Understanding the Interpersonal Space of Online Meetings: An Exploratory Study of “We-ness”

Abstract

The covid-19 pandemic has severely limited the possibility for people to meet physically, which forced many individuals and organizations to employ online meetings as their predominant mode of communication. A potential problem with the unprecedentedly central role of online meetings in a wide range of everyday activities is the disruption it may cause to intersubjective experiences, an intuitive mutual understanding of the participants and their thinking of themselves as a group, a “we”. To address this problem, about half a year into the pandemic we conducted an exploratory study, in which the informants (N=36) completed a survey, comprising a set of Likert scales and open-ended questions focusing on “team spirit”, moment-to-moment coordination, emotions, and the sense of presence in online and physical meetings. The results indicate that online meetings may present particular challenges regarding the experience of “we-ness”, and different types of online meetings can be experienced differently. Implications of the results for further research are discussed.