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Reconfiguring workplaces
Third, we contribute to the literature on the link between workplace and relationships (Heaphy et al., 2018; Khazanchi et al., 2018). We detail how workers cope with a change in their workplace configuration by reconfiguring around new physical and digital centers to maintain and build work relationships. Our findings suggest that a physical center is particularly conducive to one’s mid-layer and peripheral relationship layer and a digital center to the core and mid-layer relationship layers. This relates to Rockmann and Pratt’s (2015) study, which is also an example of a decentered workplace configuration through the introduction of remote work opportunities. In their study, it was not the actual loss of the corporate office but the perceived loss of the office which triggered the employees to define new centers for their organizing. Specifically, in their study, the employees did not agree upon the physical center of work anymore (fewer people came to the office), which in turn diluted the relationships with coworkers (feeling lonely). Thus, while a change in workplace configuration may superficially seem trivial (e.g., still multiple workplaces), the loss of a center and then shift towards other centers have tremendous relational consequences and need to be coped with. While the authors did not specify how it affected different layers of relationships separately, their study still demonstrates overlap with our findings, suggesting that our findings can be applied to other contexts as well. As a next step, one can imagine a study where a different change is investigated, for example, the elimination of remote work as in the case of Yahoo! (Cain Miller & Rampell, 2013). Alternatively, scholars could turn their focus on the peripheral relationships. While there is some research on avoiding serendipitous encounters (e.g., Irving et al., 2019), there is more research needed on the serendipitous encounters of coworkers who do not know each other yet – and what the implications are for individual and organizational outcomes.
3.6.2 Limitations and future research directions
Although we have made contributions to different streams of the literature, we also need to note some specific limitations of our study, as well as suggest related avenues for future research. First, the interview data
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