Navigating Tensions in the Organizational Change Process towards Hybrid Workspace

This article examines the change process of implementing hybrid workspace within organizations. Hybrid workspace involves employees working from multiple locations and has become an important topic during and after the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. This study aims to better understand the tensions emerging in the change process towards hybrid workspace and the responses by organizational members. Drawing on a case study of a major bank in Paris, this study finds four relevant tensions that emerge when implementing hybrid workspace: (1) connecting with vs. disconnecting from others, (2) agile vs. sedentary work, (3) paperless vs. paper-based working, and (4) telework vs. corporate space routines. These findings contribute to reshaping workspace literature by viewing organizational change through a tension lens while connecting different micro-processes of the planned change. Furthermore, this study contributes to the debates on hybrid workspace by viewing space as an ongoing process, through the dynamic interaction between individuals and technology in producing hybrid workspace.

MAD statement
This article aims to Make a Difference (MAD) by viewing hybrid workspaces and organizational change as mutually constituted in a process connecting technology and human agency. This study provides important contributions by identifying possible tensions that might emerge in the implementation of hybrid workspace. By revealing employees’ responses to each tension, we provide practitioners with insights into discrepancies among planning, implementing, and the daily use of hybrid workspace, and into creative ways to transcend oppositions. To improve employees’ well-being and reduce inequalities at work, we call for a managerial shift from disregarding or eliminating sources of tensions to managing them.