Why come to the office? Investigating employee return to office in hybrid work

New ways of working- refers to non-traditional work practices, settings and locations with information and communication technologies (ICT) to supplement or replace traditional ways of working. It questions the contemporary work practices and settings still very much used in knowledge-intensive organizations today. In this study new ways of working is seen to consist of two elements: work environment (incl. physical, virtual and social) and work practices. This study aims to gather the scattered information together and deepen the understanding on new ways of working. Moreover, the objective is to provide some evidence of the unclear productivity impacts of new ways of working using case study approach.

This systematic review covers the effects of changes of physical workplaces triggered by trends like technology 4.0, digitalization and flexibilization. The world is going VUCA – Volatil, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous – and there have to be found the suitable working spaces. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on work life shows us that changes can reach out without premonition. Work isn´t bound to space and time schedules any more, it takes place where and when it best fits – theoretically 24/7. Facility Managers and Facility Management (FM) departments are challenged to support new way of working (NWW), collaborative work (CW) and activity based working (ABW) strategies with real and virtual office concepts. At the same time FM has to understand and face the psychological and sociological interactions between people and space in the time of transition. Active change management and an open minded communication and feedback culture are key factors to a modern FM and office design strategy. Facility Management in leading position needs to join forces with the internal service departments like HR and IT and external designers to achieve the planning and realization of complex tailor fitted workspaces.Networking, interconnection of knowledge, promotion of informal communication, design of healthy and motivating workplaces drives mere office cost reduction and space efficiency programs into the background.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce and evaluate methods for analysing the impacts of work environment changes. New working practices and work environments present the potential to improve both the productivity and the wellbeing of knowledge workers, and more widely, the performance of organisations and the wider society. The flexibility offered by information and communication technology has influenced changes in the physical environment where activity-based offices are becoming the standard. Research offers some evidence on the impacts of work environment changes, but studies examining methods that could be useful in capturing the overall impacts and how to measure them are lacking. Design/methodology/approach This paper concludes research of the last five years and includes data from several organisations. The paper presents and empirically demonstrates the application of three complementary ways to analyse the impacts of knowledge work redesigns. The methods include: interview framework for modelling the potential of new ways of working (NWoW); questionnaire tool for measuring the subjective knowledge work performance in the NWoW context; and multidimensional performance measurement for measuring the performance impacts at the organisational level. Findings This paper presents a framework for identifying the productivity potential and measuring the impacts of work environment changes. The paper introduces the empirical examples of three different methods for analysing the impacts of NWoW and discusses the usefulness and challenges of the methods. The results also support the idea of a measurement process and confirm that it suits NWoW context. Practical implications The three methods explored in this study can be used in organisations for planning and measuring work environment changes. The paper presents a comprehensive approach to work environment which could help managers to identify and improve the critical points of knowledge work. Originality/value Changes in the work environment are huge for knowledge workers, but it is still unclear whether their effects on performance are negative or positive. The value of this paper is that it applies traditional measurement methods to NWoW contexts, and analyses how these could be used in research and management.

To determine the future intentions and motivations of general dental practitioners (GDPs) relating to NHS dental practice in South Yorkshire. Focus group discussions. General dental practices providing NHS care within South Yorkshire, United Kingdom. Twenty-nine dental practitioners were purposively sampled and invited to take part in a series of focus groups. Focus groups were transcribed and data analysed to identify themes and concepts. Themes and concepts relating to the current and future provision of dentistry and the proposed 'new ways of working' of the new dental contract. The data fell into three broad categories: the organisational structures of dentistry; the future of dentistry; and the CDS. This paper focuses largely on the second category, the future of NHS dentistry. The first category related to the organisational structures of dentistry, and encompassed perceptions that dentistry was not a high priority for the Government and that current changes were politically motivated and to be implemented by PCTs with a lack of capacity for the management of such wide-reaching changes. The second category covered the future of NHS dentistry. For some, NHS dentistry was in a precarious and uncertain position, coupled with a lack of clarity and information on the 'new ways of working' and exacerbated by problems in the recruitment and retention of future dental practitioners. The last category dealt with views in connection with the CDS. In this 'snapshot in time' there was considerable uncertainty and instability within the general dental service against a backdrop of major organisational change. There was a need for information, guidance, openness and communication between the Government, PCTs and GDPs surrounding the implementation of the new contract.

