Hybrid work: A challenge for change management

Hybrid work as a change in the work situation of many employees, not least triggered by the COVID pandemic—especially in knowledge-intensive professions—challenges the change management of organizations. This article in the journal "Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. (GIO)” describes three challenges that organizations must face when transitioning to hybrid work: (1) team effectiveness, (2) team cohesion and organizational commitment, (3) spatial and technical infrastructures. Practical solutions for a participative change management with regard to a human-oriented work design are presented. © 2023, The Author(s).

Virtual Collaboration, Organizations and Networks (VCONs)

This minitrack for HICSS-56 highlights the continued importance and growth of geographically distributed collaboration and telework in organizations and networks. The ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic has greatly accelerated this practice in most private, public, and non-profit organizations and reignited interest in this critically important area of research and practice. The minitrack explores several questions related to virtual collaboration, telework and networks, using a wide variety of research methods and approaches. © 2023 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.

Alone together: Organizational measures to address pitfalls of virtual collaboration

The COVID-19 crisis has made virtual collaboration (VC) an issue across the globe. Employees who once worked in person with their coworkers have had to work from home, relying solely on information and communication technologies to collaborate. This has led to a variety of challenges related to occupational wellbeing (OWB). This study identifies measures organizations have implemented in response. Based on 16 interviews with HR professionals, the findings reveal a number of organizational measures that may help promote OWB in VC. © 2023 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.

Building a Digital Bridge Across Cultures and Continents: Exploring New Vistas in Virtual Collaboration

Virtual mobility was a fairly unexplored possibility to connect with overseas partners prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. The years 2020 and 2021 compelled the stakeholders in higher education to explore new vistas in virtual collaboration. This paper presents results of a virtual collaboration that connected Europe, Asia and Africa on cultural exchange, bringing 41 multidisciplinary students and 11 staff members together. The concept was developed as a part of the virtual Alumni Academy of University of Siegen, Germany Digitalisation 20+ on Blended Education by participants from universities in China, Egypt, North Macedonia and Sri Lanka. At the concluding stage of the first phase of the Academy, the participants were assigned to develop projects in different groups on concepts of digital teaching and learning. The students involved in the project selected different cultural themes at the launch and met virtually to prepare one presentation per group to be presented to a live audience six weeks later. Feedback from the students and the staff was gathered at different stages of the project to analyse their perspectives. The experience gathered during the project brought to light that such virtual collaboration is significant in promoting intercultural communication, understanding across borders and enhancing digital prowess. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

What will mobile and virtual work look like in the future?-Results of a Delphi-based study

This contribution to the journal "Group. Interaction. Organization." (GIO) takes a closer look at the mobile work of the future. Mobile work as well as virtual collaboration is becoming more and more integrated into our everyday working lives-not least reinforced by the COVID-19 Pandemic. In a Delphi-based study, we investigated the question of what mobile and virtual work will look like in the future. For this purpose, 35 future scenarios were described or processed in four rounds with a total of 460 experts and their desirability and probability of occurrence were evaluated. Positive developments are expected for the organization in terms of technology (e.g., advances in virtuality and artificial intelligence), leadership (e.g., increase in shared leadership and participation) and the work-life integration of employees (e.g., more flexibility and self-management). Negative effects are seen for teamwork (e.g., it becomes more difficult to build and maintain team cohesion and social exchange). How the challenges can be dealt with in terms of work design is shown and discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) (German) Dieser Beitrag der Zeitschrift Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation." (GIO) setzt sich genauer mit der mobilen Arbeit der Zu- kunft auseinander. Mobile Arbeit sowie virtuelle Zusammenarbeit wird verstarkt durch die Corona Pandemie immer mehr in unseren Arbeitsalltag integriert. In einer Delphi-basierten Studie haben wir uns mit der Frage auseinandergesetzt, wie die mobile und virtuelle Arbeit der Zukunft aussehen wird. Dazu wurden in vier Runden mit insgesamt 460 Expert*innen 35 Zukunftsszenarien beschrieben bzw. bearbeitet und deren Erwunschtheit und Eintretenswahrscheinlichkeit bewertet. Positive Entwicklungen werden fur die Organisation hinsichtlich Technologie (z. B. Fortschritte in der Virtualitat und der kunstlichen Intelligenz), Fuhrung (z. B. Zunahme der geteilten Fuhrung und Beteiligung) und die Work-Life-Integration der Mitarbeitenden (z. B. mehr Flexibilitat und Selbstmanagement) erwartet. Negative Auswirkungen werden dagegen fur die Teamarbeit gesehen (z. B. wird es schwieriger, Teamzusammenhalt und sozialen Austausch aufzubauen und aufrecht- zuerhalten). Es wird aufgezeigt und diskutiert, wie mit den Herausforderungen arbeitsgestalterisch umgegangen werden kann. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Virtual leadership in relation to employees' mental health, job satisfaction and perceptions of isolation: A scoping review.

