IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/binfse/v65y2023i3d10.1007_s12599-023-00798-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Sociotechnical Realignment and Sentiments Concerning Remote Work are Related – Insights from the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Vanessa Kohn

    (Goethe University Frankfurt)

  • Muriel Frank

    (Goethe University Frankfurt)

  • Roland Holten

    (Goethe University Frankfurt)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic forced sociotechnical systems (STS) to highly integrate remote work. Large-scale analyses show that the positivity of tweets about work from home decreased until COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the WHO and re-increased in the weeks that followed. Nevertheless, it is unclear if this reaction is due to personal and organizational developments or if it mirrors the realignment of entire STS. The present study uses Q methodology to identify differences in how STS realign to the externally enforced integration of remote work. Only STS that reach a state of high alignment to remote work conditions by successfully shifting communication and procedures to digital spheres can be considered resilient. The results show that employees describe their personal experiences with remote work as more positive the higher their level of sociotechnical realignment. Furthermore, personal digital resilience is correlated to successful STS realignment as well. The results confirm the importance of realigning not only the technical and social components of STS but above all their sociotechnical interaction. Negative sentiments relate in particular to the low realization of humanistic objectives in STS.

Suggested Citation

  • Vanessa Kohn & Muriel Frank & Roland Holten, 2023. "How Sociotechnical Realignment and Sentiments Concerning Remote Work are Related – Insights from the COVID-19 Pandemic," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 65(3), pages 259-276, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:binfse:v:65:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1007_s12599-023-00798-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s12599-023-00798-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12599-023-00798-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12599-023-00798-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lena Waizenegger & Brad McKenna & Wenjie Cai & Taino Bendz, 2020. "An affordance perspective of team collaboration and enforced working from home during COVID-19," European Journal of Information Systems, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(4), pages 429-442, July.
    2. Caroline A. Bartel & Amy Wrzesniewski & Batia M. Wiesenfeld, 2012. "Knowing Where You Stand: Physical Isolation, Perceived Respect, and Organizational Identification Among Virtual Employees," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(3), pages 743-757, June.
    3. Suprateek Sarker & Sundeep Sahay, 2004. "Implications of space and time for distributed work: an interpretive study of US–Norwegian systems development teams," European Journal of Information Systems, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(1), pages 3-20, March.
    4. Benlian, Alexander, 2020. "A Daily Field Investigation of Technology-Driven Stress Spillovers from Work to Home," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 113238, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    5. Annarelli, Alessandro & Nonino, Fabio, 2016. "Strategic and operational management of organizational resilience: Current state of research and future directions," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 1-18.
    6. Ronald E. Rice, 1992. "Task Analyzability, Use of New Media, and Effectiveness: A Multi-Site Exploration of Media Richness," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 3(4), pages 475-500, November.
    7. Rennie Naidoo, 2020. "A multi-level influence model of COVID-19 themed cybercrime," European Journal of Information Systems, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(3), pages 306-321, May.
    8. Catherine Durnell Cramton, 2001. "The Mutual Knowledge Problem and Its Consequences for Dispersed Collaboration," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(3), pages 346-371, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christoph Weinert & Tim Weitzel, 2023. "Teleworking in the Covid-19 Pandemic," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 65(3), pages 309-328, June.
    2. Ofir Turel & Catherine E. Connelly, 2012. "Team Spirit: The Influence of Psychological Collectivism on the Usage of E-Collaboration Tools," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 21(5), pages 703-725, September.
    3. Christian Maier & Sven Laumer & Tim Weitzel, 2022. "A Dark Side of Telework: A Social Comparison-Based Study from the Perspective of Office Workers," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 64(6), pages 793-811, December.
    4. Pamela J. Hinds & Diane E. Bailey, 2003. "Out of Sight, Out of Sync: Understanding Conflict in Distributed Teams," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(6), pages 615-632, December.
    5. Lanu Kim, 2021. "Geographical Locations of Occupations and Information and Communication Technology: Do Online Tools Impact Where People in the United States Live and Work?," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(3), pages 21582440211, August.
    6. Anca Metiu, 2006. "Owning the Code: Status Closure in Distributed Groups," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 17(4), pages 418-435, August.
    7. Antonio Zavala-Alcívar & María-José Verdecho & Juan-José Alfaro-Saiz, 2020. "A Conceptual Framework to Manage Resilience and Increase Sustainability in the Supply Chain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-38, August.
    8. Garcia-Perez, Alexeis & Cegarra-Navarro, Juan Gabriel & Sallos, Mark Paul & Martinez-Caro, Eva & Chinnaswamy, Anitha, 2023. "Resilience in healthcare systems: Cyber security and digital transformation," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    9. Nadia Preghenella & Cinzia Battistella, 2021. "Exploring business models for sustainability: A bibliographic investigation of the literature and future research directions," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(5), pages 2505-2522, July.
    10. Valle, Sandra & García, Francisco & Avella, Lucía, 2015. "Offshoring Intermediate Manufacturing: Boost or Hindrance to Firm Innovation?," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 117-134.
    11. Pamela J. Hinds & Mark Mortensen, 2005. "Understanding Conflict in Geographically Distributed Teams: The Moderating Effects of Shared Identity, Shared Context, and Spontaneous Communication," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(3), pages 290-307, June.
    12. Yingqi Liu & Ruijun Chen & Fei Zhou & Shuang Zhang & Juan Wang, 2021. "Analysis of the Influencing Factors of Organizational Resilience in the ISM Framework: An Exploratory Study Based on Multiple Cases," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-24, December.
    13. Kuselias, Stephen & Agoglia, Christopher P. & Wang, Elaine Ying, 2023. "The effect of team member proximity and assignment length on audit staff reliance on a supervisor's preferences," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    14. Hazra, Ummaha & Priyo, Asad Karim Khan, 2022. "Unethical practices in online classes during COVID-19 pandemic: an analysis of affordances using routine activity theory," MPRA Paper 117853, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Pedersen, Torben & Soda, Giuseppe & Stea, Diego, 2019. "Globally networked: Intraorganizational boundary spanning in the global organization," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 169-180.
    16. Linda Argote & Sunkee Lee & Jisoo Park, 2021. "Organizational Learning Processes and Outcomes: Major Findings and Future Research Directions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(9), pages 5399-5429, September.
    17. Kannan Srikanth & Phanish Puranam, 2014. "The Firm as a Coordination System: Evidence from Software Services Offshoring," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(4), pages 1253-1271, August.
    18. Annarelli, Alessandro & Battistella, Cinzia & Nonino, Fabio & Parida, Vinit & Pessot, Elena, 2021. "Literature review on digitalization capabilities: Co-citation analysis of antecedents, conceptualization and consequences," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    19. Sumita Raghuram & Philipp Tuertscher & Raghu Garud, 2010. "Research Note ---Mapping the Field of Virtual Work: A Cocitation Analysis," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 21(4), pages 983-999, December.
    20. Hilda Bø Lyng & Eric Christian Brun, 2018. "Knowledge Transition: A Conceptual Model of Knowledge Transfer for Cross-Industry Innovation," International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 15(05), pages 1-23, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:binfse:v:65:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1007_s12599-023-00798-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.