FUNDAÇÃO GETULIO VARGAS ESCOLA BRASILEIRA DE ADMINISTRAÇÃO PÚBLICA E DE EMPRESAS MESTRADO EXECUTIVO EM GESTÃO EMPRESARIAL
Corporate design principles to integrate digital
nomads in post-bureaucratic organisations
Dissertação apresentada à Escola Brasileira de Administração Pública e de
Empresas para obtenção do grau de Mestre
TALITHA LEITNER Rio de Janeiro - 2016
TALITHA LEITNER
Corporate design principles to integrate digital nomads in post-bureaucratic organisations
Master’s thesis presented to Corporate International Master’s program, Escola Brasileira de Administracao Pública, Fundacao Getulio Vargas, as a requirement for obtaining the title of Master in Business Management.
Advisor: Prof. Flávio Carvalho de Vasconcelos
Rio de Janeiro 2016
Page | 2
Ficha catalográfica elaborada pela Biblioteca Mario Henrique Simonsen/FGV
Leitner, Talitha Maria Corporate design principles to integrate digital nomads in post-bureaucratic organisations / Talitha Maria Leitner. – 2016. 112 f.
Dissertação (mestrado) - Escola Brasileira de Administração Pública e de Empresas, Centro de Formação Acadêmica e Pesquisa. Orientador: Flávio Carvalho de Vasconcelos. Inclui bibliografia.
1. Empresas – Inovações tecnológicas. 2. Trabalhadores – Efeitos de inovações tecnológicas. 3. Teletrabalho. 4. Mobilidade profissional. 5. Trabalhadores autônomos. I. Vasconcelos, Flávio Carvalho de. II. Escola Brasileira de Administração Pública e de Empresas. Centro de Formação Acadêmica e Pesquisa. III. Título.
CDD – 658.4
Page | 3
Page | 4
Für Mama und Papa – Danke, dass ihr mich die Jahre durch das Studium getragen habt. Für Janine, Marco und Maraya – Danke, dass ihr tagtäglich mein Leben bereichert und immer für mich da seid. Für Alfons – Danke, dass du mich auf meinen Weg begleitet hast und keine Sekunde an mir gezweifelt hast. Ich liebe dich!
Meinen Dank an euch kann ich eigentlich nicht in Worte fassen, aber diese Arbeit ist ein kleines symbolisches Werk für die vergangenen Jahre, die ihr mit mir gemeinsam erlebt habt. 113 Seiten, die euch gewidmet sind. DANKE!
Page | 5
Abstract Experts predict that more than one billion people will adapt to the lifestyle of digital nomads until 2035. Digital nomadism is a new lifestyle and employment opportunity and arises from the combination of reliable and affordable technology and the increasing mobility of employees. Digital nomads spend at least a few months per year abroad, change their destination frequently, and earn their living with digital jobs. Retaining and developing these digital nomads are one of the biggest challenges for companies in the future. They have to find new solutions to match labour supply and demand in the digital era. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the strategic posture of corporate organisations towards digital nomadism and to develop suitable design principles to successfully integrate digital nomads into the corporate environment, which has not been research yet. The derived research aim of this study is threefold. The first objective is to identify and analyse the motivational drivers of corporate organisations to integrate digital nomads. Second, this thesis aims at clarifying the nature of potential challenges while integrating digital nomads. Third, design principles for corporate organisations are developed to propose a smooth integration process of digital nomads. Due to a lack of theoretical and empirical insights, a qualitative, explorative approach was employed to achieve the established research aims. Accordingly, nine interviews with digital nomads and companies employing digital nomads were conducted. The analysis of transcripts reveals two major motivations of corporate organisations to integrate digital nomads, namely (1) Proactive Motivations and (2) Reactive Motivations. Similarly, there are two main categories of challenges for corporate organisations to integrate digital nomads, namely (1) Organisational Challenges and (2) Social Challenges. These corporate motivations and challenges were enriched by digital nomads’ perspectives to create a more sophisticated picture. Finally, five design principles: (1) Corporate Culture, (2) Career Planning, (3) Governance, (4) Performance Measurement and (5) Tools at Work were derived to help corporate organisations to successfully integrate digital nomads. This study contributes to both theory and practice by bringing more clarity to the understanding of this newly emerged phenomenon.
Keywords: digital nomads, global human resource management, motivations and barriers, design principles, qualitative interviews Page | 6
Resumo Os especialistas preveem que, até 2035, mais de 1 bilhão de pessoas se adaptarão ao estilo de vida dos nómadas digitais. O nomadismo digital constitui um estilo de vida e uma oportunidade de emprego novos, emergindo da combinação entre a tecnologia acessível e de confiança e a crescente mobilidade dos trabalhadores. Os nómadas digitais passam, pelo menos, alguns meses por ano no estrangeiro, mudam o seu destino com frequência e ganham a vida com trabalhos digitais. A retenção e o desenvolvimento destes nómadas digitais apresenta-se como um dos maiores desafios para as empresas no futuro. Estas veem-se obrigadas a encontrar novas soluções para harmonizar a oferta e a procura de trabalho na era digital. O objetivo da presente tese é a investigação da postura estratégica das organizações empresariais relativamente ao nomadismo digital, bem como o desenvolvimento de princípios de conceção adequados que permitam integrar com êxito os nómadas digitais no ambiente empresarial, assunto que ainda carece de investigação. O presente estudo possui três objetivos de investigação daí resultantes. O primeiro objetivo é a identificação e a análise dos fatores catalisadores no seio das organizações empresariais que as levam a integrar os nómadas digitais. Em segundo lugar, a presente tese visa esclarecer a natureza dos potenciais desafios aliados à integração dos nómadas digitais. Em terceiro lugar, são desenvolvidos princípios de conceção para organizações empresariais, no sentido de propor um processo de integração harmoniosa dos nómadas digitais. Devido à ausência de perspetivas teóricas e empíricas, optou-se por uma abordagem qualitativa e exploratória, a fim de alcançar os objetivos estabelecidos para o presente estudo. Nesse sentido, foram realizadas nove entrevistas com nómadas digitais e com empresas que os empregam. A análise do conteúdo das entrevistas revela duas motivações principais por parte das organizações empresariais em integrar nómadas digitais, designadamente, (1) Motivações proativas e (2) Motivações reativas. Da mesma forma, existem duas categorias principais de desafios colocados às organizações empresariais ao integrar nómadas digitais, designadamente, (1) Desafios organizacionais e (2) Desafios sociais. Estes desafios e motivações por parte das empresas foram enriquecidos pelas perspetivas dos próprios nómadas digitais, para criar uma imagem mais sofisticada. Por último, são apresentados cinco princípios de conceção: (1) Cultura empresarial, (2) Planeamento da carreira, (3) Governação, (4) Avaliação do desempenho e (5) Ferramentas de trabalho, que visam ajudar as organizações empresariais a integrar com Page | 7 sucesso os nómadas digitais. A contribuição do presente estudo é tanto teórica como prática, ao tornar mais clara a compreensão deste fenómeno recente.
Palavras-chave: nómadas digitais, gestão global de recursos humanos, motivações e barreiras, princípios de conceção, entrevistas qualitativas
Page | 8
Table of Content Abstract ...... 6
Resumo ...... 7
1. Introduction ...... 14
1.1. Contextualization and Relevance of the Problem...... 14
1.2. Justification of the Theme Selection ...... 16
1.3. Research question and objectives ...... 17
1.4. Structure ...... 18
2. Theoretical Foundation ...... 20
2.1. Bureaucratic and post-bureaucratic organisations ...... 20
2.1.1. Historic change from bureaucratic to post-bureaucratic organisations ...... 20
2.1.2. Key characteristics of post-bureaucratic organisations ...... 23
2.1.3. Effect of technology in PBOs: network organisation ...... 26
2.2. New organisational structures within network organisations ...... 28
2.2.1. Continuum of remote work arrangements ...... 31
2.3. Digital nomads ...... 34
2.3.1. Relevance and diffusion of digital nomads ...... 35
2.3.2. Work environment of digital nomads ...... 36
2.3.3. Most common jobs of digital nomads ...... 37
2.3.4. Tools used by digital nomads ...... 38
2.4. The concept of remote work ...... 40
2.4.1. Guiding principles of remote work ...... 40
2.4.2 Challenges of remote work ...... 42
2.6. Summary ...... 45
3. Methodology ...... 46
Page | 9
3.1. Theory building foundation ...... 46
3.2. Sampling ...... 47
3.3. Data Source ...... 49
3.3.1. Interviews ...... 49
3.3.2. Archival Documents ...... 50
3.3. Data analysis ...... 50
3.4. Method limitations ...... 51
4. Findings ...... 53
4.1. Motivations to integrate digital nomads in corporate organisations...... 54
4.1.1. Proactive motivations for corporate organisations ...... 56
4.1.2. Reactive motivations for corporate organisations ...... 57
4.1.3. Motivations of digital nomads ...... 59
4.2. Challenges to integrate digital nomads in corporate organisations ...... 62
4.2.1. Organisational challenges ...... 63
4.2.2. Social challenges ...... 68
4.2.3. Challenges of digital nomads ...... 71
4.3. Derived design principles for appealing integration process ...... 75
4.3.1. Design principle 1: Corporate culture ...... 75
4.3.2. Design principle 2: Career planning ...... 76
4.3.3. Design principle 3: Governance ...... 77
4.3.4. Design principle 4: Performance measurement ...... 79
4.3.5. Design principle 5: Tools ...... 80
5. Discussion of the results ...... 82
6. Conclusion ...... 87
6.1. Research Contribution ...... 87
Page | 10
6.1.1. Theoretical relevance ...... 87
6.1.2. Managerial relevance ...... 87
6.2. Limitations and future research of this study ...... 88
6.3. Conclusion ...... 89
I. Appendix ...... 91
I.I. Overview of travel programs for digital nomads ...... 91
I.II. Overview of interview partners ...... 92
I.III. Interview guidelines ...... 95
I.IV. Interview transcripts (exemplary DATACOM’s digital nomad) ...... 97
I.V. Generated code categories by Atlas.ti ...... 106
I.VI. Illustrative quotes for derived design principles ...... 107
II. References ...... 109
Page | 11
Table of Figures
Figure 1: Structure of research ...... 18 Figure 2: Characteristics of bureaucratic and post-bureaucratic organisations ...... 23 Figure 3: Future types of network organisations ...... 28 Figure 4: Continuum of remote work arrangements ...... 32 Figure 5: Most common jobs for digital nomads (excerpt) ...... 37 Figure 6: Most common hardware tools for digital nomads (excerpt) ...... 38 Figure 7: Most common software tools for digital nomads (excerpt) ...... 38 Figure 8: Continuum of remote work II ...... 44 Figure 9: Summary of guiding principles and challenges of remote work ...... 44 Figure 10: Overview of motivation categories for corporate organisations and examples of corresponding illustrative quotes ...... 54 Figure 11: Overview of motivation categories for digital nomads and examples of corresponding illustrative quotes ...... 59 Figure 12: Overview of integration challenges for corporate organisations and d.n...... 61 Figure 13: Organisational challenges and potential countermeasures ...... 62 Figure 14: Social challenges and potential countermeasures ...... 67 Figure 15: Challenges for digital nomads and potential countermeasures ...... 71 Figure 16: Three steps to establish a corporate culture ...... 75 Figure 17: Three steps to integrate digital nomadism in career plans ...... 76 Figure 18: Four steps to govern digital nomadism ...... 78 Figure 19: Three steps to establish performance measurement ...... 79 Figure 20: Tools to foster collaboration between d.n. and corporate organisations ...... 80 Figure 21: Summary key findings ...... 80
Page | 12
“Saying you’re a ‘citizen of the world’ is a super cliché, right? But it’s becoming quite true, this global awareness has been the reason why I became a digital nomad. It’s normal to have dinner now and sit with a Korean girl, a British-Singaporean guy, a Mexican girl and a Nigerian guy. As much as that sounds like a politically correct TV advertisement, it’s great that that’s the time we’re in now.”
