One of the most beautiful and profound consequences of the information age is the opportunity to do many jobs while being in a different location. Working remotely – either from home or at an office somewhere else – versus co-located work can have different implications and certainly requires a specific type of employee and additional techniques to make it a success.<\/p>\n
There are three main aspects of a physical, organizational structure which we should take into consideration when thinking about how virtual and\/or remotely-operating organizations relate to physical structure and how managers might address these: location, layout, and proximity to others (Hatch, 2013).<\/p>\n
Physical Office Spaces<\/b><\/p>\n
As physical spaces enable and constrain behavior, they can be instrumentally designed to serve organizational purposes. Proximity, for example, which considers the nearness of people to one another \u2013 affects human interaction. Research shows positive correlation between proximity and the likelihood that people engage in face-to-face interaction (Hatch, 2013). Something I\u00b4ve also observed at organizations I\u00b4ve been working at over the years. Often people \u2013 even those being from the same team and when sitting only one floor apart from each other – might not spend any face-to-face time with each other for months. The open versus closed office debate entails similar implications. Physical structure provides the impression that the organization is \u201cgrounded\u201d and manageable. At the same time people can develop more easily a sense of belonging when spending time together in a physical office setting (e.g. by decorating offices for specific festivities, or putting personal belongings on their desks, etc.). Such symbols might trigger certain actions and\/or reactions, also called symbolic conditioning.<\/p>\n
Although often there are better networking opportunities in a physical structure, and employees might think they\u00b4re closer to power stakeholders (e.g. by sitting next to a senior manager\u00b4s office), they might also spend a significant amount of time in non-productive rumor mills and getting unnecessarily distracted. Morgan (2006) goes a step further by exploring organizations as psychic prisons (Plato\u00b4s Cave). An idea that organizations are created and sustained by conscious and unconscious processes which make people \u201cimprisoned\u201d by having to follow certain rules, procedures, thoughts, and actions. Something which could happen more easily within the physical constraints of an organization\u00b4s building.<\/p>\n
Remote\/Virtual Employees and Teams<\/b><\/p>\n
In my opinion, virtual teams and remote work can have significant advantages for certain job families and personality types if the manager succeeds in creating a sense of belonging and place for her\/his team members to build a sense of purpose, belonging, and identity. When it comes to virtual teams, Siebdrat et al (2009) found that virtual teams offer tremendous opportunities despite their greater managerial challenges. In fact, with the appropriate processes in place, they claim that dispersed teams can significantly outperform their colocated counterparts. In their opinion, managers can take advantage of virtual teams by assembling employees from different locations to integrate different pools of expertise to perform a particular task. In addition, organizations can take advantage of higher levels of diversity versus colocated teams. To succeed, however, organizations will need to be mindful not to underestimate the complexity of virtual team work, to pay special attention to task-related processes (to leverage the specialized knowledge and expertise of our group members), to focus on using and developing social skills of our group members, to stress the relevance of self-sufficiency, to have the required technology in place, to provide its managers and employees with adequate trainings to understand and manage remote teams, and to ensure regular and close communication between all stakeholders (e.g. joint weekly video conference).<\/p>\n
Conclusion<\/b><\/p>\n
Today\u00b4s organizations are challenged to question their existing ways of organizing and working to attract and retain much sought-after talent. Choosing the model that works best for an organization is about specifying the type of employees an organization wants to accommodate, develop, and hire; and how those employees should collaborate in which types of jobs. It\u2019s also very relevant in such a context to clarify an organization\u00b4s mission and goals to select an approach that fits. Paired with its available pool of resources (financials, know-how, etc.). For example, companies that rely on constant team collaboration and control of their employees\u2019 hours need a more traditional work space, while those that don\u2019t have hard deadlines or a real need for regular collaboration can benefit from employees working remotely. By weighing the pros and cons of each of these models, any business can determine the best option. The more choices an organization can offer its employees the better. For only those organizations that find the right balance between corporate and individual interests will realize any model\u00b4s full potential.<\/p>\n
Thanks,
\nAndreas von der Heydt<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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