Objective To determine the future intentions and motivations of general dental practitioners (GDPs) relating to NHS dental practice in South Yorkshire. Design Focus group discussions. Setting General dental practices providing NHS care within South Yorkshire, United Kingdom. Subjects (materials) and methods Twenty-nine dental practitioners were purposively sampled and invited to take part in a series of focus groups. Focus groups were transcribed and data analysed to identify themes and concepts. Main outcome measures Themes and concepts relating to the current and future provision of dentistry and the proposed 'new ways of working' of the new dental contract. Results The data fell into three broad categories: the organisational structures of dentistry; the future of dentistry; and the CDS. This paper focuses largely on the second category, the future of NHS dentistry. The first category related to the organisational structures of dentistry, and encompassed perceptions that dentistry was not a high priority for the Government and that current changes were politically motivated and to be implemented by PCTs with a lack of capacity for the management of such wide-reaching changes. The second category covered the future of NHS dentistry. For some, NHS dentistry was in a precarious and uncertain position, coupled with a lack of clarity and information on the 'new ways of working' and exacerbated by problems in the recruitment and retention of future dental practitioners. The last category dealt with views in connection with the CDS. Conclusion(s) In this 'snapshot in time' there was considerable uncertainty and instability within the general dental service against a backdrop of major organisational change. There was a need for information, guidance, openness and communication between the Government, PCTs and GDPs surrounding the implementation of the new contract.

A framework for disability in the new ways of working

This chapter questions the relevance of the concept of smart power in organization studies and, specifically, in the study of new ways of working (NWOW) implementation. NWOW embrace a broad set of organizational practices, ranging from spatial and temporal flexibility to self-management. Beyond such set of (somehow traditional) work practices, the singularity of NWOW seems to lie in its governance epitome, valuing a peculiar philosophy of management, i.e., a more democratic way of managing organizations. The smart power approach could play a key role in the effective implementation of NWOW. However, drawing on existing studies, we report some paradoxes making NWOW a piece of what may be seen as old-fashioned management practices and organizational pattern that, far from constituting a promise for alternative modes of governance, also constitute new attempts to discipline employees. Claiming organizational rules need to be appropriated by actors in order to become effective, this chapter argues a smart power perspective is not relevant at the microlevel, where traditional approaches of power and agency are more complete. While considering innovative NWOW, smart power approach seems well relevant to analyze meso-regulations and, especially, governance issues.

New Ways of Working practices like activity-based working and home-based work lead to different behaviors of employees. Due to these NWW practices, employees choose their own preferred times and places to work – albeit to a certain extent and within certain boundaries. This might have an impact on the possibilities for teamwork. Therefore, we suppose that teamwork and teamwork behaviors might moderate the relationship between NWW and outcomes. Does teamwork behavior have an influence on the relation of NWW and productivity or organizational commitment? And how, is it a positive or a negative influence on these relations? This chapter reports the results of an explorative study on the relationship between NWW practices, teamwork behavior, productivity, and organizational commitment. Quantitative data from the questionnaire will illustrate the main issues: the complex linkages between the four components of NWW, the outcome variables, and the effect of different components of teamwork behavior. This chapter describes the issue of teamwork and provides new data on the actual use and effectiveness of the different components of teamwork behaviors.

New Ways of Working seems to change the leadership agenda. Activity-based working and home-based work lead to different behaviors of employees. Supervising styles will change from command-and-control toward goal-setting-and-trust. This chapter describes the trend and provides new data on the actual use and effectiveness of these new supervision styles. It appears to be a mix of different leadership styles, such as leading by vision, setting targets and control on output, providing trust.

Business process and workflow models play important role in developing information system integration and later training of its usage. New ways of working and information system usage practices are designed with as-is and to-be process models, which are implemented into system characteristics. However, after the IS implementation the work practices may become differentiated. Variety of work practices on same business process can have unexpected and harmful social and economic consequences in IS-mediated work environment. This paper employs grounded theory methodology and a case study to explore non-uniformity of work in a retail business organization. By differentiating two types of non-uniform work tasks, the paper shows how process models were designed with less effort, yet maintaining the required amount of uniformity by the organization and support for employees’ uniform actions. In addition to process model designers, the findings help organizations struggling with IS use practices’ consistency to separate practices that may emerge most harmful and practices that are not worth to alter.KeywordsBusiness process modelingModel re-engineeringIS useUniformity of work practices

