Sub-Plenary 1-1

How to Deal with Hybrid Work:
Pros and Cons of Going Hybrid

 

Main Organizer & Chair:
Gilda Antonelli, D’Annunzio University, Italy
 
Co-organizers:
Roberta Cuel, University of Trento, Italy
Barbara Imperatori, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy
Aurelio Ravarini, LIUC Università Cattaneo, Italy
Teresina Torre, University of Genova, Italy
 
Panelists:
Raluca Bunduchi, University of Edinburgh Business School, United Kingdom
Tina Blegind Jensen, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
Aurelio Ravarini, LIUC Università Cattaneo, Italy
Mari-Klara Stein, Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), Estonia
Aizhan Tursunbayeva, University of Naples “Parthenope”, Italy
 

Some second-order effects (a result or side effect of first-order effects, which are challenging to foresee) have also become apparent. For example, along with the widespread work-from-home practices during the pandemic, it first became the gold standard to turn on the camera in online meetings. However, as Zoom fatigue appeared, it became clear that optimal hybrid work conditions are not the same as office, tele- or remote work conditions.
 
Third-order effects (resulting from how we manage second-order effects) are where it gets interesting, and we can only currently speculate about these effects. For example, organizations began experimenting with different solutions to manage the unexpected second-order effects of hybrid work. A new approach to hybrid work has now begun to emerge from these experiments. Hybrid work is becoming a more radical rethinking of the nature of work to support work processes that happen simultaneously online and on-site (e.g., a meeting where part of the work is done in collaboration software and part in a room with a whiteboard) and teams that are both online and on-site (part of the team participates online and some are on-site). As a result, deep-seated work-related values also start to change, where participation (including asynchronous participation) and its support become more important than presence and visibility.
 
Then, on the worker's side, it is growing the search for a hybrid job as a response to the need for more balanced living conditions – in which work is not in contradiction with private life, affections, and interests.
 
As for employees, there are two aspects involved:

• The first concerns technical-digital and behavioural skills. The main problems related to the digital divide mainly affect workers with limited cultural and economic possibilities and older workers, who are more at risk of social exclusion due to less digital knowledge. In general, this constitutes an obstacle to an approach to work in which digital tools can be used as default.

• The second area concerns the individual characteristics of the worker and its relational context. Self-motivation, autonomy, problem-solving, and time management skills, ability to work towards objectives and to communicate become essential competencies for the hybrid worker, who is no longer evaluated on working time but on results.

However, the different personal situations in which each worker finds himself lead to significantly different working conditions. For those who live alone, presence-work constitutes a relationship opportunity to connect and socialize. For workers with multiple roles, the balance between them must be negotiated with the organization as a customized practice.
 
On the organization’s side, the ability to respond to the workers’ needs within the framework of a strengthened capacity for competitive presence represents a discriminating element of attractiveness. Effective use of the hybrid work requires a thoughtful organizational analysis and, often, a redesign of the organizational processes, which considers not only the tasks to be performed and the characteristics of the workers dedicated to them, but above all, which defines adequate HR management strategies consistent with the new organizational work mode.
 
The feasible solutions depend on the nature of the organization (type of Industry, public or private nature; size, and so on) but also on the organizational culture, the preferences and “maturity” of the workers, on the managerial styles, nevertheless of the social context environment in which the organization itself runs.
 
Overall, despite hybrid work is leading to the emergence of new forms of job characteristics, in some companies has been a “business-as-usual” operating context also before the Covid-19 pandemic, which has caused a rapid shift towards forced remote work for millions of employees. However, we still know little about the job characteristics associated with hybrid work, including their essential dimensions as job autonomy, job demands, employee monitoring, workload, and social and relational aspects, as well as the interplay between job characteristics with (perceived) job quality of such work arrangements including work intensity, working time quality, social environment, employee skills and development, earnings, or job prospects.
 
The panelists will be invited to reflect on the time, space and people of HW discussing in a round table on the following topics:

1. Possible negative effects of HW and how to manage them
2. The hybrid workers’ new competences
3. Different approaches to changes in work practices/new ways of workings in an entrepreneurial firm
4. Digital transformation on organi zational practice
5. The hybrid workers
6. New HR management strategies
7. Remote work design and quality
8. New organizational cultural and identity strategies

 

Relevance and insights that the sub-plenary wishes to convey

The plenary session aims to stimulate discussion on the time, space, and people aspects of hybrid work and to convey that:

• Hybrid work, which involves both in-office and remote work, is becoming a more prevalent organizational solution and can have both intended and unintended effects on time, space, and people.

• Hybrid work requires workers to have technical-digital and behavioral skills and personal characteristics such as self-motivation and problem-solving skills.

• Effective implementation of hybrid work may require organizations to redesign their work processes and HR management strategies and consider factors such as organizational culture and the preferences and maturity of workers.

These issues are highly pertinent to the main theme of the EGOS Colloquium 2024, as organizations face crucial decisions related to time, space, and people in the context of hybrid work, and seek relevant guidance from organizational scholars.