title: The workplace ecosystem: Understanding and managing hybrid working environments with consideration for employee preferences and outcomes
Creators: name: Voll, Kyra Johanna
Publisher: name: UNSPECIFIED
Year: 2024

description: The world of work is undergoing a massive transformation, accompanied by uncertainties for society, employees and companies. In particular, the volatile business environment, the shortage of skilled workers and the continuous development of information and communication technologies present companies with new challenges. In order to meet these changes, adjustments need to be made not only to companies’ core business but also to their corporate real estate strategy. In addition, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, employees increasingly demand the ability to work from other locations besides the office, such as at home or from anywhere. As part of the transformation and in response to these challenges, hybrid working environments have emerged in many companies.
Hybrid working environments are characterized by the fact that employees of a company choose their workplace independently and flexibly and work from there chosen location with the support of digital technologies. This expansion of the workplace beyond company boundaries and the addition of digital space increases complexity and requires changes to the physical organization of work. The function and discipline best equipped to react to these challenges is workplace management. Workplace management has the task of developing workplace strategies that aim to provide employees with the best possible support in their work, regardless of where that work takes place, taking into account the interests of a wide range of stakeholders. The aim of workplace management is to manage all relevant resources to achieve the best outcomes for individual employees (e.g., productivity, well-being, satisfaction) and the organization, keeping results in line with company objectives.
As a result, the main question for workplace management in this great transformation of the working world, is how the physical organization of work in hybrid working environments can be deployed efficiently in line with human and spatial resources. To this end, it is essential to find out how working in different locations relates to employee work success, what preferences employees have and how this knowledge can be used to develop a workplace strategy incorporating physical and digital space. It is also necessary to understand how offices can be flexibly adapted to meet new needs, creating added value for employees in hybrid working environments and ensuring the successful survival of the organization in volatile market environments.
In research and practice, however, there is still a lack of comprehensive knowledge about hybrid working environments' processes, structures and interdependencies. Even in individual workplaces, it is not sufficiently understood how the workplace and the work of employees with knowledge-intensive tasks, i.e., knowledge workers, are connected. In order to optimally manage hybrid work environments and design the physical organization of work in the interests of successful employees, a holistic understanding of the workplace in hybrid work environments is required, which can be viewed as a workplace ecosystem. Using Bronfenbrenner's ecosystemic approach, this dissertation provides a systematic overview of the workplace in hybrid work environments. Based on five articles, the different physical workplaces (work from home, office, workation) and the digital space are analyzed in terms of employees’ preferences and outcomes and the effects on workplace management.
The first article uses decision experiments to examine knowledge workers' work success and workplace choice in hybrid working environments. This analysis serves to demonstrate the relationship between work success and workplace choice on the one hand, and to identify determinants influencing the two factors on the other. The implications enable companies to design a more informed hybrid work strategy, and they allow developers and designers of information and communication systems to learn how digital tools can be adapted to support hybrid work in a more targeted manner.
The second article examines working from home. Structural equation modeling shows which workplace characteristics at home determine work success and examines whether interferences with the private environment influence work results. In addition, the study shows that differences between two countries affect employee outcomes when work-from-home. Companies can learn how to configure the home workplace to achieve positive employee and business results from these findings.
The third article deals with a workplace of the so-called ‘third places’, in this case, Workation. This article shows how private, social and professional life and work interact in this form of flexible working. A conceptual analysis makes it possible to define and classify workation, allowing it to be placed in the scientific discourse for the first time. The study provides important implications for research and practice in workplace management, tourism and regional and urban planning.
The fourth article focuses on the digital space, a fundamental prerequisite for hybrid work. The study analyzes individual, corporate, and social determinants that influence employees' intention to adopt their company's digital workplace. The implications enable companies to manage the interface between physical and digital space in a more targeted manner to exploit the full potential.
The fifth article deals with the traditional office space and its flexible adaptation to the new requirements of hybrid working environments. Based on a case study, the study identifies different employee work types with various work modes among a company's employees. The developed approach makes it possible for workplace management to achieve human-centred office space planning and to improve management flexibility in hybrid working environments.
With its findings, this dissertation expands the understanding of the interrelationships of hybrid work environments. This systematic investigation of the workplace ecosystem, including the physical and digital workplaces and the various influencing factors, makes it possible to further develop the physical organization of work. In addition, it enables workplace management with greater focus on the employee. The implications of the work not only offer added value for scientific research in workplace management and other research streams, but also provide recommendations for practical action to shape the physical organization in hybrid work environments in such a way that they create added value economically and for society as a whole.