Search results

The results of the COVID-19 pandemic rendered the traditional work environment model obsolete for the United States Air Force, resulting in the need to create a new hybrid work model that fits unique employee needs in a complex organization. This practitioner article discusses how the 711th Human Performance Wing (711 HPW) built the Mission-Focused Agile Work Environment (MFAWE) using a combination of human and mission-focused strategies to ensure a more flexible work environment without compromising excellence or its employees' well-being.

Using an action research approach, data was collected by 77 diverse stakeholders in six working groups. Five perspectives were examined – employee, operations, infrastructure, leadership and mission – using a combination of literature and policy reviews, interviews, surveys and personal experiences to deliver recommendations to leadership for implementation.

The MFAWE addressed hybrid work transition requirements, including employee guidance, permanent workspace guidelines and facilities. Lessons learned from implementation included the need for a change management and communication strategy. An employee playbook was found to be an effective modality for information sharing but not for policy enforcement. Employee preference for permanent space regardless of time on site due to sanitation and mental health concerns was also discovered.

This article showcases how a large, complex organization built a new hybrid work model using employee-inclusive practices, filling a gap in the literature. This project also uncovered complex interdependencies when transitioning to a hybrid work model, including employee preferences.

This paper aims to identify aspects of how work-life interaction has changed in the post-pandemic situations and propose strategies of the security concept for living-working patterns in the post-pandemic interior as future disease prevention.

We conducted a systematic literature search and review to select previous research systematically and relate concepts by coding the data and synthesising the data critically. The systematic literature search and review considered 90 papers (35 were studied).

The findings identify three strategies: hybrid activity patterns, new layout for hybrid and changing behaviour and culture. Each strategy demonstrates the connection between the hybrid living-working interior spaces in the post-pandemic period and security-pandemic variables. The results on security design factors focused on interior control, detection and deterrence; connection to nature creates a safer environment to prevent further variables; and hybrid activity requires more elements to govern users' behaviour and culture.

Limitations of this study are as follows: excluded papers that are not written in English/Bahasa or do not have gold/green open access; some aspects were not discussed (such as social distancing); the articles included in this review are up to April 2023 (and there is the possibility of recent papers). Future studies can be developed to update building certification for post-pandemic interiors or research with psychological, social equity or family vitality issues.

The study offers strategies and the holistic relationship between the post-pandemic concept and security-pandemic design variables within the built environment, especially in the users' culture and behaviour context.

Leaders face a unique opportunity to rethink the workplace in a post-pandemic environment. Virtual work demands and unclear messaging from senior leadership has created burnout and frustration. Reverting to traditional organizational structures and policies fails to recognize and leverage the potential to capitalizing on the momentum to change the nature of work. Creating a hybrid work environment by delegating the design process to teams and giving team leaders the tools and skills necessary to be successful leverages the transition to the future workplace.

We worked with a knowledge-based organization to transition employees to a hybrid team environment.

We offer the diverse approaches organizations are taking in a post-pandemic workplace and the challenges facing leaders reverting to the traditional work environment. Focusing on the future of work in a hybrid environment, we provide an approach enabling team leaders and team members to be the arbiters of their work environment.

Our multistep process allows team leaders to quickly adapt and implement effective hybrid teamwork.

We propose a multistep process for team leaders to leverage the transition to improve high-performing teams in a hybrid workplace.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors impacting the intermediating variable of employee engagement toward employee performance in a hybrid working organization in Bangkok, Thailand.

This study uses secondary data analysis and an archival study; the primary data were gathered from 370 employees who are working in a hybrid model environment in a private agricultural machinery company. To construct a new conceptual framework, this study adopted four frameworks from the previous research.

Perceived organizational support and trust and respect in the organization are found to have a significant positive impact on employee engagement. Moreover, there is a significant positive impact of the employee engagement on employee performance in a hybrid working model.

For hybrid work environments, the research focused mainly on the emotional themes of perceived support, trust and respect in the organization. Therefore, there would be many factors that could possibly affect those dependence variables in any environment, which will have to be investigated more in future research. Either in the organization or in the company, many departments and business units operates for the company, but the researcher specifies only the business units or departments that now use the hybrid working model.

This study focuses on a case study of an agricultural machinery company, which likely produces different results than other industries, other industries may produce different results.

Hybrid working models can blur the boundaries between work and personal life, potentially leading to increased stress and burnout. Organizations should prioritize work-life balance and employee well-being by promoting flexible schedules, encouraging breaks and time off, and providing resources for mental health support.

