Page 95 - WHERE WE WORK - Schlegelmilch

Reconfiguring workplaces
working in a single location, such as offices (e.g., Fayard & Weeks, 2006; Irving et al., 2019; Oldham & Brass, 1979) or co-working spaces (e.g., Garrett et al., 2014; Spinuzzi, 2012), or focused on the distance between locations, such as in distributed settings (e.g., Cristea & Leonardi, 2019; Hinds & Cramton, 2014; Leonardi et al., 2010). This is not always reflective of how modern work is organized because work often takes place in multiple locations that together make up the worker repertory. Therefore, we propose to study workplaces as workplace configurations. In other words, the elements that make up a workplace configuration are the locations, such as the home, the corporate office, or the co-working space. This means that the workplace configurations differ across workers and that their configurations can overlap (e.g., in a co-located office). Table 3.1 provides exemplary workplace configurations in the typical work settings of co-located work, distributed work, and a combination of both. The configurations differ in the number of included workplaces (size) and types of workplaces (variety) for individual employees (indicated by the dashed line around a configuration). Initial evidence pointing towards a configurational perspective comes from a particular stream in the social network analysis literature, which takes into account the influence of spatial configuration on social networks (Sailer & McCulloh, 2012; Wineman et al., 2009). Sailer and McCulloh (2012) found that configurations are a more accurate way of predicting whether or not people form ties in an office but they did not distinguish in the strength or quality of relationships.
Overall, research so far provides some understanding of the place- relationship link, yet it lacks to take into account the various locations in which workers conduct their daily work. By studying workplace configurations and their relational implications, we tackle this shortcoming and provide a perspective that reflects how digital work is organized.
3.3 Data and methodology
We aimed to extend our understanding of how workplaces shape work relationships, as current theory is incomplete (Khazanchi et al., 2018).
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