Page 171 - WHERE WE WORK - Schlegelmilch

General discussion
refers to the process of an individual acquiring the attitudes, behavior and knowledge necessary to participate as an organizational member (Van Maanen & Schein, 1977). This may mean that employees can share in best practices, receive support and learn from others regarding how to cope with challenges in different work environments. In the future, it could provide interesting insights into the importance of support of an organizational community for workers when transitioning to or maintaining a remote work set up.
Cross-sectional nature of data. I acknowledge that the cross- sectional nature of all my datasets prevents any causal interference. In chapter 2 and 3, I conducted interviews and in chapter 4, I collected survey data at one point in time. I did my best to overcome this to some extent by conducting field observations (chapter 2) and collecting documents (chapter 3), which provided additional data over time for comparison. In chapter 4, additional data collection was not possible. Nevertheless, all three studies offer a fruitful starting point for future research that uses an experimental design to test differences between workplaces and establish causality. For example, I can imagine a study that develops an instrument to study affordances quantitatively (chapter 2), a longitudinal design tracking the change in relationship layer composition during a change in workplace configuration (chapter 3), or a quasi-experimental design with a pre- and a post-transformation measure to assess innovative behaviors (chapter 4).
Self-reported nature of data. I acknowledge that the majority of the data in my dissertation is reported by the respondents themselves in the interviews as well as in the survey. In chapter 2 and 3, the interview data represents a widely accepted way of to collect qualitative data. However, interviews are also situations in which the respondents tend to forget to articulate many of their daily routine actions due to the recall effect (Golden, 1992) and construct a coherent self-narrative after the fact (Fachin & Davel, 2015). Interviews can also be biased by the researcher’s interests or because we are our own instruments when building rapport with the interviewee (Alvesson, 2003). I try to account for this by collecting additional data sources, such as observations (chapter 2) and documents (chapter 3).
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