Information sharing in a hybrid workplace: understanding the role of ease-of-use perceptions of communication technologies in advice-seeking relationship maintenance

• Published in: Journal of computer-mediated communication 2023-07, Vol.28 (4)
• Main Authors: Wu, Y Jasmine, Antone, Brennan, DeChurch, Leslie, Contractor, Noshir
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Misalignment; Social networks
• ISSN: 1083-6101; 1083-6101
• DOI: 10.1093/jcmc/zmad025

Abstract Shifts to hybrid work prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic have the potential to substantially impact social relationships at work. Hybrid employees rely heavily on digital collaboration technologies to communicate and share information. Therefore, employees’ perceptions of the technologies are critical in shaping organizational networks. However, the dyadic-level misalignment in these perceptions may lead to relationship dissolution. To explore the social network consequences of hybrid work, we conducted a two-wave survey in a department of an industrial manufacturing firm (N = 169). Our results show that advice seekers were less likely to maintain their advice-seeking ties when they had a mismatch in ease-of-use perceptions of technology with their advisors. The effect was more substantial when advice seekers spent more time working remotely. The study provides empirical insights into how congruence in employees’ perceptions of organizational communication technologies affects how they maintain advice networks during hybrid work. Lay Summary The COVID-19 pandemic forced many organizations to switch to a “new normal” of organizing, relying exclusively on remote work through communication technologies. Today, as we transition out of the pandemic, we are ushering in the era of the “next normal,” or hybrid work arrangements for knowledge workers within the workplace. Yet, little is known about the implications of the shift to hybrid work. Specifically, how does the shift to hybrid affect information sharing? We conducted a field study to see whether employees’ perceptions of the primary communication technology used in an organization are associated with information sharing and, more specifically, advice seeking. We also explored the extent to which employees who worked remotely changed their advice-seeking ties. Results show that misalignment in the perceived ease of use of the technology between advice seekers and providers was negatively associated with the maintenance of advice-seeking ties. Advice seekers with a greater tendency to work remotely were less likely to maintain advice-seeking ties with providers whose perceptions of the technology did not align with theirs. As a result, asymmetry in technology perceptions and the extent of time spent remotely in hybrid work arrangements have significant social implications in hybrid organizational contexts.