A Typology and Analysis of Collaborative Hybrid Work for Post-Pandemic Teams

Abstract

Despite the substantial proliferation of hybrid work, little has been done to reconcile extant individual- and team-level perspectives. This is problematic because it does not acknowledge how individuals’ hybrid work practices constrain team-level interactions and subsequent outcomes. Specifically, the extant literature does not yet capture the complex configurations that result from team members alternating between co-located and remote forms of collaboration and how these may provoke the formation of subgroups within the team. In this conceptual paper, we thus present co-location imbalance as a way of capturing geographic configuration in hybrid teams and illustrate its meaning and impact on subgroup formation using exemplary hybrid teamwork archetypes. We then map out a nomological network surrounding co-location imbalance and derive testable propositions on its temporal dynamics and multilevel antecedents. Our paper concludes with a discussion of our research’s theoretical and practical contributions and directions to advance future research on hybrid teamwork.