The global proliferation of New Ways of Working (NWW) has accelerated, driven by technological advancements and the exigencies of the COVID-19 pandemic, compelling a substantial workforce to adopt teleworking. However, the commonplace nature of NWW has ushered in a new challenge: the mental well-being of employees worldwide. Consequently, the psychological attributes of employees assume paramount significance for organizations striving to sustain their operations. This study endeavors to scrutinize the pivotal role of psychological attributes in the efficacious implementation of teleworking, with a consequential impact on organizational performance. Employing the production of space theory, the research elucidates the intricate dimensions inherent in NWW. Methodologically, a multilevel analysis is employed to unravel the intricate interplay of variables at both individual and organizational levels. The survey, conducted among individuals in Southeast Asia with teleworking experience during the pandemic, amassed 319 samples primarily from Indonesia. The findings underscore the substantial influence of self-efficacy, entitlement, and resilience on the successful adoption of NWW. Additionally, the study employs the PROCESS macro by Hayes to meticulously validate both mediating and moderating relationships. The outcomes accentuate the pivotal role of work engagement as a moderator, facilitating direct impacts of psychological variables on NWW and indirect effects on firm performance, mediated through NWW. This research contributes nuanced insights into the multifaceted dynamics of teleworking, offering a sophisticated understanding of the interplay between psychological attributes, NWW, and organizational performance in the contemporary landscape.

Purpose“New ways of working” refers to non‐traditional work practices, settings and locations with information and communication technologies (ICT) to supplement or replace traditional ways of working. They are being deployed in knowledge work context in order to increase employees working motivation, job satisfaction and productivity. However, these benefits are not self‐evident. This paper aims to examine the task of measuring the expected benefits.Design/methodology/approachThis paper synthesizes the existing literature on measurement of knowledge work productivity and identifies some key prerequisites and restrictions that should be taken into account when measuring the impacts of organizational change.FindingsThe paper proposes a measurement approach for evaluating the impacts of a new ways of working initiative in a knowledge work context.Originality/valuePrevious literature has focused on studying whether facilities and ICT solutions are appropriate from the viewpoint of an individual knowledge worker. However, there is a lack of studies focused on the actual business impacts of different working arrangements.

In times of crisis and with the increase of new ways of working, public sector organisations increasingly include agile practices in their working practices. To successfully transform public sector organisations into agile organisations, public servants require a new set of competences. Informal learning is a key element that helps public servants to build and apply these competences, e.g., through the collaboration with external experts in public sector innovation fellowships. To observe how collaborative competences for agile public organisations can be developed successfully by involving external experts, I conducted a case study on two iterations of a public sector innovation fellowship. My findings show that throughout the fellowships, competences are being developed in a collaborative process on a personal and organisational level. The practical application of the learned methods, personal reflection, and the development of organisational networks transform the collaborative into a learning process, allowing public servants to develop new competences and bring them into their organisation.

Purpose: This research is about the added value of occupancy sensing and the factors that influence the added value. The objective of this research is to gain insight into the added value of occupancy sensing from a facility management perspective and the factors that influence the perceived added value. Design/methodology/approach: The paper provides insight into the added value of occupancy sensing from a facility management perspective, obtained through qualitative research. By conducting interviews with suppliers, users and an organisation that consciously chooses not to use occupancy sensing, the added value becomes apparent. The interviewed experts were approached as a result of selected articles or through the Saxion UAS network. The people who responded were interviewed. A limited number of 10 interviews was chosen because that was the minimum number of interviews required for this study. Findings: Several factors influence the added value of occupancy sensing. From the literature, these are data maturity, human behaviour and the quality of sensors. For the study, goal/motivation, preconditions and data or Information Technology (IT) were added. The interviews showed that organisations choose occupancy sensing mainly because smart buildings are on the rise, it is popular and they can make decisions based on the data and evidence. The most important precondition is that it must be known in advance what needs to be measured and that the facility managers are included in the process. The most significant influence on the success of added value is human behaviour. If the end users are not included in the new way of working, there is a good chance that they are not satisfied and that there is no added value. The functioning of IT and the use of the data also influence the added value. This research shows that added value is only achieved if the preconditions are met and factors such as human behaviour are taken into account. When this works well, facility management as a department will also be able to deliver substantial value to the entire organisation. Research limitations/implications: The limitations of this research were that there was only one interview with a non-user. Their opinion would be more valuable where the respondents are asked more about the data maturity of the organisation and their alignment with the organisation’s strategy. The limitations mainly have to do with the limited time frame of the research. In further research, it is also indicated that for a more complete study, this time frame should be extended. Practical implications: The results can be used by everybody who needs to get insight into the use of occupancy sensing from a facility management perspective and the added value for facility management. Originality/value: While there is a significant amount of literature on occupancy sensing and the use of sensors in office environments, there is only limited research on the added value of occupancy sensing from a facility management perspective. Paper type: Research paper. The literature review shows that the added value of facility management is difficult to make tangible. Many organisations see facility management as a cost item, and therefore, the costs must always be taken into account. There is a shift from cost to added value for the organisation, but this only works if the strategy of facility management (FM)/corporate real estate management (CREM) is aligned with the strategy of the organisation. In many cases, this does not yet appear to be the case. For future research, the advice is to look more into other smart features and their added value. Data maturity is a limitation of this research, and the relationship between data maturity and facility management should be studied more. The future is digital and data-driven, and there are not sufficient studies on that.

