“You don’t meet anybody when walking from the living room to the kitchen”: informal communication during remote work

IF 3.1 Q1 COMMUNICATION Journal of Communication Management Pub Date : 2022-07-13 DOI:10.1108/jcom-10-2021-0117
Benno Viererbl, Nora Denner, Thomas Koch
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引用次数: 7

Abstract

PurposeThis study aims to analyze the structures, forms and functions of informal communication in telecommuting settings. Previous research on telecommuting has not considered the influence of telecommuting settings on informal communication, and research on informal communication has mainly focused on face-to-face communication while working in a physical office. This article aims to bring these two research strands together by analyzing the informal communication behavior of employees working from home.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted qualitative interviews with 21 employees who were working from home. The participants were recruited using quota sampling and the data were analyzed following the procedure for examining qualitative data proposed by Mayring (2014).FindingsThe findings reveal similarities as well as differences between those working in an office and those working from home in terms of informal communication with co-workers: Informal communication fulfills similar functions in both cases, but remote work leads to less informal communication and hinders incidental exposure to other employees. Informal talks need to be planned in advance or strategically initiated. The authors identified five informal communication scenarios in telecommuting settings that partly, but not fully, overlap with scenarios in regular office settings.Originality/valueThe present study is one of the first to examine informal communication in telecommuting settings. Previous studies have either excluded the aspect of informal communication or the situation for employees working in telecommuting settings. The results provide new insights into informal communication behavior in remote work.
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“从客厅走到厨房,你不会遇到任何人”:远程工作期间的非正式交流
目的本研究旨在分析远程办公环境中非正式沟通的结构、形式和功能。以往关于远程办公的研究没有考虑远程办公环境对非正式沟通的影响,而对非正式交流的研究主要集中在实体办公室工作时的面对面交流上。本文旨在通过分析在家工作的员工的非正式沟通行为,将这两条研究线索结合起来。设计/方法/方法作者对21名在家工作的员工进行了定性访谈。参与者采用配额抽样法进行招募,并按照Mayring(2014)提出的检查定性数据的程序对数据进行分析。结果显示,在办公室工作的人和在家工作的人在与同事的非正式沟通方面既有相似之处,也有不同之处:非正式沟通在两者中都具有相似的功能但远程工作会减少非正式沟通,并阻碍偶然接触其他员工。非正式会谈需要提前计划或从战略上启动。作者确定了远程办公环境中的五种非正式沟通场景,这些场景与常规办公室环境中的场景部分但并非完全重叠。独创性/价值本研究是第一批研究远程办公环境中的非正式沟通的研究之一。先前的研究要么排除了非正式沟通的方面,要么排除了在远程办公环境中工作的员工的情况。研究结果为远程工作中的非正式沟通行为提供了新的见解。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
5.40
自引率
6.50%
发文量
29
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