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Reconfiguring workplaces
configurations, namely shared centrality, locational transparency, and negotiated legitimacy. Specifically, when employees faced the closure of the corporate office, they coped with the new workplace configuration by reconfiguring around new centers. With these findings, we provide a novel perspective on how the workplaces in contemporary work are connected.
3.6.1 Theoretical implications
Our contribution to the literature is threefold. First, the findings of the current study extend the research in the area of work relationships (Heaphy et al., 2018; Khazanchi et al., 2018; Wineman et al., 2009). Specifically, we introduce the notion of relationship layers, which resembles a radial dynamic with the individual employee at the center. While the notion of relationship layers may seem intuitive to many readers, we did not find a similar concept in the literature. They are different from a network view where individuals are connected directly and indirectly through path with each other. In the layers, the source of the connection and intensity of involvement define who belongs to each layer. Thereby, each layer represents a different degree of perceived closeness. Thereby, we add to previous work on perceived proximity in relationships (O’Leary et al., 2014; Wilson et al., 2008). We found that the removal of the corporate office affected relationship layers differently, such that people’s core layer of work relationships thrived, but their more tangential relationship layers suffered. Thus, our findings suggest that it is indeed crucial to treat relationship layers differently and in future research take into account how employees perceive them, thereby responding to Khazanchi et al.’s (2018) and O’Leary et al.’s (2014) call to take into account the variations in relationship quality.
Second, the current study further develops our understanding of contemporary workplaces (e.g., Bernstein & Turban, 2018; Gandini, 2015; Hislop & Axtell, 2009; Kossek et al., 2015) by showing how a worker’s different contemporary workplaces relate to each other. Specifically, although others have studied various aspects of workplaces, such as proximity and distance (e.g., Bernstein & Turban, 2018; Fayard & Weeks,
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