I agree with everything you say about the existence of these information
networks and the value they have in an organisation. I'm not sure,
however, about formalising them. I think sometimes the only reason they
work so well is because they are informal. There are not the pressures
placed on people by the hierarchy that exists in a formal situation.
Forming a "virtual" organisation for a particular project might work,
although I would assume that a "virtual" organisation would have no real
authority, thereby making it difficult to do things any differently to the
way they would normally work.
It would depend on the management and the organisation I guess.
--Maria Ivancic BHP Information Technology Australia
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>