Page | 13
1. Introduction 1.1. Contextualization and Relevance of the Problem The digital revolution is fundamentally changing the world. It is characterized by the pervasive adoption of digital, real-time and networked technologies and innovations (McKinsey September, 2016; strategy&, 2016). As effects of an increasingly digitized world are reaching into corporate live, companies are forced to steadily invest in tools and technologies to keep up pace with constant change (Daugherty, 2016). IT modernization issues, such as digitizing the customer purchasing experience, cloud-based computing, managing aging software and hardware solutions, etc., are incremental approaches of corporate organisations to answer the urgent need of modernization. Nevertheless, incrementalism will limit companies’ growth and competitiveness in the long run, hence, holistic approaches are recommended to upgrade the existing organisational structures. (McKinsey September, 2016). This leads us to today’s workforce: It has to be mentioned that although corporate organisations are going digital, the digitization of jobs is still in the early stages, according to a recent study by McKinsey Global Institute (2016). Even companies and industries at the forefront of digital spending and usage have yet to fully digitize the workforce (Koloc, 2014; McKinsey Quarterly March, 2016). After revealing the history of organisational development, it can be stated that psychological contracts that traditionally in bureaucratic structures, bound employees to their employers have been fraying (McKinsey Quarterly March, 2016). Bureaucratic organisations have been characterized by strong managerial hierarchy, formalized rules and standardization and a constant, clear career orientation (Downs, 1967; Gouldner, 1954; Hall, 1963; Hughes, 2012; Olsen, 2006). But as many of today’s workers have experienced the pain of the economic downturn and large-scale layoffs, they feel no longer as much loyalty and commitment to their organisations as they did even a decade ago. Therefore, job hopping is described as the “new normal” in the post- bureaucratic development phase (Andresen et. al, 2012; Altringer, 2015; Bennie, 2013). A post-bureaucratic organisation emphasises a shared organisational mission and values consensus-building via dialogue (Bolin and Härenstam, 2008; Briand, 2006; Grey and Garsten, 2001; Heckscher and Donnellon, 1994). The integration of technology in post-
Page | 14 bureaucratic organisation results in new working arrangements, such as remote work, which allows home offices and more flexible working hours (Boudreau, 2016; Johns and Gratton, 2013). But this is just the beginning of the digitization process of jobs. As by 2020, an entire generation, will define computers, the internet, mobile phones, texting and social networking as their second nature, new forms of working will be needed to satisfy the needs of future employees (strategy&, 2016). Subsequently based on the familiarity with technology and reliance on mobile communication, it is no surprise that employees become more location- independent and transform their way of working (Koloc, 2014; McKinsey Quarterly January, 2016). In addition to that, today’s high performers have a better understanding of their own value and are growing more footloose as a result (Altringer 2015; Goudreau, 2012). Therefore, todays increasingly connected digital world will provide more opportunities than ever to have a location-independent lifestyle (Bennie, 2013; Guppta, 2015). This new lifestyle and employment opportunity is called “digital nomadism” and results of the combination of reliable and affordable technology and the increased mobility of employees (Bennie, 2013). Digital nomads spend at least a few months a year abroad, change their destination frequently, and earn their living while working online (Guppta, 2015). Experts project that more than one billion people will adapt to the lifestyle of digital nomadism until 2035 (Cousins and Robey, 2013; Levels, 2015; Johns and Gratton, 2013). Hence, it can be assumed that the challenge is on to retain digital employees (Brewster, 2005; McKinsey Quarterly April, 2016). Companies have to find new solutions to match labour supply and demand in the post-bureaucratic era. Executives have long dreamed of organisational market mechanisms that could mobilize talented people for their best opportunities (McKinsey Quarterly March, 2016; Presskorn-Thygesen, 2015). The development of new integration principles can help corporate leaders to successfully incorporate digital nomads in their corporate organisations. The integration principles should be based on the view of corporate organisations and digital nomads to enable corporates to successfully integrate digital nomads and to satisfy the needs of both parties. The goal is to re-stabilize the workforce in a new way and to successfully manage talents in the digital, post-bureaucratic age (McKinsey Quarterly January, 2016).
Page | 15
1.2. Justification of the Theme Selection To the author’s knowledge, no theoretical and empirical research has been conducted on the fit of digital nomads into post-bureaucratic organisations. According to Davenport and Pearlson (1998), Mulki et al. (2009) and Beth Watson-Manheim et al. (2002) other working styles, such as telecommuting, hoteling or home office, etc. are well researched, but the phenomenon of digital nomadism is still quite undiscovered (Harris, 2006; Ton van, 2000). Consequently, this thesis tries to respond to this gap in literature and explains the existing variety of unanswered questions in the context of the integration process of digital nomads. For instance, how to effectively involve digital nomads in the corporate culture or how to monitor digital nomads in the long run. Based on these questions, the author aims to contribute to organisational structure research by pointing out a new way to bring the “digital talents” into big companies and to be in the lead of employee handling. Three aspects of this thesis make it stand out from other assessments of technology integration structures. First, it examines the guiding principles and challenges of existing integration processes of remote work. Based on these theoretical results suitable design principles for the integration of digital nomads in post-bureaucratic, corporate organisations can be drafted. Second, by considering the view of digital nomads and big companies it is possible to identify close “user-related” benefits. Furthermore, this analysis enables the author to develop design principles for corporate organisations which take both views into account. Third, in contrast to other studies that focus exclusively on different technology integration aspects, as mentioned above, this thesis covers a wider spectrum and gives a good overview of the end-to-end integration process of digital nomads into post-bureaucratic organisations. In addition to that, the outcomes of this thesis are highly relevant for corporate organisations to understand the process of building a digital workforce for today’s and future digital demands (Daugherty et. al, 2016). The process of integrating digital nomads does not come naturally to companies. Many companies are steadily investing in different tools and technologies to keep up with the constant change in the digital area, but they are often overlooking a crucial factor: the workforce (Daugherty et. al, 2016). By pointing out the importance of different future working structures, this thesis shows the value of integrating digital nomads for corporate organisations in an environment that continuously changes. Page | 16
1.3. Research question and objectives As a significant gap in literature has been identified for research which describes design principles for corporate organisations to successfully integrate digital nomads into their post-bureaucratic organisational structures, this thesis contributes a first empirical analysis to the literature. Based on the above-mentioned justification, this thesis answers the following research question:
How can multinational enterprises successfully integrate digital nomads in their post- bureaucratic organisations?
Further, sub-questions were chosen by the author to build a deeper understanding of the working environment of digital nomads and to develop the most suitable and valuable design principles for corporate organisations. In order to answer the main research questions the following sub-questions were conducted: • What are motives of corporate organisations to integrate digital nomads into their workforce? • What challenges do corporate organisations face while integrating digital nomads in their post-bureaucratic organisations?
By looking at the objectives of this thesis, it can be stated that the overall goal of the author is to get a profound understanding of the integration of digital nomads in post- bureaucratic organisations. As already mentioned, by analysing both sides, corporate organisations and digital nomads, the author tries to overcome potential integration barriers and to create appealing corporate design principles. During this study, the author tried to understand the main characteristics of bureaucratic and post-bureaucratic structures and the underlying transformational process. Additionally, the fit of technology in post-bureaucratic organisations was analysed in detail as it helped the author to develop interview guidelines and suitable corporate design principles for the integration of digital nomads in the later stage. This profound theoretical understanding will present a strong foundation of the explanatory part of the study and underlines the importance of the analysed nine case studies. By using Page | 17
Eisenhardt and Graebner’s (2007) theory building foundation five design principles were derived out of the explanatory research. The main goal of this thesis is to design corporate integration principles to successfully integrate digital nomads in post-bureaucratic organisations. Furthermore, a focus on the digital nomad view should open the mind of companies to attract highly-talented employees and to build a beneficial environment for both sides. To conclude, this study has practical relevance by providing business leaders with confidence in the value of engaging with digital nomads and assisting in strategically selecting and conducting activities that result in a more effective cooperation.
1.4. Structure This thesis is organized as follows (see Figure 1): The theoretical chapter (chapter 2) is covering four topics through theoretical lenses which build a theoretical foundation for answering the research question of this thesis: the difference between bureaucratic and post-bureaucratic organisational structures, recent types of work, the phenomenon of digital nomads and guiding principles and challenges of remote work. The first subchapter of chapter two provides the reader with the necessary knowledge around the historic development of bureaucratic to post-bureaucratic organisations and analyses the main characteristics of post-bureaucratic structures. After that, a deeper insight in the technology fit in post-bureaucratic structures is conducted. Subsequently, the study focuses on the different kinds of new organisational structures and describes the continuum of remote work. Furthermore, since this thesis aims to explore the integration of digital nomads in corporate organisations, subchapter 2.3 will provide an overview of the phenomenon of digital nomads and introduces their work environment, the most common jobs and tools. Lastly, guiding principles and challenges which corporate organisations experience during the integration process of remote workers are examined. This chapter gives the author a good theoretical foundation to develop, in a later stage, design principles for corporate organisations to better integrate the workforce for today’s digital demands. The third chapter consists of the description of the methodology used to answer the research questions. The approach of theory building from nine case studies has been used to collect and sort the relevant data (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007; Yin, 2009). Additionally, Page | 18
the reader can find a detailed description about the research analysis and the different code categories which have been used during the indexing process to come up with suitable design principles for corporate organisations. The methodology chapter is followed by the presentation of the main findings of the study. First, motives to integrate digital nomads from the perspective of corporate organisations and digital nomads are examined. Second, some preliminary insights into challenges of the integration process are given. Subsequently five design principles for an appealing integration process for digital nomads are illustrated. Chapter five briefly summarizes and discusses these research results and reflects them in the light of literature and managerial implications. Finally, this thesis concludes by indicating practical implications and its contributions to the literature, as well as pointing out research limitations and directions for future research.
