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Reconfiguring workplaces
extant research on how place influences work relationships before introducing the concept of workplace configurations as an alternative perspective for studying modern workplaces. We then provide details regarding our data collection and analysis. Following this, we set the stage by describing the empirical setting of the office transformation. Then, we turn to our findings to introduce the dimensions of workplace configurations and the notion of relationship layers. Also, we show how change in the dimensions shaped coworker relationships. Furthermore, we detail how the employees coped with the changed workplace configurations by reconfiguring and identify limits to these coping efforts. Finally, we discuss and situate our findings in existing work.
3.2 Theoretical background
Halford noted, “where work is done makes a difference [...] to organisational and personal relationships” (2005, p. 20, emphasis in original). Although different streams have provided us with essential pieces to understand how place affects work relationships, previous studies focused on a single work location or the place between locations, respectively, rather than seeing each location as part of a broader repertory of workplaces (in other words, a workplace configuration). Hereafter, I will first briefly review what we know about how each setting affects relationships at work before turning to workplace configurations.
3.2.1 Work settings and relationships
As part of the ‘spatial turn’ in organization studies (Taylor & Spicer, 2007, p. 338), we identified two streams of research that have investigated the spatial aspects of work: co-located and distributed work. Together, these two streams reflect the contemporary worker’s repertory of locations that enables working ‘anywhere, anytime’ (e.g., Chayka, 2018; Mazmanian et al., 2013). More recently, scholars have also started to address how places affect relationships at work (Heaphy et al., 2018; Khazanchi et al., 2018; Methot et al., 2017; Ragins & Button, 2007).
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