PurposeUse of e‐learning opens up a whole new range of business expansion and internationalization opportunities for many companies including higher education institutions. The paper seeks to explore the challenges a business college may encounter using e‐learning as internationalization strategy. E‐learning‐related problems are analyzed from two main internal interest groups' point of view – lecturers and students. The aim of the case study presented in the paper is to find out what are the major challenges from a student and academic personnel perspective using e‐learning. This kind of analyses should be the first step introducing e‐learning as a strategic tool for business expansion.Design/methodology/approachQuestionnaires, in‐depth interviewing and semi‐structured group interviews were used to find answers to the posed research questions. Research took place in two phases. In phase one, two types of questionnaires were distributed – Type A to lecturers (ten respondents) and Type B to students (115 respondents), Both types were constructed by the author. In phase two, two in‐depth interviews and two semi‐structured group interviews were conducted (ten students in one group of interview, eight lecturers in the second group of interview).FindingsThe main problem areas for lecturers related to e‐learning are: lack of time, lack of interest/motivation, lack of co‐operation, compensation system does not take into account the specifics of e‐learning and lecturers are concerned about the quality of teaching in a virtual environment. The most problematic of them appear to be lack of time and inappropriate compensation system. Students appear to have interest in e‐courses, but the level of knowledge regarding specifics of web‐based learning as well as about e‐courses offered was unexpectedly low. This is an especially problematic case as open university students were the main target group for whom the e‐courses were designed in the first place.Research limitations/implicationsThe research is based on one case study and thus the conclusions made may not exactly reflect the situation in all universities of Estonia. But due to the shared economic, cultural and historical background, at least to some extent the case study reflects the main problem areas of all Estonian universities using e‐learning.Originality/valueThe originality of the paper stems from an interdisciplinary approach to e‐learning – use of e‐learning as a tool for internationalization. The paper presents results of a case study research, conducted in an East‐European business college and the results of the study are discussed in respect of historical, social and economic specifics of Estonia.

PurposeVirtual work presents new challenges for managers compared to using ordinary, face‐to‐face work practices. The purpose of this paper is to show how different virtual work types are related to different challenges that require different managerial and co‐operation approaches.Design/methodology/approachEmpirical data were gathered during a period of two years using a questionnaire (3,156 respondents from 323 companies representing different Estonian service sector branches) and interviewing.FindingsThe paper concludes that a higher level of work virtuality leads to a lower level of work satisfaction, mainly due to inappropriate management techniques and problems related to information and communication technology‐mediated communication.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample consists of only service sector organizations, limiting generalization of the results to the practice of manufacturing companies.Practical implicationsThe results will help managers of service organizations to prepare and choose appropriate management techniques for working with virtual workforce.Originality/valueThe paper shows that service sector organizations operate with different degrees of virtuality that lead to different challenges and consequently require different management techniques.

Purpose-Literature on virtual and other new ways of work is diverse and confusing, indicating a need for a framework to structure and systematize the related terminology. The empirical study was needed as there is still a lack of empirical research on how well (and if at all) characteristics of employees' national and occupational culture determine the management challenges and employees' satisfaction with virtual work arrangements. Methodology/approach-Empirical data was gathered using case study research. An Estonian and a Russian company operating in the service sector suited best as they had a diverse multinational workforce and several years of virtual work experience. Findings-The paper concludes that occupational culture determines much better than national culture the employees' attitudes towards and satisfaction with virtual work arrangements. Research limitations/implications-The main limitation arose from the lack of national culture research in East European countries: for many of these nations, national culture dimensions/characteristics (e.g. like offered by Hofstede) are still unknown. Practical implications-The results help service organizations' managers to prepare a multinational workforce better for virtual work, knowing ahead the potential challenges and thus train the employees based on their occupational culture background. Originality/value of paper-The paper contributes to theory by offering a framework which enables to systematize the diverse range of terminology used for new, flexible ways of work. The case studies reveal a huge gap waiting to be filled with research on national culture characteristics of East European countries. Keywords Virtual work, National culture, Occupational culture Paper type Research paper 1.Introduction The paper is about application of new ways of work and more specifically multi-cultural virtual (team)work. A virtual team is a "… group of people with a unique set of skills, which members often reside in different geographical locations and who need to use different means of ICT in order to span time and space boundaries (Kirkman and Mathiew, 2004)." Such information and communication technologies (ICT) are often called groupware, computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) or group decision support systems (GDSS). A team or a real team is: a small group of people with complementary skills who are equally committed to a common purpose, goals, and working approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable (Katzenbach and Smith, 1999). A multi-cultural team is a team whose members have different cultural backgrounds, for instance because they are from different countries. Due to development of synchronous and asynchronous groupware (e.g. e-mail) people from different parts of the world can collaborate without travelling, but this in turn changes the way organizations function and requires from managers and employees the development of a whole new set of competences. Virtual work refers to a form of work in case of which ICTs are used for communication ...

The use of virtual teamwork is still a relatively new field for academic research and, even when researchedempirically, case study, interviewing or other small sample approaches are usually used. The aim of the paper is to present animproved construct of virtual work based on the Estonian service sector. The novel and theoretical contributions of the paperstem from presenting the improved approach in a new model that uses virtuality; a comparison is also made betweenvirtuality indices of easy and hard work. The empirical results presented in the paper are based on a sample of 781 respondentsfrom 93 service sector organisations. It was found that the improved index is linked to the initial index but differencesbetween respondent groups are clearer, and the improved index is much more user-friendly than the first virtuality index suggestedby the authors.

ICTs have changed the way people interact with each other – not only in everyday situations, but also in the work context. Inevitably, managers need to develop their management techniques to suit the new ICT mediated communication reality. As it has been suggested that new flexible work forms (virtual work, distance work) are more suitable for service organisations, the current paper aims to better understand new managerial practices used by virtual service managers and aspects that hinder the widespread use of new work forms. Thirty six service managers representing all twelve subsectors of the Estonian service industry were interviewed. Results indicate that flexible work forms, namely virtual work, is used more extensively than distance work. As the general knowledge level of new work forms and suitable management techniques is low, joint efforts of different societal interest groups are needed in order to raise awareness of new work forms.