The effects of remote work on collaboration among information workers.
Nat Hum Behav
; 6(1): 43-54, 2022 01.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1402076
ABSTRACT
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused a rapid shift to full-time remote work for many information workers. Viewing this shift as a natural experiment in which some workers were already working remotely before the pandemic enables us to separate the effects of firm-wide remote work from other pandemic-related confounding factors. Here, we use rich data on the emails, calendars, instant messages, video/audio calls and workweek hours of 61,182 US Microsoft employees over the first six months of 2020 to estimate the causal effects of firm-wide remote work on collaboration and communication. Our results show that firm-wide remote work caused the collaboration network of workers to become more static and siloed, with fewer bridges between disparate parts. Furthermore, there was a decrease in synchronous communication and an increase in asynchronous communication. Together, these effects may make it harder for employees to acquire and share new information across the network.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Communication
/
Cooperative Behavior
/
Employment
/
Information Technology
/
Teleworking
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Nat Hum Behav
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S41562-021-01196-4
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