5. 2. Theoretical 1. Intdroduction 3. Methodology 4. Findings Discussion and foundation Conclusion
Fig. 1: Structure of Research
Page | 19
2. Theoretical Foundation Organisations are central actors in society (Bolin and Härenstam, 2008). The environment of organisations has become more volatile due to technological development and globalisation. Current times have been characterised by a dramatic shift in the nature of the economy and working life (Bolin and Härenstam, 2008). This chapter covers the call for organisational adaptation in terms of flexibility (Castells, 2000). First, it aims at providing insights into the current state of knowledge about organisational development. “Weber’s ideal type of ‘bureaucracy’ is declared as belonging to the history of a vanishing industrial society and is replaced by a postmodern ideal type of organisational form that is designed for dealing with the new situation” (Bolin and Härenstam, 2008: p. 542). The analysis of the key characteristics of post-bureaucratic organisations intends to create a better theoretical understanding of organisational development. Additionally, the influence of technology on post-bureaucratic organisations is contextualized in the light of the received literature. As a second purpose, it is illustrating new forms of organisational structures and subsequently the study focuses on the continuum of remote work. Since this thesis aims to explore the phenomenon of digital nomads, an overview of digital nomads and their work environment, most common jobs and tools will be presented. Third, this section also aims at providing an overview of guiding principles of remote work, as well as potential challenges for introducing and developing successful integration models of remote work.
2.1. Bureaucratic and post-bureaucratic organisations 2.1.1. Historic change from bureaucratic to post-bureaucratic organisations A central question in critical organisation studies has been how the transformation from bureaucratic to post-bureaucratic structures has changed organisations (Maravelias, 2007). Max Weber is considered as the founding father of the modern bureaucratic management theory (Weber, 1922). Weber was a German sociologist and political economist (Weber, 1922). He viewed bureaucracy as a positive development from past management and leadership which was based on traditional authority. Weber (1922) argued that management based on rational-legal authority, in which legitimacy is coming from a legal
Page | 20 order, is more effective than management based upon subjective criteria. Normally, bureaucratic structures are utilized in government departments or within big corporate organisations (Maravelias, 2007; Oxbridgenotes, 2016; study.com, 2016). Weber’s bureaucratic structure is based on the following six fundamentals: The first characteristic is the division of labour which focuses on the practise of specialisation. By dividing jobs into smaller set of tasks, efficiency can be increased due to workers’ qualifications. Additionally, management can clearly define workers’ responsibilities and explicit authorities within the organisation (Gouldner, 1954; Hall, 1963; Hughes, 2012; Olsen, 2006). Second, the presence of a managerial hierarchy enables management to clearly define positions and relationships within organisations. This chain of command can be illustrated in an organisational chart and ultimately leads to a better communication as employees have a clear understanding of their role within the organisation (Downs, 1967; Gouldner, 1954; Hall, 1963; Hughes, 2012; Olsen, 2006). Furthermore, Weber (1922) points out that the selection process of employees in an ideal bureaucratic structure should be based upon technical qualifications. This empowers managers to choose employees who are suitable for the requested tasks. Within the organisation employees should see themselves as career professionals rather than career politicians. Weber (1922) follows this approach to ensure that assigned duties are performed well regardless of outside pressures. Subsequently, employees should be encouraged to look forward to a lifelong career within the organisation and should be provided with some layer of protection from arbitrary termination by their management (Gouldner, 1954; Hall, 1963; Hughes, 2012; Olsen, 2006). The fifth characteristic is the establishment of formal rules. These formal rules should apply to all employees at all levels of the organisation with no consideration for employee rank or status. To ensure that they cannot be misinterpreted, these rules should be written down (Gouldner, 1954; Hall, 1963; Hughes, 2012; Olsen, 2006). Finally, bureaucracy was characterized by impersonality. Acting impersonally refers to avoiding the consideration of personality as well as personal preference when deciding how to administer certain rules. Hence, rules should be applied uniformly to all members of the organisation with no special treatment provided to any person (Downs, 1967; Gouldner, 1954; Hall, 1963; Hughes, 2012; Olsen, 2006). In summary, it can be stated that functional specializations, strong hierarchical levels, systems of rules and impersonal cultures define Weber’s ideal bureaucratic Page | 21 management theory (Downs, 1967; Gouldner, 1954; Hall, 1963; Hughes, 2012; Olsen, 2006; Weber, 1922). Although this form of organisational structure has been adopted in probably every large organisation in most of the countries in the world, organisations theorists have recognised that problems arise (Hall, 1963; Maravelias, 2007; Oxbridgenotes, 2016). First, a bureaucratic system is formed around rigid rules and regulations. This excessive form of rigid structure diminishes creativity and out-of-the-box solutions. For that reason, bureaucratic organisations become resistant to innovation and change which is highly problematic in today’s fast-changing world. This rigidity of bureaucracy is a big problem for any organisation or government (Downs, 1967; Hall, 1963; Maravelias, 2007). Second, in addition to strict rules the impersonal nature of bureaucratic organisations represents one of the biggest shortcomings of Weber’s ideal structure. The room for human emotions, satisfactions, needs and values is missing and as a direct consequence employees are losing their motivation to deliver outstanding work (Downs, 1967; Hall, 1963; Maravelias, 2007). Third, within bureaucratic organisations employees and managers are struggling with the efficiency of decision-making processes. The bureaucratic structure and its set mechanics significantly slow down the process and consequently this leads to consumer complaints, demand-and-supply mismatches and other unnecessary delays (Hall, 1963; Maravelias, 2007). The above-mentioned problems of bureaucratic organisations represent a small insight into occurring challenges. Bureaucracy does claim to provide a structured framework for streamlined operations but too much rigidity and complexity make the process rather problematic. Therefore, “Weber’s ideal bureaucratic structure is declared as belonging to the history of a vanishing industrial society and is replaced by a post-modern ideal type of organisational form that is designed for dealing with the new situation, the post-bureaucratic structure” (Bolin and Härenstam, 2008: p. 542). The following subchapter gives an overview of the key characteristics of post- bureaucratic organisations.
Page | 22
2.1.2. Key characteristics of post-bureaucratic organisations Due to globalisation and technological development organisations have to deal with a more volatile and fast-changing environment. These changes call for organisational adaption in terms of flexibility and employees handling (Bolin and Härenstam, 2008; Castells, 2000). Many different concepts such as ‘network enterprise’ (Castells, 2000), ‘postmodern organisation’ (Clegg, 1990), ‘flexible organisation’ (Nutek, 1999), ‘the flexible firm’ (Atkinson, 1984; Volberda, 1998), and ‘post-bureaucracy’ (Child, 2005; Heckscher and Donnellon, 1994; Maravelias, 2002; Peterson, 2005) have been developed and examined to deal with the new situation. For simplicity, this study focuses on the characteristics of post- bureaucratic organisations, further abbreviated as PBO (Bolin and Härenstam, 2008; Heckscher and Donnellon, 1994). According to Child (2005) and Peterson (2005), post-bureaucracy can be almost seen as the opposite of traditional bureaucracy. The hierarchic, centralized and formalized bureaucratic organisation is replaced by a flatter, decentralized organisation, which emphases more flexibility rather than rule-following (Bolin and Härenstam, 2008; Maravelias, 2002). As a direct analogue to Weber’s bureaucratic ideal type, Heckscher and Donnellon (1994) constructed an ideal type of PBO. Their attempt to describe the PBO is characterized by the following six characteristics: First, the principle of labour division in post-bureaucracy is integration. Post-bureaucratic organisations are process-oriented and integration between units is achieved by team organisation or project organisation (Bolin and Härenstam, 2008). Second, functional flexibility is achieved by the replacement of specialized workers with multi-skilled employees (Bolin and Härenstam, 2008). Furthermore, the organisation is driven by a consensus-building dialogue rather than rule-following (Grey and Garsten, 2001; Heckscher and Donnellon, 1994; Huber, 1985). This consensus is based upon influence structures which should be at least partially independent from a formal hierarchy. To reach consensus within an PBO organisations need to build an atmosphere of trust based upon recognition of the independence of organisational actors (Bolin and Härenstam, 2008; Grey and Garsten, 2001; Heckscher and Donnellon, 1994). The guidance of those organisational individuals can be achieved through a shared mission and the definition of shared values (Grey and Garsten, 2001). Hence, the consensus around core principles to allow translation of mission into action is a key requirement within PBOs (Grey and Garsten, 2001). This Page | 23 process can be encouraged by the strategic sharing of information within the organisation and transparent process at every level of the organisation (Bolin and Härenstam, 2008; Briand, 2006; Grey and Garsten, 2001; Heckscher and Donnellon, 1994; Huber, 1985). Hacker and Donnellon (1994) state that the employees’ selection process should be based upon expertise rather than technical qualifications. For that, people have to know who has what expertise. This transparency, for instance, can be reached through a public evaluation system (Grey and Garsten, 2011). Subsequently, time structures change in PBOs, employees are more familiar with fluid boundaries between departments and have a positive attitude towards change within the organisation (Bolin and Härenstam, 2008; Briand, 2006; Grey and Garsten, 2001; Heckscher and Donnellon, 1994). The variety of individual contribution requires individual systems of reward and treatment and enables leaders of an PBO to motivate employees on an individual basis. It has to be mentioned, that post-bureaucracy is not totally vanishing the old structure, but it is seen as an extension of bureaucracy and can coexist with bureaucratic characteristics (Bolin and Härenstam, 2008; Huber, 1984). The comparison of Weber’s bureaucratic organisation and Heckscher and Donnellon’s post- bureaucratic organisation is summarized in Figure 2.