Background Personal Health Records (PHRs) empirical research has overwhelmingly focused on patient and family adoption across care setting, severity of illness, dealing with privacy concerns and overall facilitators and barriers to adoption. PHRs Technology Acceptance is defined as three types of PHR usage.1 These usage types are behavioral intent to use, actual use and proficient use. Providers are the focus of this research, which are less researched for PHR barriers and facilitators, acceptance and adoption. Pediatric primary care providers (PCP) are key in terms of the health and well-being of their patients and families, and results in, the often close relationship developed with parents and children during their formative years and the heavily surrogate population that exists in the pediatric population. Wolcott, et al. determines that a supportive provider relationship has been associated with increased patient compliance, decreased pain, and shortened recovery periods.2 Objectives The objectives of this dissertation study were to investigate the existing literature regarding personal health care records and provider use, utilization and practice. Another objective was to evaluate a newly created PHR Organizational Pediatric PCP PHR Acceptance survey and model (POP3) to identify pathways and mechanisms responsible for pediatric PCP PHR behavioral intent to use and actual use. Finally, a targeted network intervention was investigated to determine what, if any, impact it had on increasing pediatric PCP PHR actual use and utilization and practice. Methods The POP3 survey and model was offered to pediatric providers practicing at 30 urban and suburban primary care practices affiliated with an academic medical center. The POP3 survey and model was based on existing technology acceptance and adoption theory. The survey scored external variables impact on both predictor and outcome variables based on a Likert scale. Demographic variables included age, gender, years of healthcare experience including residency and provider type. Predictor variables were individual, technology, patient and family experience, network and organizational level. The median scores were utilized to analyze any pathways and impact on perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived benefit of use (PBOU), behavioral intent to use (BITU), and actual use (AU). A network intervention was used to further validate impacts of network level interventions on actual and proficient use. Results The POP3 survey response rate was 45%, with 94 providers attempting to complete or completing the survey. Proficient use (UP) had the highest self-reported median score of all outcome variables. Age and years of experience had a statistically significant impact on BITU. The POP3 model resulted in positive impacts of the four of five external variables on both PEOU and PBOU. The highest results were for PHR patient family experience on PEOU and individual PHR technology use, ([beta]= 0.6, P< 0.001), on PBOU. PEOU has an impact, ([beta]= 0.5, P< 0.001), on PBOU which has been demonstrated in past empirical studies. BITU ([beta]= 0.6, P< 0.001), of all predictor variables had the highest impact of all, meaning if the provider intended to use the PHR, there was a higher impact or potential increase on actual use (AU) in comparison to other predictor variables such as PEOU, PBOU and BITU. The self-scheduling network intervention had a 2.0% absolute and 4.0% relative increase in PHR actual provider use in comparison with the control group. For providers deemed as proficient users, a 38% increase in PHR actual use in the intervention group. Finally, PCP providers identified both patient family and provider PHR interventions that could increase PHR use. Conclusion The POP3 model and the impact of a network intervention were both positively validated by this dissertation research. Individual and network level data were integrated to analysis provider PHR use. Additionally, both objective and subjective data are analyzed in this study. This study allows for comparison of both survey and PHR log data to determine provider PHR actual and proficient use. Future research opportunities include updated the POP3 survey and model to include top interventions identified by participants. Further testing of these new interventions, after policy development is completed and implements by care network and organizational leadership. The research should also be extended to include other ambulatory specialty care network locations and providers as well as including other PCP network office roles such as nurses and patient access staff. A further evaluation of proficient usage post intervention should be conducted with the new interventions identified. Finally, a review and analysis of the implications and effects of both patients and families and providers interventions on provider PHR use.