Page 101 - WHERE WE WORK - Schlegelmilch

Reconfiguring workplaces
for visual and textual input separately.
We started by openly coding the data for how respondents experienced the working during the mostly co-located and distributed phase. From this initial set of codes, we further developed provisional codes (Locke, 2001). For example, 'Running into each other' to discuss the role of chance encounters. We distinguished the codes by phase so that we could detect differences between the settings with and without a shared office. Then, we went on to arrange the codes into broader categories, such as 'Maintaining relationships'. As we continued coding in a more focused manner (Charmaz, 2006), we also went back to the data to see how it matched our understanding of the category. It became clear that the physical, shared office played an important role in work relationships and that the relationships were not described in a dyadic form (as we expected). We decided to code and created tables for the relationship activities that the employees engaged in. By then, we realized that it was not the office itself but rather its role as part of the broader repertory of workplaces. This was the time when we arrived at the notion of workplace configurations. It was then that we also started iterating more between the data and the academic literature.
3.4 Empirical setting: office closure
Towards the end of 2015, the soon-to-be ending lease for TechSub's current building sparked the change journey concerning what the next corporate office of TechSub would become. TechSub was particularly known for its forward-thinking office building concepts, but in their view, the innovativeness of the current building had faded over the years. This perception was in stark contrast to how external visitors perceived it who visited the office building until the day of the closure to "be inspired".
After evaluating various options for the next building (e.g., brand new office or relocation) in the first half of 2016, TechSub and TechCorp
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