Weber’s Bureaucratic Organisation Heckscher and Donnellon’s Post-Bureaucratic Organisation Division of labour: specialisation Division of labour: integration Centralization: strong managerial hierarchy Decentralization: consensus-building dialogue Selection of employees based on technical Selection of employees based on expertise qualifications Career orientation: expectation of constancy Career orientation: expectation of change Formalized rules and standardization Emphasis on shared organisational mission and values Impersonality Recognition of the independent organisational actor
Fig. 2: Characteristics of bureaucratic and post-bureaucratic organisations
Going beyond Heckscher and Donnellon’s scholarly gloss, the author identified three additional key phenomena of post-bureaucratic organisational development in academic
Page | 24 literature: (1) the increase of trust within organisations, (2) the appearance of new, flexible working agreements, and (3) the impact of globalisation. (1) Intra-organisational trust is highly important within PBOs (Bolin and Härenstam, 2008; Briand, 2006; Grey and Gersten, 2001). As specified by Grey and Gersten (2001: p. 229), “trust is something which is constructed for and by people in organisations, thereby producing some degree of predictability”. Bureaucratic structures diminished trust to its minimum. By purely focusing on predetermined rules of conduct, trust in bureaucracy is not understood as an attribute of individuals (Bolin and Härenstam, 2008; Briand, 2006; Grey and Gersten, 2001). Literature terms the result of this minimization process as a mechanic version of trust, which characterizes trust obtained in situations where choice is highly limited (Grey and Gersten, 2001). Nevertheless, shifting organisational structures re-opened the establishment of trust within organisations. As in post-bureaucracy, predictability cannot come from organisational routines and communities, trust is a matter of choices and actions of individuated subjects (Grey and Gersten, 2001). Therefore, to act trustworthy in PBOs means that someone will exercise their autonomy in ways which are deemed to be responsible (Grey and Gersten, 2001). This interplay of social or discursive structures results in the precarious social accomplishment of trust, which is highly valuable within PBOs (Briand, 2006; Grey and Gersten, 2001). The advancements of organisational structure in post- bureaucracy have brought with them new potential bases for trust, and hence control, in organisations. (2) As pointed out in the beginning of this subchapter, PBOs emphasis more flexibility and employee handling within organisations (Bolin and Härenstam, 2008). Short- term or part-time contracts are common working agreements between employers and employees in PBOs (Briand, 2006; Grey and Gersten, 2001). An increasing number of managers are working on short-term assignments or as consultants and there has been a raise in temporary employment at all organisational levels (Grey and Gersten, 2001). Furthermore, new working styles, i.e. homeworking, teleworking, etc. appear and challenge existing organisational structures (Grey and Gersten, 2001). Even employees who are working more or less constantly within one organisation are increasingly required to work in temporary, shifting groups (Briand, 2006; Grey and Gersten, 2001). This new area of flexibility is a key
Page | 25 phenomenon of post-bureaucracy and enables organisations to re-think employee handling and to generate new types of work (see subchapter 2.2). (3) The world is changing at an unprecedented rate, with rapid globalisation and increased competition. On the one hand, the global reach of organisations is a crucial feature, but on the other hand, organisations should be close to the customer and be present in the local economy (Bolin and Härenstam, 2008; Grey and Gersten, 2001). Grey and Gersten (2001: p. 237) state that “customers are part of the global market in which green beans are air-freighted from Zimbabwe, and also part of the local economy in which a straw-hatted butcher dispenses a cheery smile”. This phenomenon may be regarded as an aspect of time- space compression which describes the different ways in which time and space are seen (Grey and Gersten, 2001; Harvey, 1990). For example, whereas cycles of daylight and seasons stand for time of traditional societies, industrialized societies may configure time in linear fashion adjudicated through the clock. Looking at bureaucratic organisations, the accomplishment of set hours of work occurring in a certain place, i.e. factory work, is a key characteristic (Grey and Gersten, 2001). In post-bureaucracy the time-space compression is seen differently: the simultaneity of the global and local as mentioned before is one and time distinctions are blurring (Grey and Gersten, 2001; Harvey, 1990). Furthermore, one could state that the capacity of new communication technologies is accompanying this development and is overriding the spatial and temporal lines separating work and non-work (Grey and Gersten, 2001). Overall, the comparison of bureaucratic and post-bureaucratic organisations gives a good picture of the organisational development over the past years. Nevertheless, since the influence of new technologies on PBOs is seen as a key driver for organisational change this thesis will go one step further and will screen the effect of technological advancement on PBOs in the following subchapter.
2.1.3. Effect of technology in PBOs: network organisation Many corporate organisations switch from the bureaucratic structure to a post- bureaucratic approach. As mentioned in the previous subchapter, characterized by a flatter and leaner organisation PBOs are more flexible and responsive to rapid environmental changes (Bolin and Härenstam, 2008; Grey and Gersten, 2001; Symon, 2000). Decisions are Page | 26 made more quickly and organisations are enabled to learn from their environment and can innovate accordingly (Symon, 2000). The innovative individual who mainly fulfils organisational tasks in temporary project teams is the core of PBOs (Symon, 2000). To achieve some advantage over competitors organisations have to exploit the knowledge of the individual and increase communication between individuals to advance connectivity (Symon, 2000). Symon (2000: p. 391), chose the term network organisation to propose this advanced organisational form which “emphasises the focus on communication links and relationships in organisations”. “The network organisation is one which has moved away from mainframes stand- alone personal computers to integrated systems based on shared fileservers and electronic communication links” (Symon, 2000: p. 392). These new technologies include shared computer-based databases, organisational intranets, e-mails, the internet, videoconferencing systems etc.. According to Krystek et al. (2013) and Symon (2000), network organisations are characterized by the following four underlying assumptions: • Transmission of all required information can be done electronically. For that, information required by employees has to be transmittable by electronic means. Subsequently, this enables employees to share information faster and to a wider audience. • Employees are willing to use electronic forms of communication. A substantial proportion of the employees has to be willing to use the electronic system. After reaching the tipping point within an organisation, electronic communication creates value for every individual throughout the network organisation. • Autonomous and flexible working is enabled by electronic networking. By exploiting the knowledge of the individual’s network organisations can profit from new ideas. Employees should be encouraged to work as they like, to contact whoever they want, to access information sources they need and to try out new ideas. This process is supported by the communication links of network organisations. • The use of communication technologies has to be oriented towards managerial goals. Individuals are enjoying a high level of autonomy within the
Page | 27
network organisation. Therefore, it has to be ensured that they are working for the organisation’s advantage. These four characteristics substantially shape the organisational structure of network organisations. It is important to consider to what extend electronic communication links are in everyday use to examine organisational structures in detail (Grey and Gersten, 2001; Symon, 2000). To discover the relationship of technological advancements and network organisations a conceptual topography has been developed based on academic literature to crystallize the dimensions and to identify the main types of future organisational network structures in PBO in the following subchapter.
2.2. New organisational structures within network organisations As previously mentioned in subchapter 2.1.2 and 2.1.3, network organisations in the post-bureaucratic age are more boundary-less, agile, global and transparent than ever before (Boudreau, 2016; Easley et al., 2010; Graber, 2015; Grey and Gersten, 2001; Symon, 2000). This development is brought about the appearance of new, flexible work agreements besides advances in technology (Boudreau, 2016; Graber, 2015). This subchapter tries to give an overview of the different types of organisational structures within network organisations. Based on academic literature a topography is developed by the author to crystallize the dimensions and to identify the main four types of future post-bureaucratic network structures. Figure 3 shows the topography which is based on two dimensions: (1) the degree of technological empowerment and (2) the democratization of work (Johns and Gratton, 2013). Four types of future, organisational network structures are plotted in the topography: (1) traditional work, (2) traditional work supported by technology, (3) telecommuting and (4) remote work.
Page | 28
Remote work Telecommuting Type of work: Type of work: Work via projects, freelancing, Home-office, freelancing, contests, contracts, platforms platforms
Technologies: Technologies: Support by new technologies (e.g. Simple technologies cloud, conference calling, etc.)
Traditional work Traditional work supported by technology Type of work: Full-time employment with Type of work: variations (e.g. contract, part-time Full-time employment with variations and flexible work) (e.g. contract, part-time and flexible Democratization of work of Democratization work) Technologies: Simple technologies Technologies: Support by new technologies (e.g. cloud, conference calling, etc.)
Technological empowerment Fig. 3: Future types of network organisations
The two dimensions are described as followed: (1) Technological empowerment: As pointed out in subchapter 2.1.3, technology has changed the face and the pace of how business is done (Grey and Gersten, 2001; Symon, 2000). Work has become increasingly virtual and opened new ways of communication, allowing businesses to communicate and collaborate globally (Ozgur, 2015). Mobile devices, for example smartphones, laptops and tablets, combined with the power of internet have revolutionized the way corporate organisations work (Graber, 2015; Ozgur, 2015). The advancements in communication enable employees to constantly stay in touch with the corporate environment and empowers location-independent, real-time communication (Boudreau, 2016; Graber, 2015). Additionally, corporate organisations are facing exponential technological change. Business processes have been modified and are becoming more efficiently (Graber, 2015; Ozgur, 2015). Work previously performed by humans is increasingly substituted by analytics, algorithms, big data and artificial intelligence, but also creates new work at the interface of humans and automation (Graber, 2015; Nilsson, 2014). Page | 29
The impact of these trends can be summarized in the term of technological empowerment, which describes the horizontal pivot of the topography. (2) Democratization of work: Contemporary global work comprises social and organisational reconfiguration (Baruch et al., 2013; Graber, 2015). The trend of global virtual teams has emerged in response to the growing demands placed on corporate organisations to rapidly coordinate individuals who are not geographically located in the same area (Baruch et al., 2013; Sarker, 2011). Talent is aligned on purpose and relationships are becoming more project-based (Graber, 2015). Therefore, human capital management has to be global and global talent acquisition has to be shaped as effective as possible (Farndale et al., 2010; McDonnell et al., 2010; Schuler et al., 2011). Moreover, this global talent market is supported by social policies which try to enable boundary-less work beyond traditional full-time employment (Graber, 2015; Tarique and Schuler, 2010). The impact of these trends is referred to democratization of work which describes the vertical pivot of the topography.
After analysing the effect of democratization and technological empowerment on network organisations, four different types of work have been identified by the author. Each quadrat describes a different kind of organisational structure with different approaches to strategy, talent and work. Traditional work: This quadrat symbolizes stable work with traditional rewards and performance systems (Boudreau, 2016). It reveals almost the same characteristics as post- bureaucratic structures, e.g. full-time employment, with variations such as contract, part- time, and flexible work and easy accessibility of workers through physical connection, assembled with the influence of simple technology, for instance electronic mailing, etc. (Bolin and Härenstam, 2008; Boudreau, 2016; Jamali et al., 2006). Traditional work supported by technology: Technology evolves, but management and workplace arrangements evolve slower (Boudreau, 2016). Video and conference calling, cloud computing, and all instant messaging tools support traditional work relationships and the result is greater productivity, efficiency and higher speed (Boudreau, 2016; Ozgur, 2015). Many corporate organisations are focusing on automatization of work relationships and employment systems through devices and cloud-based learning, smartphone-apps and remote performance observation (Boudreau, 2016). Page | 30
Telecommuting: This type of work shows how technology enables companies to mature their employment systems by including platforms, projects, freelancers, contests, contracts, and part-timers (Boudreau, 2016; Ozgur, 2015). In this quadrat, technology is evolving somehow at a slower pace. Furthermore, companies are trying to constantly track and communicate with employees, job seekers and customers, by simply using existing social tools, or by staging innovation contests using social media platforms (Boudreau, 2016). Remote work: The virtualization of work and enhanced democratic work arrangements fuel one another (Boudreau, 2016; Johns and Gratton, 2013). Employees embrace the freedom of contributing remotely and give up formal connections to a company (Johns and Gratton, 2013). Technological advances as on-demand artificial intelligence, extreme personalization, and secure and accessible cloud-based work repositories enable employees to enjoy this new working style without any constraint on location, among others. (Boudreau, 2016; Johns and Gratton, 2013). Open, global talent marketplaces allow managers to design work into short-cycle events, publicize those events on an internal and external population of players who use platforms or social media networks to bid for and form communities to complete the work (Boudreau, 2016).
Based on research the fourth quadrat of remote work which characterizes a new form of working and the latest technology models is seen as the dominant organisational structure in the upcoming future (Watson-Manheim et al., 2002; Moore and Serva, 2007; Kirkman et al. 2002). Olson and Olson (2006) state, that 67 percent of the companies surveyed in their research on the development of remote work felt their reliance on remote work in the next few years. Remote work appeals to different corporate stakeholders: Employees value the freedom and autonomy that it provides and senior management likes the possibility of increased communication between colleagues and customers as well as the reduction in real estate costs (Davenport and Pearlson, 1998; Mulki et al., 2009). Within remote work, different categories can be defined, which is examined in detail in the following chapter.
