The Next Normal for Teaming - Transitioning Out of COVID-19

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Though remote work has grown in popularity for several decades, it has never been more critical than in the aftermath of COVID-19. Many countries were forced to order shelter-in-place or social distance to slow the spread of the disease forcing organizations to rapidly transition to remote work. While the onset of COVID-19 was disruptive, it has provided a worldwide, if involuntary, quasi experiment. The shift in work was unprecedented in terms of scale (forcing many organizations to operate completely remotely) and scope (affecting organizations across the globe). Individuals were forced to adapt to their new work arrangements, which changed how they go about their day-to-day jobs and other life activities and responsibilities. However, even while we come to terms with the “new normal,” we have the opportunity - and indeed an obligation - to consider what practices and experiences that emerged as part of the ongoing quasi experiment we may want to retain, by virtue of their efficacy, as we transition out of COVID-19. In other words, what can we learn from our experiences in the “new normal” that will help shape the “next normal” as we transition out of COVID-19? To answer this question, this project will use survey and server-side data collected as workers team together using digital technologies at different points through the pandemic. This project is rooted in a “teaming affordances” perspective. The sudden shift to all-virtual meetings, and use of digital communication technologies, has heightened workers’ awareness of the affordances provided by technologies, for example, to be kept updated on what their colleagues are doing (visibility affordance) or what they know and the nature of their relationships with one another (association affordance). Technology affordances serve as the foundation for teamwork, enabling essential behaviors such as boundary spanning, leading collectively, and motivating. We investigate the extent to which a heightened awareness of the affordances provided by digital collaboration technologies has the ability to nudge workers to engage in teaming behaviors that lead to better team outcomes. Insights from this investigation will make it possible to identify and isolate practices that were triggered by the sudden shift to remote work during COVID-19, but which we must consider retaining as we transition out of COVID-19 and workers have the ability to physically return to the workplace. This project leverages teaming data collected by the project team during and prior to COVID-19, expanding these sources to include a new wave of data collection once in-person work is again possible (“The Next Normal”). Additionally, the project will complement longitudinal field surveys with semi-structured interviews and two waves of a general survey of workers. The project will apply a range of advanced network analytics, including exponential random graph models (ERGMs) and relational event modeling (REM). The interview data will be analyzed using grounded theory methodologies in order to identify practices that help and hinder teaming. This mixed-method longitudinal design makes it possible to explore research questions and test hypotheses about virtual teaming that advance fundamental knowledge on what we can learn from this forced quasi experiment on virtual teaming in a crisis that should inform better teaming practices and outcomes as we transition out of the pandemic.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.