4). With the industry failing to adopt some of the technological advances of the Information age, such as online banking and telecommuting, some property management organizations continue to use some outdated procedures, making them less efficient. This paper presents research criteria and data to answer the research question "Can the residential property management field benefit by adopting a virtual organization platform?" A virtual organization platform is a business platform (design) that businesses use to sell their products or services only through the Internet, as opposed to owning or leasing a traditional "brick and mortar" building that their customers and employees can walk into (Elliot, 2006). This paper benchmarks several virtual organizations in diverse industries to determine their best practices and the applicability of those practices in the property management field (Gibson & Glenn, 2000). These best practices include the virtual organization functions of telecommuting, outsourcing, Internet interface, information technology, collaboration, telecenter, mobile working, hot desking, hoteling, virtual teams, and decentralized leadership. The use of several trend-forecasting techniques will additionally give a comprehensive view of using a virtual organization platform in the residential property management field ("The art of foresight: Preparing for a changing world," 2004). This paper analyzes past and present trends in diverse industries for a virtual application in the property management industry. Adopting this platform would allow the property management field to expand its current capacity.;Key search terms: virtual organizations, property management. |