2.2.1. Continuum of remote work arrangements According to Olson (1983: p. 182), “remote work refers to organisational work that is performed outside of the normal organisational confines of space and time”. Employees Page | 31 are permitted to work from anywhere at any time due to enhanced office automatization technology (Olson, 1983). As mentioned in subchapter 2.2. more and more companies realize that they have to give employees more opportunities in space and time in order to ensure motivation and productivity (Mulki et al., 2009; Olson, 1983). For the following overview an extensive review of the existing academic literature on types of remote work was conducted by the author. Hence, a remote work continuum was compiled which categorises the different types of remote work regarding the following aspects: location, determination, benefits, challenges and strategic approach. The classifications are mainly based on Davenport and Pearlson (1998), Mulki et al. (2009) and Beth Watson-Manheim et al. (2002). This list does not claim to be collectively exhaustive and only covers the most important types of remote work within network organisations. Additionally, the list is not mutually exclusive since there exist overlaps and interactions between the different types of remote work. But overall the continuum of remote work gives the reader a good picture of the current working trends. Subsequently, this knowledge provides a solid basis for the empirical design principles classification in chapter 4.4.
Page | 32
Strategic Location Determination Benefits Challenges Literature approach Increased Occasional flexibility and Davenport Few cost telecommuting productivity of Low-risk, and Office and savings for Pearlson Employees has a fixed Heteronomy employees low-reward office space – they home employers (1998); No need of new option Gajendran occasionally work at et al. (2007 home management approaches May not provide the Strong client desired sense Beth relationship due to of belonging Watson- Hoteling Heteronomy, Manheim Office, regular visits on to employees Moderate Employees come into from time to et al. home and site Transfer of risk, low- (2002); the office frequently – time self- they do not have their client site Reduction of valuable reward Davenport fixed working space determination and office-space costs information in Pearlson for employers informal (1998) meetings gets lost Potential disconnection Increased from Beth Watson- flexibility and employee’s Manheim Home- productivity of job and co- et al. based/Home- employees workers Moderate- (2002); Office Self- Commuting Face-to-face risk, Davenport Home and Employees do not have determination avoidance for contact has to moderate- Pearlson an office - they are employees be ensured reward (1998); working from a room Hill et al. at home Reduction of over the long run (1998); office-space costs Mulki et for employers Need of new al. (2009) management approach Monitoring Beth Increased and control Watson- flexibility and “On the capabilities Manheim Fully mobile productivity of et al. road” – have to be Moderate- Employees do not have employees (2002); client site, Heteronomy clearly risk, high- Davenport an office - corporate Strong client organisations advise conferences, defined reward and relationship due Pearlson them were to go etc. Need of new to regular visits (1998); management on site Mulki et approach al. (2009) Increased Create trust flexibility and between the Digital nomad productivity of corporate employees organisation High-risk, Meyrowitz Location- Self- (2006); Increased job and the digital high- Employees do not have independent determination Mulki et an office at - they work satisfaction nomad reward al. (2009); location-independently Employees can Need of new follow their urge management to travel approach Fig. 4: Continuum of remote work arrangements
Page | 33
As this study focuses on the phenomenon of digital nomads the identified remote work arrangement is examined in more detail in the following subchapter.
2.3. Digital nomads The new lifestyle and employment opportunity called digital nomad is the outcome of the combination of reliable and affordable technology and the ancient instinct to travel (Guppta, 2015; Macmillan, 2009; Makimoto and Manners, 1997; Spinks, 2015). According to Guppta (2015), a common definition of digital nomads is that they spend at least a few months of a year abroad, change their destinations frequently and earn a living while working online. Digital nomads have the urge to break free, be adventurous, be independent and work wherever and whenever they want (Guppta, 2015; Makimoto and Manners, 1997). Even though the term has been used in academia for the first time around 1997, there is only very limited research that has dealt with this topic so far (Makimoto and Manners, 1997). Subsequently, not only relevant journals and books but also information available on the internet of trustworthy and established websites were used to elaborate on the topic. For instance, articles from the webpages of Harvard Business Review, Mashable, Forbes, The Guardian, and Wired were used. Moreover, to get the best real-time insights into the digital nomad lifestyle, high-quality blogs and websites of digital nomads were reviewed. The quality of these media is ensured by public rankings, for example, the ranking from Upwork, the world’s largest freelancer marketplace. The movement of digital nomads can be seen in some ways as the earliest form of human organisation which was called nomadism (Meyrowitz, 2006; Makimoto and Manners, 1997). The ancient forms of nomadism were characterized by people with no fixed residence who wander around for different reasons. Nomads had to carry around all their belongings on the search for food and grazing grounds for the animals they own (Meyrowitz, 2006; Makimoto and Manners, 1997). Unlike the ancient counterparts, digital nomads are able to violate the rules of physical movement and physical limits. Nowadays, digital nomads do not move around on the search for food for themselves or their families but rather for their personal enjoyment, to embrace certain cultures or explore countries and to work remotely from all around the world (Wassermann, 2014). Ancient and digital nomads have in common that they carry around their possessions, but with a significant difference: All the assets of Page | 34 digital nomads usually fit in a modest bag (Walden, 2015). Subsequently, it is very affordable and easy for them to change locations. The frequency of their changes of locations depends on a digital nomad’s personal preference (Mohn, 2015; Wassermann, 2014). As already mentioned in subchapter 2.2.1., digital nomads do not have a permanent residence and do not require a persistent office space. Instead, they are using new information technology to work from roughly anywhere in the world. In this context, technological assets at least include a laptop and internet access, mostly through wireless internet connection (Bennion, 2013; De Boinod, 2014; Mohn, 2015).
2.3.1. Relevance and diffusion of digital nomads As discussed earlier the phenomenon of digital nomads results from the appearance of new, flexible work arrangements and the influence of new technology. Furthermore, the influence of globalisation played an important role in the development of this new lifestyle. The relevance of this digital nomadism is explained in the following paragraphs to underline the importance and reasons behind the new trend. First, it has to be mentioned that it was not only technology that made it ultimately possible to live the lifestyle of a digital nomad but in addition to that the social change which organisations are facing nowadays (Eisner, 2005). Flexible work arrangements in post- bureaucratic organisations banned the typical 9-to-5 jobs and hence, the trend is shifting towards project-based, independent work and a meaningful profession that leads to a fulfilling life (Bolin and Hörenstam, 2008; Briand, 2006; Grey and Gersten, 2001). Especially generation Y, Millennials and future generations embrace a more productive and less predefined way of life. By being socialized in a digital world, generation Y is continually wired, plugged in and connected to digitally streaming information (Eisner, 2005; Spinks, 2015). Furthermore, generation Y strives for intellectual challenges and wants to make a difference in the world. Monetary remuneration is less important than contributing to society, performing meaningful work and working with committed co-workers with shared values (Eisner, 2005; Guppta, 2015). These characteristics emphasise the relevance of the new lifestyle and employment opportunity of digital nomads. Second, the trend of working abroad is ubiquitous. The new generation does not see digital nomadism as an unusual long holiday like older generations do. The traveling segment Page | 35 is experienced by them as a part of their personal and professional life. The common goal is not to “travel to visit”, but rather to “travel to live” (Guppta, 2015; Spinks, 2015). In addition to this, as the number of people who want to become digital nomads increases rapidly more and more travel programs are created. These travel programs gather location-independent individuals on a journey around the world and take care of all the logistics to enable a comfortable working environment for them. They are launching pads for aspiring digital nomads as well as a great way for existing nomads to build a community while travelling. An overview of several existing travel programs for digital nomads can be found in the Appendix I.I. (Appendix I.I.: Overview of travel programs for digital nomads (excerpt)). Thirdly, the rapid growth of co-working spaces boosts the number of digital nomads and vice versa. Those places help digital nomads to build and extend their careers. Today every bigger city provides co-working spaces especially start-up hubs like Berlin, Chiang Mai, Singapore and San Francisco (Hickey, 2015; Mohn, 2015; Osberg, 2015; Spinks, 2015). One of the biggest challenges regarding digital nomadism is to quantify how many digital nomads exist, how they spread and most importantly how long they pursue this lifestyle. There are no official numbers published since digital nomads do not have to register anywhere. Nevertheless, experts project that more than 1 billion people will become digital nomads until 2035 (Cousins and Robey, 2013; Levels, 2015; Johns and Gratton, 2013). A recent study conducted by oDesk (2014) concluded that “74% of professionals surveyed have made a change to be less tied to a physical workplace; 79% of digital nomads say they will be nomads for life” (oDesk, 2014). These findings are indicators for a steadily rising trend of digital nomadism and show that it is a trend to stay (Cousins and Robey, 2013; Johns and Gratton, 2013).
2.3.2. Work environment of digital nomads To create a better understanding of the work environment of digital nomads the most common places where they generate their income are outlined below. As mentioned in chapter 2.3.1. most digital nomads use co-working spaces as a work environment. Co-working spaces offer the same equipment as standard offices. That means, there are printers, office suppliers, wireless and Ethernet internet connections, coffee machines, whiteboards, meeting rooms and small kitchens. Normally, they are designed as Page | 36 open-offices spaces and do not have isolated cubicles (Mohn, 2015; Walden, 2015). In addition to this, co-working spaces are built to foster creativity. Examples of such amenities to enhance creativity include chill-out areas, natural light sources, silent areas, drink and dining rooms and an overall friendly and in a modern way decorated setting (Mohn, 2014; Muhrbeck et al., 2011; Osberg, 2015). Another crucial aspect why people work in co-working spaces is the network of like-minded people with heterogeneous skillsets they accommodate. The goal of individuals in co-working spaces is to exchange on a professional and personal level with colleagues. To actively promote the networking among the peers, co-working spaces are regularly hosting start-up and travel related events in the evening and weekends to actively facilitate networking possibilities (Mohn, 2014; Muhrbeck et al., 2011; Osberg, 2015). The size of co-working spaces can vary from as little as five spots up to nearly one hundred spots which typically can be rented on a daily, weekly or monthly basis (Muhrbeck et al., 2011; Osberg, 2015). In addition to co-working spaces basically any place with a power outlet and Wi-Fi connection can serve as an extemporary office. So, cafés, beach huts, hotel rooms, etc. can serve as temporary offices for digital nomads (Mohn, 2014, Osberg, 2015). It has to be mentioned, that these places are not very suitable for longer periods. The obligation to buy drinks, safety issues regarding the equipment and other challenges show that such spots are only used for short productivity batches or as a last resort. Additionally, these spots are not suitable to establish professional networks which is seen as an essential feature of co-working spaces (Spinks, 2015).
2.3.3. Most common jobs of digital nomads In general, people are not familiar with the career path of digital nomads which can be pursued completely location-independently. Based on an extensive academic literature analysis figure 5 lists the most common jobs that allow the lifestyle of digital nomads. The table of identified job opportunities is in alphabetical, non-judgemental order and does not claim to be collectively exhaustive. It only covers the most important jobs of digital nomads (Guppta, 2015; Moore, 2015, Morrison, 2915; Orgler, 2016; Walden, 2015; Wassermann, 2015).