The organization which is operating among a hybrid working model, the increasing of perceived organizational support and trust and respect level, has positively increase the employee engagement toward enhancing the employee performance.

Human history observed an arduous time fighting the novel infectious respiratory disease Covid-19 coronavirus, which started in Wuhan, China and spread rapidly across the globe in 2020. Economies and the countries including India around the world experienced dismay with nationwide lockdowns and the fear of the unknowing. The unforeseen circumstances enforced immediate transitions in the organizations' work environment through remote working, digital infrastructure, online collaborations and new ways of interaction. The pandemic altered the workplace trajectories in lasting ways as the employees settled into a new routine of working from home more quickly than imagined. Now, as India and many other countries slowly move beyond the crisis, there exists a need to realize the implications of the pandemic on the workplace and articulate the future of work. This article, therefore, investigates the key perceived benefits and the HR implications of the new and emerging concept of hybrid workplaces and presents an HRM framework for their successful adoption in India. The findings may prove crucial in framing new workplace norms and shaping them. Moreover, this research would provide practitioners, policymakers, business leaders and HR professionals insights about the need to review the existing workplaces and successfully roll out hybrid work models in accordance with HR strategies.

The methodology of Systematic Review of Literature (SLR) was adopted to study the key perceived benefits and the HR implications of hybrid workplaces.

The findings of the study would help business leaders, HR professionals, policymakers and researchers in developing HR policies and approaches for the adoption of the hybrid workplace as they chart the path toward the post-pandemic future.

The study stresses the HR implications of the future of work as the hybrid workplace paradigm evolves. The approach is explorative and would require quantitative validation in different sectors and countries.

The study makes a direct link between the hybrid workplaces and the impetus for the transformation of HR strategies. It also examines the changing role of the human resources (HR) functions and professionals after the pandemic.

Studies have so far focused on learning in organizations, factors affecting learning, learning effectiveness and so on but the concept of learning in a hybrid work arrangement is yet unexplored. The purpose of this study is to measure the perception of faculty members in higher education institutions towards learning in a hybrid work arrangement and also to measure the differences of perception towards hybrid work arrangement based on employees’ gender and organization type.

The data was collected from a sample of 390 faculty members composing of Assistant Professors, Associate Professors and Professors, purposely chosen from two of the premier higher education institutions (one private and one public) located in Punjab, India. A self-structured questionnaire was administered to the faculty members who are working on a regular basis and have minimum of two years of work experience with the chosen university. For analysing the collected data exploratory factor analysis and other descriptive statistics have been applied.

The findings of the survey show that in terms of gender differences, it is the female employees who are more satisfied with different aspects of hybrid/remote work arrangement as compared to male employees. In regard to organizational differences in the perception towards learning in a hybrid work arrangement it is found that public university employees have a more positive attitude so far as individual factors are concerned, but in terms of organizational factors, it is the private university that is scoring better than the public university.

The study is limited to only two higher education institutions, and its findings to be applicable in all higher education institutions, further studies may be required on a larger canvas. Future studies may be undertaken using advanced statistical tools like structural equation modelling to explore various variables associated with learning in a hybrid work arrangement.

Applicability of hybrid work arrangement is very high in higher education institutions and to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study which adds to the literature on perception of employees towards organizational learning in a hybrid work arrangement.

With the continuing transition to hybrid working models, companies are confronted with new challenges. Location- and time-flexible working offers employees considerable advantages regarding work success and, in particular, personal well-being and health. The separate effects of remote work and work autonomy on the degree of perceived burnout have already been sufficiently investigated. The influence of hybrid work, the combination of remote and in-office work together with work autonomy, on perceived burnout has yet to be investigated. Against this background, the present study examines the impact of hybrid work on perceived burnout.

The empirical study uses data from N = 779 German office employees. Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, the data is evaluated using regression and mediation analysis.

The results indicate a negative impact of remote work and work autonomy on perceived burnout. In addition, the effect of remote work on perceived burnout is partially mediated by work autonomy. This shows that hybrid work overall has a burnout-reducing effect.

Considering the workforce’s health, the results suggest that organisations should focus on hybrid working. Thus, employees should continuously be allowed to work remotely. In addition, workflows and processes should be designed to provide employees work autonomy. If organisational constraints require office presence, then the results underline the need for stress-reducing adaptation of offices.

The study offers first empirical results on the combined impact of remote work and work autonomy on perceived burnout. Furthermore, it provides implications for designing hybrid working environments and orientation in the ongoing return to office debate.

The study aims to understand the impact of psychological safety on employee creativity leading to innovative behaviour in a hybrid workforce. It further examines the drivers of psychological safety: inclusive leadership and affective climate as well as the interaction of employee creativity and proactive personality on innovative behaviour at remote work.