Background: The significant increase of digital collaboration, driven by the current COVID-19 pandemic, is resulting in changes in working conditions and associated changes in the stress-strain perception of employees. Due to the evident leadership influence on employees' health and well-being in traditional work settings, there is a need to investigate leadership in virtual remote work contexts as well. The objective of this scoping review was to assess the extent and type of evidence concerning virtual leadership in relation to employees' mental health, job satisfaction and perceptions of isolation. Method: A search was undertaken in five databases, PubMed, Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, PSYNDEX and Web of Science, as well as reference lists of included articles on 9th February 2021 and an update on 28th September 2021. The search strategy was limited to English, German and French language, peer reviewed journal articles published from January 2000 onwards. This scoping review was conducted in accordance with the JBI methodology for scoping reviews. The methodological quality of the included studies was assessed using the JBI critical appraisal tools. A narrative synthesis was conducted. Results: Nineteen studies met the eligibility criteria for this review. Overarching review findings suggested a positive link between virtual leadership and well-being, job satisfaction, and a negative link to psychological strain, stress and perceptions of isolation of digitally collaborating employees. Conclusions: By mapping the available evidence on virtual leadership in relation to health and work-related employee outcomes, the review identified many research gaps in terms of content and methodology. Due to limited data, causal relationships were not derived. Future research is needed to examine the complex cause-and-effect relationships of virtual leadership in more detail.

What will mobile and virtual work look like in the future?-Results of a Delphi-based study

(German) Dieser Beitrag der Zeitschrift Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation." (GIO) setzt sich genauer mit der mobilen Arbeit der Zu- kunft auseinander. Mobile Arbeit sowie virtuelle Zusammenarbeit wird verstarkt durch die Corona Pandemie immer mehr in unseren Arbeitsalltag integriert. In einer Delphi-basierten Studie haben wir uns mit der Frage auseinandergesetzt, wie die mobile und virtuelle Arbeit der Zukunft aussehen wird. Dazu wurden in vier Runden mit insgesamt 460 Expert*innen 35 Zukunftsszenarien beschrieben bzw. bearbeitet und deren Erwunschtheit und Eintretenswahrscheinlichkeit bewertet. Positive Entwicklungen werden fur die Organisation hinsichtlich Technologie (z. B. Fortschritte in der Virtualitat und der kunstlichen Intelligenz), Fuhrung (z. B. Zunahme der geteilten Fuhrung und Beteiligung) und die Work-Life-Integration der Mitarbeitenden (z. B. mehr Flexibilitat und Selbstmanagement) erwartet. Negative Auswirkungen werden dagegen fur die Teamarbeit gesehen (z. B. wird es schwieriger, Teamzusammenhalt und sozialen Austausch aufzubauen und aufrecht- zuerhalten). Es wird aufgezeigt und diskutiert, wie mit den Herausforderungen arbeitsgestalterisch umgegangen werden kann. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

The Influence of Technology Support, Digital Literacy, Culture Intelligence, and Leadership on Virtual Collaboration in University Settings

Collaboration is a very important factor in doing a task. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, face-to-face collaboration has turned into virtual collaboration, but its implementation has encountered many obstacles in the field. This study aims to examine the influence of factors that support virtual collaboration (VC), including technology support (DT), digital literacy (DL), cultural intelligence (CQ), and virtual leadership (VL), as antecedents of VC in the world of High Education. Respondents consisted of 216 universities with a total sample of 216 lecturers who were selected using the purposive sampling method. The research questionnaire was sent to the relevant email address using Google Form. The results showed that the four antecedent variables had a significant influence with the ability to explain 62.3% of the VC. Theoretically, the research has contributed in the form of a virtual collaboration model that has been empirically tested in the field. In addition, this model has expanded the factors that influence VC from several previous studies. Practically, the results of this research can be useful for university administrators who want to increase collaboration between their lecturers, especially in the fields of teaching, research and publications. In this context, the antecedent factors of this virtual collaboration model can be taken into consideration. © 2022, Success Culture Press. All rights reserved.

Integrating SDG 12 into Business Studies through Intercultural Virtual Collaboration

Intercultural Virtual Collaboration (IVC) has been a growing field in recent decades as it allows students from different cultures to work together without having to move physically. Besides providing students with an authentic experience that they are going to encounter in their future professional careers in increasingly globalised and digitised workplaces, more recently, IVC has also been used as a means to engage university students from different cultures in social and political issues that are common across societies. In this paper, we present an analysis of an IVC project that involved undergraduate Business students from a university in Spain and a university in the Netherlands where students from both universities were asked to collaborate online to develop a business case to analyse how companies communicate about the way they integrate SDGs in the different cultures involved. A content analysis of group reports delivered by students was carried out. In addition, intercultural competence development was measured through a questionnaire. Results show that the IVC project contributed to raising students’ awareness of how companies approach SDGs and adapt their products to different cultures. Students were also perceived to have developed intercultural knowledge, intercultural virtual teamwork, intercultural attitudes and intercultural awareness.