Page | 37
Blogger (Travel, Personal Coach for Fitness Author of eBooks Business Mentor Development, and/or Life etc.)
Designer (Graphic, Front- Job Application Consultant Copywriter and Backend, Entrepreneur Trainer Database, Website, App)
Online Marketer Journalist (SEO (Travel Optimization, Magazines, Content Online Tutor Photographer Podcaster Travel Blogs, Marketing, etc.) Affiliate
Marketing)
Software Software Transcriptionist Translator Web Developer Developer Engineer
Fig. 5: Most common jobs for digital nomads (excerpt)
2.3.4. Tools used by digital nomads Considering the above, it is obvious that digital nomads are in need of technical assistance to facilitate their lifestyle. To provide a holistic view on digital nomadism an excerpt of those tools follows. According to several authors, Ferriss (2011), Koloc (2014), Morrison (2015), Orgler (2016), Walden (2015), among others, the lists in Figure 6 and Figure 7 represent a selection of the most important technical tools needed to work as a digital nomad.
Hardware Battery packs (to charge smartphones/personal Wi-Fi router) International SIM card Laptop Noise cancelling headphones Offline storages (external hard drives)
Page | 38
Smartphone (unlocked, GSM) Travel adaptors
Fig. 6: Most common hardware tools for digital nomads (excerpt)
Software Evernote (Note taking, store every kind of data, team collaboration Google Hangout Hola-VPN (access blocked websites) Online storage (cloud storage) Paid Skype number (for international calls) Slack (team communication tool) Trello
Fig. 7: Most common software tools for digital nomads (excerpt)
Page | 39
2.4. The concept of remote work As already mentioned in subchapter 2.3, the literature coverage on the phenomenon of digital nomads is very scarce. Existing research on the topic is very limited and only deals with the very basic topics regarding digital nomadism (e.g. What is a digital nomad?; What does a digital nomad need?; What are the best places for digital nomads; among other questions) (Bennion, 2013; Ferriss, 2011; Guppta, 2015). As the goal of this thesis is to develop design principles to enable corporate organisations to successfully integrate digital nomads, the author tries to give an academic literature overview of the guiding principles and challenges of remote work. An extensive analysis and understanding of remote work allows the author to contextualize in the light of the received literature and subsequently, helps to identify the accurate design principles for a successful implementation process of digital nomads.
2.4.1. Guiding principles of remote work In the following subchapter, the author lists, defines and explicates different guiding principles of remote work. Research indicates that remote work is based on the following three guiding principles: (1) establish a “remote” corporate culture, (2) coordinate the remote workforce and (3) communicate effectively (Berkun, 2013; Graber, 2015; Johns et al., 2013). (1) Corporate culture characterises the shared set of customs that foster trust and engagement and is closely linked to the values of each employer (Graber, 2015). For corporate organisations who want to establish remote work it is highly important to generate an overall understanding of this new kind of work within the company. To establish this kind of corporate culture, the first step is establishing trust (Graber, 2015; Sarker, 2011). While trust in post-bureaucratic organisations is already increasing the importance of trust in a remote working environment goes even beyond it. To create cognitive trust which is based on competence and reliability, it is important to address communication and coordination. But to establish affective trust which is based on feelings and enables successful collaboration, face-to-face meetings might be needed to build a good relationship (Sarker, 2011). If in-person meetings are not possible, companies can schedule informal calls either one-on-one or as a group. These meetings may not be as effective as spending time together in person, but they have the same objective: to create an awareness that remote team members Page | 40 are human beings and an understanding of their feelings and their life outside the office (Graber, 2015; Sarker, 2011). This practise may feel awkward at first but building a shared identity and personal connection will lead to greater engagement and better performance and lastly to a suitable corporate culture (Graber, 2015; Sarker, 2011). (2) Coordination is the ability to work towards a common goal (Graber, 2015). The Harvard Business Review states that “coordinating remote workers can feel like choreographing a troupe of blindfolded synchronized swimmers” (Graber, 2015: p. 6). Therefore, the creation of formal processes within the digital work ecosystem is crucial (Berry, 2011; Graber, 2015). Managers should implement and communicate a clear mission, assign roles and responsibilities, create detailed project plans and performance metrics. Furthermore, it is important to document all that and to keep these documents up-to-the- minute. Teams have to understand when and how individuals should provide updates, reviews, and make decisions (Berry, 2011; Graber, 2015). Establishing processes is not enough, managers have to constantly enforce their employees to stick to these processes until they are completely assimilated. It may help to evaluate team members on how well they adhere to the protocols (Berry, 2011; Graber, 2015; Suchan 2001). (3) Communication characterizes the ability to simply exchange information within an organisation or with external partners (Graber, 2015; Sarker et al., 2011). The importance of communication in the context of global remote teams is undisputed (Sarker et al., 2011). To effectively share and transfer information the message has to be matched with the medium (Graber, 2015). Therefore, for example, for the purpose of sharing complex or personal information that often observe body language, hear tone and inflection videoconferencing might be the best option. On the contrary, small, non-urgent requests are best suited to e- mail, instant messaging, or all-in-one platforms like Slack (Graber, 2015; Sarker et al., 2011, Suchan, 2001). In addition to the medium, frequency of communication highly matters. To reduce the likelihood of misunderstandings and to build trust regular updates, prompt responses to messages, and availability at core times are crucial (Graber, 2015). Even though communication happens at the individual level, companies can establish norms and provide trainings for their employees to establish well-functioning virtual communication (Graber, 2015; Suchan, 2001).
Page | 41
Since remote employees rarely meet with their teammates face-to-face, they tend to focus more on tasks and not on social relationships (Graber, 2015). This may work for a while but corporate organisations have to develop a culture in order to foster engagement and sustain their performance over the long term. While the promises are laudable, a dark side to the new form also exists: such dysfunctions as low individual commitment, role overload, role ambiguity, absenteeism, and social loafing may be exaggerated in a remote working environment (Sarker, 2011). In the next step, potential challenges of remote work are described in more detail.
2.4.2 Challenges of remote work To replicate traditional office features or an office environment is difficult and makes it difficult for management to build and maintain a corporate culture (Mulki et al., 2009). Even tough technological advancements allow corporate organisations to bridge some of the differences the following four critical challenges of remote work require management attention: (1) discover the right work-life balance, (2) conquer workplace isolation, (3) build trust between remote employees and corporate organisations and (4) compensate for the lack of visibility (Cousins and Robey, 2015; Kirkman, 2002; Mulki et al., 2009; Symon, 2000). (1) Discover the right work-life balance: Cousins and Robey (2015) state in their study about Managing work-life boundaries that beside the positive advancements in mobile technologies also negative consequences occur. Employees have the feeling that work can basically occur “anytime and anywhere” and subsequently, lose control over boundaries between work and personal activities (Cousins and Robey, 2015; Mulki et al., 2009). Therefore, remote workers often find themselves working longer hours and struggle to manage their leisure time (Mulki et al., 2009; Symon, 2000). In addition to that, remote workers often work during weekends, holidays, evenings and during hours they would have been commuting. A common ritual is checking the last e-mail or voice message before going to bed. The absence of traditional boundaries (spatial, temporal or social) which normally are predefined make it difficult for employees to separate work and personal life. Furthermore, digital and portable technological devices complicate matters and make work mobile which results in even less separation between professional and personal roles (Cousins and Robey, 2015; Mulki et al., 2009). In addition to that, the psychological demands of employees inhibit Page | 42 a healthy work-life balance. Hence, remote workers want to prove themselves by putting in longer hours and by being available beyond people’s expectations. This challenge to disengage from work strongly affects the work-life balance of individuals and subsequently, represents the first challenge of remote work. (2) Conquer workplace isolation: The lack of face-to-face communication limits social interaction and may isolate employees. Researches point out that high-quality relationships with remote workers become very difficult if team members are geographically dispersed (Cousins and Robey, 2015; Symon, 2000). Employees describe the experience of work isolation as “being disconnected from others in the organisation” and having “no one to turn to when they needed advice or to bounce ideas” (Mulki et al, 2009: p. 67). Besides that, employees miss the social environment of a traditional work place, for instance the informal talks with colleagues during coffee breaks among others. The reduced opportunities for social and emotional interactions with co-workers significantly decrease job satisfaction and lower organisational commitment which subsequently may lead to an increased labour turnover (Cousins and Robey, 2015; Mulki et al, 2009). (3) Build trust between remote employees and corporate organisations: Building trust between remote workers and their counterparts is one of the greatest challenges within corporate organisations. According to Cousins and Robey (2005: p. 69), “trust has been called the glue of the global workplace”. A traditional view on organisations assumes that organisations are built on the assumption that people cannot be trusted or relied upon. In addition to that, researchers indicate that trust can only be established through face-to-face meetings (Cousins and Robey, 2015; Mulki et al, 2009). As remote work, generally lacks social presence and is dominated by electronic communications, establishing a trustworthy relationship within corporate organisations is very challenging. It may take longer and often requires a higher volume of communication to build the same level of trust in remote teams as in on-site teams (Cousins and Robey, 2015; Mulki et al, 2009). (4) Compensate for the lack of visibility: The fourth big challenge of remote work is the performance-based assessment and remuneration of remote employees. According to Cousins and Robey (2015), the crucial question is “how to manage people whom you do not see?”. The lack of visibility results in oblivion from the corporate organisation, for instance remote employees may not learn of important meetings, potential project assignments or new Page | 43 positions until it is too late. Subsequently, remote employees are worried that their contributions will not be recognised and result in lower performance evaluation. Career advancement opportunities for remote workers seem to be diminishing and corporate organisations have to somehow ensure fairness for their members (Cousins and Robey, 2015; Mulki et al, 2009). Overall, the rising challenges of remote work are putting pressure on corporate organisations to establish healthy boundaries between remote employees and corporate organisations. Communication between co-workers and managers has to be professional and employees should feel motivated and valued within the organisation. To successfully integrate the remote workforce, companies have to overcome the psychological and physical isolation of employees and create broad opportunities for social and business interaction.
