Page 157 - WHERE WE WORK - Schlegelmilch

General discussion
contemporary work settings. Specifically, in chapter 2, I looked at the affordances in workplaces in a hyperspatial settings and analyzed how digital nomads enacted temporary workplaces despite high mobility. Chapter 3 focused on the change of workplace configurations in a semispatial setting and reveals the negative implications of remoteness for peripheral work relationships. In chapter 4, I addressed the link between workplace transparency and innovative work behaviors in a sedentary setting and further tested the moderating influence of remote work on this relationship.
5.1.1 Hyperspatial setting: Achieving temporary stability by enacting affordances
I started my investigation of contemporary workplaces in the hyperspatial setting of digital nomads (chapter 2) where I concentrated on understanding how they deal with the challenge of stability. Stability of work settings, at least temporary, is necessary to effectively conduct focused work and connect socially. Utilizing interviews and observations, I studied nomadic workers and how they achieve temporary stability of workplaces while traveling. They choose a destination not based on business reasons but based on a search for adventure and freedom (Jarrahi et al., 2019; Reichenberger, 2017; Sutherland & Jarrahi, 2017). In this highly mobile and remote setting, I focused on the interaction between workers and their physical environments to conduct work.
Despite the continuous movement of workers within and between places, nomadic workers were able to cope with the challenge of stability of workplaces by enacting affordances that reflect how digital nomads interact with physical environments in nomadic work: malleability, privacy and instant sociality. While malleability is concerned with creating the essential physical and digital work environment, enacting privacy and instant sociality target specific aspects of workplaces (focused workplaces and social workplace, respectively). Based on these affordances, I then compared three typical places (coworking spaces, café and housing) to
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