Implementation of Virtual Concurrent Engineering Tools in Engineering Education 4.0

Adoption of virtual collaboration tools enabling multi-site teaching and learning, as well as informal social interactions, is important for preparing for the digital transformation in engineering education accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic. Inspired by the concurrent design facility at ESTEC, this paper presents implementation of a virtual concurrent engineering toolbox in Engineering Education 4.0. The toolbox consists of a virtual collaboration platform enabling multi-screen streaming for virtual formative assessment, virtual desktop infrastructure enabling operative system independent access to powerful virtual workstations, an easy-to-implement product data management system enabling easy multi-site file sharing, as well as tightly integrated CAD, CAM and CAE tools. Implementation of the toolbox is supported by a case study demonstrating the use of tools and their impact on a university capstone project, as well as continuous formative assessment through multi-streaming of design applications. © 2022 IEEE.

Catalyzing Remote Collaboration During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond: Early Career Oceanographers Adopt Hybrid Open Science Framework

The COVID-19 pandemic introduced many challenges for research scientists: reduction of lab and field observation collection and in-person meetings. These new constraints forced researchers to remote work and virtual networking, dramatically influencing scientific inquiry. Such challenges are compounded for those in early stages of their career, where data collection and networking are vital to be seen as productive. However, during this trying time of remote work, we, as a collective of early-career oceanographers, were actively developing and improving on an already-existent hybrid community of practice. Through our experiences, we believe this type of framework can enhance virtual collaboration to the point that it outlasts the pandemic and helps create new synergies that will diversify and enhance scientific inquiry within the ocean science community. We describe a hybrid community of practice and an example workflow that models effective collaboration. We have found that three components to this model are necessary for effective collaboration, inspiration, and communication: 1) openly accessible data, 2) software, computational, and professional-development resources, and 3) a team science approach. In our experience, both the in-person and remote aspects of the model are important. In person collaboration is key to expanding the community of practice and invigorating those already within the community. Remote collaboration has been critical for effective collaborations between in-person activities and has proven to maximize outputs during in-person collaborations. While the three components of this model are not new to the scientific community, we believe that utilizing them strategically post-pandemic will diversify and expand scientific collaboration in oceanography.

Flexible Environments for Hybrid Collaboration: Redesigning Virtual Work Through the Four Orders of Design

The COVID-19 pandemic made visceral for many the fact that virtual forms of collaboration- simultaneously liberating and frustrating-are here to stay. Workers' frustrations demonstrate that challenges remain for work and its design in increasingly "hybrid" collaboration- work in which some people, interacting face-to-face, are co-located while others with whom they work are remote. Using Buchanan's four orders of design, in conjunction with management and information systems scholarship, we present a framework for improving these virtual forms of collaboration. In this article, we review the latest knowledge from these disciplines on virtual collaboration through the lens of the four orders of design. In doing so, we demonstrate that conceiving of work in terms of flexible collaborative environments could increase the unity of purpose between work and workers by leveraging the capabilities of varying degrees of virtuality to engender experiences that benefit all those who interact with work systems.

Driving Digital Transformation During a Pandemic: Case Study of Virtual Collaboration in a German Hospital.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has not only changed the private lives of millions of people but has significantly affected the collaboration of medical specialists throughout health care systems worldwide. Hospitals are making changes to their regular operations to slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2 while ensuring the treatment of emergency patients. These substantial changes affect the typical work setting of clinicians and require the implementation of organizational arrangements. OBJECTIVE: In this study, we aim to increase our understanding of how digital transformation drives virtual collaboration among clinicians in hospitals in times of crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: We present the lessons learned from an exploratory case study in which we observed the introduction of an information technology (IT) system for enhancing collaboration among clinicians in a German hospital. The results are based on 16 semistructured interviews with physicians from various departments and disciplines; the interviews were generalized to better understand and interpret the meaning of the statements. RESULTS: Three key lessons and recommendations explain how digital transformation ensures goal-driven collaboration among clinicians. First, we found that implementing a disruptive change requires alignment of the mindsets of the stakeholders. Second, IT-enabled collaboration presupposes behavioral rules that must be followed. Third, transforming antiquated processes demands a suitable technological infrastructure. CONCLUSIONS: Digital transformation is being driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the rapid introduction of IT-enabled collaboration reveals grievances concerning the digital dissemination of medical information along the patient treatment path. To avoid being caught unprepared by future crises, digital transformation must be further driven to ensure collaboration, and the diagnostic and therapeutic process must be opened to disruptive strategies.