Page | 44
2.6. Summary This chapter was designed to present an overview of the existing literature on organisational structures and remote work. It had a four-folded goal. First, this chapter creates a better theoretical understanding of bureaucratic and post- bureaucratic organisations. It explains the historic development from bureaucratic to post- bureaucratic organisations, describes in detail the key characteristics of those organisational types and illustrates the influence of technology on post-bureaucratic organisations (Gouldner, 1954; Hall, 1963; Hughes, 2012; Olsen, 2006). Second, it provides an overview of new organisational structures and illustrates a continuum of remote working types which shows the current development of employer- employee arrangements (Beth Watson-Manheim et al., 2002; Boudreau, 2016; Davenport and Pearlson,1998; Easley et al., 2010; Mulki et al., 2009):
Home- Occassionally Hoteling based/Home- Fully mobile Digital nomad telecommuting Office
Fig. 8: Continuum of remote work II
Since, this thesis discusses the phenomenon of digital nomads, the focus lies on this remote working arrangement. A detailed overview of the phenomenon itself, its relevance and diffusion and the working environment of digital nomads are described in this chapter (Guppta, 2015; Macmillan, 2009; Makimoto and Manners, 1997; Spinks, 2015). As a fourth step, guiding principles and challenges of remote work are described based on existing academic literature (Berkun, 2013; Graber, 2015; Johns et al., 2013; Kirkman, 2002; Mulki et al., 2009). The following analysis lays the basis for potential design principles for an integration process of digital nomads in corporate organisations: Guiding principles for remote work Challenges of remote work 1. Establish a “remote” corporate culture 1. Discover the right work-life balance 2. Coordinate the remote workforce 2. Conquer workplace isolation 3. Communicate effectively 3. Build trust between remote employees and corporate organisations 4. Compensate for the lack of visibility Fig. 9: Summary of guiding principles and challenges of remote work
Page | 45
3. Methodology This master study will rely on an inductive qualitative approach focused on the analysis of nine case studies, each representing either a corporate organisation employing digital nomads or a digital nomad working for a corporate organisation. In the following chapter a detailed description of the methodology employed to answer the research question in this study is provided. It starts with the theory building foundations and introduces the sampling of data sources used. Subsequently, a description of the data analysis techniques used in particular the coding process with Atlas.ti of the qualitative data will be given. This chapter will be rounded up with a short overview of potential limitations of the theory before the findings will be presented in the next chapter.
3.1. Theory building foundation The purpose of this thesis is to investigate design principles for corporate organisations to integrate digital nomads in their post-bureaucratic structures. A review of the literature revealed that there is a gap in the understanding of what is needed and what steps have to be taken to successfully integrate digital nomads. This study answers this research objective by tackling three issues at two different junctures: First, the goal is to understand the motivations of corporate organisations and digital nomads towards digital nomadism. Second, potential challenges for corporate organisations and digital nomads regarding the integration process are examined and described. Third, based on these two findings five design principles to successfully manage the integration process of digital nomads into corporate organisations are developed. To achieve these research goals and based on the lack of existing theoretical and empirical studies the theory building from case studies approach was deemed as appropriate: According to Eisenhardt and Graebner (2007), theory building from case studies is an increasingly popular and relevant research methodology and is often regarded as the “most interesting” conducted research. A major reason for the popularity of theory building from case studies is that it enables the building of bridges from rich qualitative evidence to mainstream deductive research (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007). A clear description of the methodology is: “Building theory from case studies is an inductive research strategy that
Page | 46 involves using one or more cases to create theoretical constructs, propositions and/or midrange theory from case-based, empirical evidence” (Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007: p. 25). Case studies are rich, empirical descriptions of particular instances of a phenomenon and emphasise the rich, real-world context (Yin, 2009). According to Yin (2009: p. 2), case studies are appropriate research methods “when how or why questions are being posed, when the investigator has little control over events, and when the focus is on a contemporary phenomenon within some real-life contexts”. This study meets these requirements, making the case study approach the preferred research method. Moreover, case study research has the potential to create managerially relevant knowledge due to its linkage to real live management situations and its close interaction with practitioners (Amabile et al., 2001). A frequent challenge of theory building is the case selection (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007). According to Eisenhardt and Graebner (2007: p. 27), “a key response to this challenge is to clarify that the purpose of the research is to develop theory, not to test it, and so theoretical sampling is appropriate”. This means, that “cases are selected because they are particular suitable for illuminating and extending relationships and logic among constructs” (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007: p. 27). Eisenhardt (1989a) suggests that cross- case analysis of four to ten case studies may provide a good basis for external validity and analytical generalization. In general literature suggests, it is more accurate to use multiple cases to create more robust, generalizable, and testable theory (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007; Yin, 1994). Therefore, this study collected data from nine different cases.
3.2. Sampling The goal of this study is to develop and not to test theory, therefore theoretical sampling was chosen over statistical (random or stratified) sampling, in which a sample is designed to be representative of a population (Glaser and Strauss, 1967; Eisenhardt, 1989a). For theoretical sampling cases are selected to reveal an unusual phenomenon or highlight theoretical issues (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007). Furthermore, sequential analysis or interims analysis have been chosen to allow the author to go back and to refine questions during the data collection process. This continuous analysis is highly important in qualitative research (Pope et. al, 2000).
Page | 47
The theoretical sample of this master thesis includes four individuals who are working for corporate organisations which employ digital nomads and five digital nomads who are working for a corporate organisation. On the one hand, the four experts of the corporate side were chosen to describe their experiences with digital nomads and to discuss occurring best- practise examples and challenges within the work process with digital nomads. High involvement in the work process and direct collaboration of the interviewees with digital nomads underline the validity of the answers given. On the other hand, digital nomads were interviewed to share their remote work practise and describe their relationship with the corporate organisation while being remote. The analysis of both sides enables the author to examine both sides, the corporate and the digital nomad side. Thus, design principles, which consider the needs and wishes of both sides can be created. This is of high interest for the research question of this study. As mentioned above, four companies were identified and invited to participate in the study. The sample-companies contain of a wide variety of companies, from a traditional Brazilian company to international global players. Concerning the digital nomads this thesis chose five individuals for the sample who are engaging proactively to fulfil the lifestyle of digital nomads and travel and work simultaneously during one year. These individuals were identified through Remote Year, a program which takes 75 location-independent professionals on a year-long journey around the world (Appendix I.I.: Overview of travel programs for digital nomads (excerpt)). Considering that, one can conclude that these individuals are currently experiencing the digital nomad lifestyle and therefore experiences, motivations and challenges can be uncovered easier. Finally, geographically, no restrictions have been made on the selection process of the interviewees by the author. The interviewees come from four different continents and represent diverse cultural backgrounds and origins. As the phenomenon of digital nomads cannot been seen locally but rather globally, the chosen spread of the sample was intentionally chosen to obtain a larger diversity of examples and responses (Brewster and Suutare, 2005). In summary, the chosen sampling strategy should increase the robustness, generalisability and testability of the results of this thesis. Page | 48
3.3. Data Source Case studies can be built on a rich variety of data sources, like interviews, archival data, survey data, ethnographies and observations (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007). Theory- building cases usually rely extensively on qualitative data from interviews to other sources, therefore, the author decided to mainly rely on information gathered from the following two sources: clinical (i.e., interviews) as well as archival data (i.e., corporate websites and reports).
3.3.1. Interviews Interviews are seen as a highly efficient way to gather rich empirical data which provide detailed information about each person’s thoughts and opinions (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007). In addition, interviews represent a flexible data collection method as additional questions easily can be asked in case of misunderstanding, misinterpretation or ambiguity (Oately, 1999). Based on this examination, this source of data collection was chosen. As mentioned before, in total nine interviews were conducted with four individuals who are working for corporate organisations which employ digital nomads and five digital nomads who are working for a corporate organisation. The author chose informants who represent different organisational actors from different hierarchical levels, functional areas, groups and geographies to limit bias (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007). The interviewees were located in Australia, Brazil, Croatia, Ireland, The Netherlands, United Kingdom and in the United States. Due to the geographic dispersal, one interview was conducted face to face in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and the others via conference calls. Each interview lasted between 45 and 70 minutes. Prior to actual interviews detailed information on companies were collected. As a second step, respondents were contacted directly via e-mail or via LinkedIn with the goal to introduce the research and to arrange an interview. After that, interviews were scheduled and took place from August 2016 until October 2016. In order to conduct fluent interviews, the questions were categorized into subchapters. However, during the interview the predetermined interview guide which can be found in Page | 49
Appendix I.II. (Appendix I.II.: Interview Guidelines) was not always strictly followed. To allow the interviewer to deepen the initial responses of respondents and to give respondents a chance to fully express their opinions open-ended questions were asked. Thus, the interview guide was used as a tool to support direction during the interview and that all relevant areas of research were covered (Patton, 2002). Moreover, the author had to take possible misunderstandings regarding the interview questions into account as the interviewees came from different cultural backgrounds (Patton 2002). Before respondents were interviewed, interview questions had been pre-tested with a digital nomad who is an industry expert in the field of digital nomadism. As the pre-test gave several interesting insights for this study, this interview was, nevertheless, included and analysed according to the research question. All interviewees were English speaking and therefore the talks were conducted in English. Each interview was recorded and subsequently transcribed. Interview records helped to collect correct data for the analysis and to avoid misunderstandings. These transcripts are mostly literal copies of the interviews with slight alterations to improve readability and clarity (Appendix I.III.: Interview transcripts (exemplary)). The written protocols were sent to the respondents to make necessary changes and to get clearance on the content. Then these transcripts were used to analyse and compare the interviews with each other.
3.3.2. Archival Documents For the purpose of data triangulation and as background for the interviews data from publicly available sources, media reports on companies’ activities and companies’ website content were collected. This information gave the author a better understanding of the companies and the digital nomads and subsequently, enabled more detailed questioning during the interviews.
3.3. Data analysis In order to analyse the qualitative data collected this study uses a multistep approach. First, interviews are conducted and transcribed. This phase helps to become more familiar with the data set. According to Pope et. al (2002: p. 1) “qualitative research uses analytical categories to describe and explain social phenomena”. For this study these categories are derived inductively. That means, the inductive process of identifying analytical categories is Page | 50 done by reading and re-reading the data to identify and index themes and categories, for example particular phrases, interesting or unfamiliar terms or incidents (Pope et. al, 2002). Simultaneously cross case pattern search is executed, to avoid an information bias and enable a deeper analysis which goes beyond the initial impression. This constant comparison of data allows the author to check each item or compare it with the rest of the data to establish analytical categories. The key point of this process is inclusion. By constantly adding categories, all the nuances of the data can be reflected within the analysis (Pope et. al, 2002). The next step in this research is an open indexing approach which is used to conduct an in-depth analysis of the content. The indexing process creates many “fuzzy categories” or codes. By grouping them together, these codes can be refined and subsequently reduced (Pope et. al, 2002). Key themes and families can be formed and allow the author to develop an intimate knowledge of the data (Pope et. al, 2002). The author uses Atlas.ti, a software package designed for qualitative data analysis, for the indexing process. Once an initial set of categories emerged a comparison with the literature can be conducted before going back to the data another time in order to refine initial code categories (Corbin & Strauss, 1990). A summary of the generated code categories which have been explored through the inductive analysis of the textual data by the author can be found in Appendix I.V. (Appendix I.V.: Generated code categories by Atlas.ti). Eisenhardt & Graebner (2007: p. 25) summarize this approach as a process which “occurs via recursive cycling among the case data, emerging theory and later extant literature”.
