Management and hybrid work organization: Role tensions and related managerial practices

Résumé 0

Research goal: The aim of this contribution is to study how teleworking can give rise to a number of tensions among managers, because of their central role in the implementation and success of hybrid working. These elements echo research on role tensions and adjustment strategies, which seem to provide a relevant framework for analyzing current management issues in teleworking situations. To meet our research objective, we set out to analyze the managerial practices developed to cope with these tensions, by comparing the perceptions of work teams, front-line managers, and strategic managers in a hybrid organization. Methodology: We used an exploratory qualitative survey conducted between January and June 2022, as part of a study of post-COVID teleworking conditions among employees of a branch of the French social security system. The phronetic iterative approach was applied to analyze the data. Results: The results highlight four effects of remote working, which are multiplicative, additive, reductive, and neutral in nature. Among the negative tensions resulting from these effects (multiplicative and additive ones), managers only succeed in limiting part of the additive tensions of a collective nature, but do not seem to be able to limit the other additive tensions, nor the multiplicative tensions. Moreover, the managerial practices proposed mainly tend to limit the use of remote work or to resolve the difficulties experienced during on-site working days. Practical contributions: In this context, we formulate a set of managerial guidelines aimed at limiting the tensions that remain unresolved.