Hybrid Teams: Sustaining team relations in the era of hybrid work

Hybrid work has become a prevalent working model in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, driven by technological advancements that enable work across distances. Hybrid work is a model that switches between on-site and remote work during the work week, and is expected to persist in the future. While much research has focused on the individual experiences and outcomes of hybrid work, considerably less research has focused on teams practicing this working model – hybrid teams. In contrast, there is a widely held concern for relations and collaboration, which is one factor that has led to return-to-office mandates. Teams, whose purpose is to collaborate and exceed individual capabilities, may be particularly affected by hybrid work. First, existing research shows that individuals experience hybrid work differently, and what is advantageous for one person may be disadvantageous for another, which creates tensions. Second, when employees shift between locations, the team's composition changes, sometimes daily. Despite these changes that hybrid teams face, significantly less is known about how hybrid work affects teams.

This dissertation explores how hybrid work affects team relations and how hybrid team practices can be developed. With this aim, this Ph.D. includes four studies: three empirical studies and one conceptual study. These studies have distinct methodologies and aims, and the empirical studies apply different datasets.

The first two studies (Study A and Study B) explored how team relations are affected by hybrid work, using a sequential mixed-methods design. Study A adopted a cross-sectional survey methodology with 296 knowledge workers, and Study B applied a longitudinal qualitative study with eleven hybrid teams. The last two studies (Study C and D) examined how hybrid team practices can be developed through an empirical and a conceptual study. The empirical study applied an action research methodology through short-time-boxed experiments with two hybrid teams. All empirical studies took place in a Danish context with knowledge workers.

By contributing to existing theory and practice, the findings in this Ph.d. challenge the current focus on the ‘number of days’ employees can work remotely by suggesting a shift to practices that create predictability for hybrid team members, by developing shared understandings of how we ‘go to work’. Across the studies, the dissertation advances the understanding of how hybrid team managers and hybrid teams can shape team relations and develop joint practices. By
introducing an organizing perspective to hybrid teams, the findings provide preliminary evidence that organizing and team relations are interrelated in dynamic hybrid settings, where shared understandings must be reflected in the practices that teams organize for themselves. Overall, my findings challenge the use of “number of days in the office” as a proxy for relationship quality and offer an alternative way to sustain strong team relations in a dynamic hybrid work environment.