Using multi-source survey-based data, the study has been conducted in two phases for independent variables (IV) and dependent variables (DV). The first phase has gathered data for IVs from 515 team members and DVs from 105 teams’ leaders from various software development teams in the information technology and information technology enabled services sectors. The study has used component-based partial least square structural equation modelling to test various arguments developed in the paper.

The results of the study confirm the positive association of affective climate and inclusive leadership to psychological safety, which facilitates employee creativity leading to innovative behaviour. However, the results show there is no interaction of a proactive personality with employee creativity on innovative behaviour. Also, the results have supported the social network theory, which says that the strong ties among employees promote innovative behaviour.

According to the study, psychological safety might help strengthen and increase the social ties that bridge structural holes and improve collaboration across business units. This may encourage employee creativity, especially in remote work. Further, it highlights how employee creativity and proactive personality are important independent factors that facilitate innovative behaviour.

The study is a unique attempt to explore the role of psychological safety in enhancing creativity and innovative behaviour in hybrid mode of work setting.

Hybrid work is changing modern conceptions of work as workers move between their office space and alternate spaces such as a home office. Social aspects of work are therefore also changing, and this study aims to explore the implications arising for workplace fun when workspaces become dispersed.

We undertook ethnographic research into two different companies to explore in depth the concept of fun at work and how it is being adapted for hybrid work. Data were collected through full immersion into both companies and gathered using mixed qualitative methods comprising semi-structured interviews, participant observations and evidence from organizational online platforms. A structured coding system was used in the analysis with an interpretive approach.

Our themes include (1) artefacts, (2) organizing fun and space and (3) loss of fun and these provide the underpinning for our theoretical contribution.

We had limited access to online channels and identified opportunities for future research to explore fun in online platforms including chat functions, meme, gifs and other places where workplace fun may be enacted.

Work has changed for workers and managers, and this impacts fun which needs to adapt to hybrid work models.

Hybrid work is changing workplace social interactions, particularly, for fun and play. We depict how workers navigate the changing context of work and the significance of emerging elements of workplace fun and the implications for fun cultures.

Our contribution is in a re-theorization of workplace fun arguing that sharing and supporting the creation and promotion of fun among workers at all levels offers new opportunities for organizations that value a fun culture. Our theorization of workplace fun shows its adaptation to new hybrid work contexts that deemphasize co-location and physical presence. We outline the significance of artefacts and depict the variability of workplace fun in hybrid work.

With new hybrid working models in place post COVID-19, it is requisite that knowledge workers (KWs) stay agile. Knowledge-oriented leadership (KOL) can help employees with essential knowledge acquisition (KA) facilitating the journey toward hybrid work agility (HWA). This study, thus, aims to explore the impact of KOL and KA on HWA and reveal whether this effect stems uniformly from a single homogenous population or if there is unobserved heterogeneity leading to identifiable segments of agile KWs.

Data was collected through stratified sampling from 416 employees from 20 information technology enabled services companies involved in knowledge-intensive tasks. Partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling approach, using SMART PLS 4.0, has been applied to examine the effect of KOL and KA on HWA. Finite mixture PLS, PLS prediction-oriented segmentation and multigroup analysis have been used to identify segments, test segment-specific path models and analyze the significance of the differences in the path coefficients for unobserved heterogeneity. Predictive relevance of the model has been determined using PLS Predict.

Results indicate that KOL contributes to employees’ KA and HWA. A significant positive relationship is also reported between KA and HWA. The model has medium predictive relevance. A two-segment solution has been delineated, wherein independent agile KWs (who value autonomy and personal agency over leadership for KA) and dependent agile KWs (who depend on leaders for relational and structural support for KA) have been identified. Thus, KOL and KA play a differential role in determining HWA.

The authors’ major contribution to the knowledge body constitutes the determination of antecedents of HWA and a typology of agile KWs. Future researchers may conduct segment-wise qualitative analysis to delineate other variables that contribute to HWA.

Technological advances necessitate that knowledge-intensive industries foster agility in employees for strategic agility of the organization. For effecting agile adaption of an organization to the knowledge economy conditions, it is pertinent that the full potential of this human resource be used. By profiling HWA of KWs on the basis of dimensions of KOL and the level of their KA, organizations will be able to help employees adapt better to rapidly changing work conditions.

HWA is a novel concept and very germane in a hybrid working environment. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the effects of the dimensions of KOL and KA in relation to HWA, along with an empirical examination of unobserved heterogeneity in the aforementioned relationship.