3.4. Method limitations Like any research method also this method faces some predictable challenges (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007). The following limitations have been identified: (1) justification process, (2) case selection, (3) informant bias and (4) the presentation of the emergent theory. (1) According to Eisenhardt and Graebner (2007: p. 26), “the challenge is to clarify why the research question is significant, and why there is no existing theory that offers a feasible answer”. It is critical to convince the reader that the research question is crucial for organisations and/or theory (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007). “The justification rests on the phenomenon’s importance and the lack of viable theory and empirical evidence” (Eisenhardt
Page | 51 and Graebner, 2007: p. 26). If the author is not able to transfer the importance of the research question, the reader will constantly ask “how” and “why” this research has been conducted. (2) The selection of suitable cases is an important step during the research process. By choosing multiple cases this limitation can be partially addressed. But the risk of not reaching a robust, generalizable, and testable theory is still present (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007). (3) As mentioned above, interviews are a highly efficient way to gather rich, empirical data (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007). Nevertheless, informants may be biased while giving answers to the author. According to Eisenhardt and Graebner (2007: p. 18), “impression management and retrospective sense-making are deemed as the prime culprits”. A key approach to overcome the informant bias, is to use numerous and highly knowledgeable informants from different hierarchical levels within an organisation. Additionally, the combination of retrospective and real-time cases may help to overcome this limitation (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007; Leonard-Barton, 1990). (4) The author faces the challenge of not having a “sure-to-please” template for presenting an emergent theory in the theory-building research (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007). It is important, that this master thesis focuses on a “pattern-match” between theory and data to provide logical links between the constructs within a proposition (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007). Overall, it can be concluded, that "a careful justification of theory building, theoretical sampling of cases, interviews that limit information bias, rich presentations of evidence in tables and appendixes, and clear statements of theoretical arguments”, represent an effective approach to overcome the limitations of the chosen methodology (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007: p. 30). The methodology of this master thesis proactively addresses the four listed limitations and considers the research approach described by Eisenhardt and Graebner (2007).
Page | 52
4. Findings Interviews with executives and managers from corporate organisations who are employing digital nomads and digital nomads themselves have rendered it possible to gain understanding on the motivations and challenges to integrate digital nomads. This section presents the findings from the analysis of the accumulated qualitative data and follows a three-folded goal: The first part lists the motivations in relation to the integration process from a corporate organisation’s perspective as well as from a digital nomad’s point of view. In addition to that, the second part explains in detail the challenges which corporate organisations face throughout the integration process as well as the challenges faced by digital nomads while working remote. Lastly, the fourth part covers the essential part of this thesis: the description of the five derived design principles for corporate organisations to successfully integrate digital nomads in their post-bureaucratic structures. Several findings emerged from analysing the data, which can be summarized as follows: • There are two basic categories of motivations for corporate organisations to integrate digital nomads: (1) proactive and (2) reactive motivations. Additionally, this subchapter describes the digital nomads’ motivations which consist of three categories related to the integration into corporate organisations: (1) the freedom and flexibility at work, (2) increased productivity and (3) the collaboration with digital nomads. Furthermore, exemplary data supporting the different motivations, as well as illustrative quotes from the interviews are provided in Figure 10 and 11. • Two categories of challenges for the integration of digital nomads in corporate organisations from corporates’ perspectives have been identified: (1) organisational challenges and (2) social challenges. In addition to that, a third category has been created to take the digital nomads’ perspective into account. Illustrative quotes can be found within this chapter. • Lastly, five design principles for corporate organisations have been developed by the author and are outlined in subchapter 4.3. Illustrative quotes supporting each design principle are provided in the Appendix I.V.I. (Appendix I.V.I.: Illustrative quotes for design principles).
Page | 53
4.1. Motivations to integrate digital nomads in corporate organisations As stated in the introduction chapter, to the author’s knowledge, no research has been done so far on the motives why corporate organisations should integrate digital nomads. Therefore, this study intends to provide answers and offers new insights. A two-folded examination which indicates the consideration of both views allows the author to receive an understanding of the full picture First, two main motivation categories from a corporate organisation’s point of view to integrate digital nomads in corporate organisations have been identified through the conducted interviews: (1) proactive and (2) reactive motives. On the one hand, the proactive motives are defined as the motives that steam from the expectation that proactive development of competences in new organisational structures will lead to a competitive advantage, a differentiation from competitors and an improvement of profitability in the long run. On the other hand, reactive motives are defined. In order to stay competitive in organisational development reactive engagement is normally activated by changes in a firm’s external environment (Crant, 2000). Two conceptually distinct but coherent motivation categories from corporate organisations’ perspective have thus been identified (see Figure 10). Furthermore, the motivations from a digital nomads’ perspective are examined in detail in this subchapter.
Page | 54
Motivations Illustrative quotes
“Digital nomads, they are in so many different situations and they meet Enhanced knowledge so many different people, that they have knowledge from a very different and creativity point of view. Then you can have some sort of cross-pollination of knowledge that is very valuable to the company. (Hoijen, 2016)
“Why not take on where the talent is? So, for example, I met amazing Proactive illustrators in Japan and great developers in Uruguay. So, why don’t motivations merge all of them together and rather than paying salaries and renting an office, actually use the best talents for projects.” (Isik, 2016)
Worldwide talent pool “So, it is a sort of global organisation. People being all over the place. For example, someone is an expert in a special marketing tools. So, we have to get this person on the call, but this person might be based in London. And another expert might be located in Chiang Mai, etc.” (Hold, 2016)
“There is that whole cost aspect: Well I have spoken to other companies that are transitioning to a more remote working style and just with having the absence of employees, you do not have to pay for the physical office structure and office supply. It enables them to put the money towards something else, to for example strengthen the employee- Cost benefit employer relationship.” (Brown, 2016)
“So, when you are employing somebody remotely there is a lot of advantages from a corporate standpoint: your costs will go down; you don’t have to pay for a cubicle, you don’t have to pay for a phone, etc.” (Walsh, 2016)
“We took advantage in many of the cases where I was; we had also our Reactive local partners there. For example, in Prague we had our local partner Client proximity there. This local partner develops our business in the region, in Eastern motivations Europe. And I could visit him, so I was doing local work, let’s say.” (Martinazzo, 2016)
“I do not have full 24 hours, every single day, I rather talk my way around the world. So, in the morning, I start with Australia and New Zealand, because there it is their evening time and then by my evening time when it is time for me to sign off, it is about close to lunch time in Time zone the U.S.. So, it covers a really big span of the day.” (Brown, 2016)
effectiveness “As long as the hours are flexible and everyone would work around eight hours a day in their own time zone it actually flows. For example, the person in Asia is finishing their work and the person in South America just starts their day and picks work up. I have seen examples like this and it does work, it is the future of work. (Isik, 2016)
Fig. 10: Overview of motivation categories for corporate organisations and examples of corresponding illustrative quotes Page | 55
4.1.1. Proactive motivations for corporate organisations The proactive motivations comprise two different interests for corporate organisations to integrate digital nomads in their post-bureaucratic structures: (1) enhanced knowledge and creativity and (2) a worldwide talent pool: (1) Enhanced knowledge and creativity: To explain the value of this underlying motivation for corporate organisations, the general description of creation of knowledge has to be briefly examined. The ability to create new knowledge can be described as the heart of organisation’s competitive advantage. According to Nonaka (1994), knowledge creation in an organisational environment consists of continuous transfer, combination, and conversion of knowledge, as employees interact, learn and practise. Furthermore, experts distinguish between knowledge and knowing and illustrate knowledge creation as an interplay between them (Bathelt et al., 2004). Through practise, action and interaction, the shift between the possession of knowledge and the act of knowledge can be guaranteed (Bathelt et al., 2004; Nonaka, 1994). To foster this process and enhance creativity and knowledge within the organisation, corporates have to enable employees to work in unstructured environments and discover new working styles. Extending beyond this, it is agreed upon that the working environment has a crucial impact on the quality of work (New Republic, 2014). Therefore, by giving employees the chance to discover new work places and work in unfamiliar surroundings, the chances of generating new and innovative knowledge and enhancing creativity are bound to occur (New Republic, 2014; Nonaka, 1994). As digital nomads are working in various environments and meeting so many different people, they create knowledge from a very distinctive point of view. This cross-pollination of knowledge is highly valuable to companies in today’s fast changing environments (Hoijen, 2016). To conclude, according to Hoijen (2016), corporate organisations believe in digital nomadism as it enables employees to combine, build upon and transform pieces of information and subsequently enhance creativity and knowledge from a different point of view. (2) Worldwide talent pool: According to Brewster and Suutari (2005), companies are facing a very challenging future regarding global talent management, hence, the role of HR has to become more proactive. As mentioned in the subchapter 1.1., the war around global talents is on and the goal in the upcoming future is to re-stabilize the workforce in a Page | 56 new way. Companies realize that the millennial generation is difficult to retain and motivate and see a chance to please them by offering alternative forms of global careers. This change of thinking is necessary to successfully manage talents in the digital, post-bureaucratic age (McKinsey Quarterly January, 2016). The development of digital nomadism opens a new opportunity for corporate organisations and enables companies to propose a new working style to their employees. Companies can offer a new solution to their employees and consequently successfully manage the next generation (Eisner, 2005; Spinks, 2015). Enabling millennials to move around from country to country but still enjoy the security of regular employment, allows companies to create reliable members for their organisations (Eisner, 2005; Spinks, 2015). Furthermore, as mentioned by Isik (2016), digital nomadism enables companies to take on where the talent is. Executives have long dreamed of organisational market mechanisms that could mobilize talented people for their best opportunities (McKinsey Quarterly March, 2016; Presskorn-Thygesen, 2015). Today, global HR management can manage the worldwide talent pool and corporate organisations can get the right skills to wherever they need them (Brewster and Suutari, 2005). To sum up, corporate organisations see the integration of digital nomadism into their organisational structures as an enormous chance for the future. Employees can choose alternative forms of global careers and are more satisfied in the long run. Additionally, labour supply and demand can be matched easier, as corporates can take on where the talent is. But it has to be mentioned that HR departments have to become more flexible and creative in their future approach to successfully manage employee development, engagement and working practises (Brewster and Suutari, 2005).
4.1.2. Reactive motivations for corporate organisations The reactive motivations are composed of three different interests of corporate organisations: (1) cost benefit, (2) client proximity and (3) time zone effectiveness. In the following paragraphs, each interest is described in detail: (1) Cost benefit: Corporate organisations are motivated by the cost decrease, which goes hand in hand with digital nomadism. Employing employees who are working outside of the office reduces the requirement of physical infrastructure and allows companies to Page | 57 redesign their physical space (Johns and Gratton, 2013; Mulki et al., 2009). Based on the absence of employees, corporate organisations can reduce the number of cubicles or fixed desks and transit to co-working spaces within the office structures or an open office spaces (Brennan et al., 2002). Furthermore, cut downs on the cost of computers, phones, electricity, heating and air conditioning, and all the other little necessities are motivating corporate organisations to integrate digital nomadism into their corporate environment (Walsh, 2016). When digital nomads agree on using their own devises for work, the cost savings get even bigger. This redesigning process of the physical office space and infrastructure results in an immense cost reduction and saved money can be put somewhere else, i.e. to foster employer- employee relationships (Brown, 2016). Therefore, from a corporate point of view all interview partners were consistently convinced from this motive. (2) Client proximity: Corporate organisations aim to become a trusted partner for their clients, as this may lead to improved sales and subsequently to increased profits. The development of strong customer relationships is crucial for corporate organisations and for that companies have to keep up with the client and the industry (Sharma, 2013). In general, corporate sales stuff oversees customer site’s visits and tries to go to the customer’s physical location regularly. Digital nomadism enables corporate organisations to go beyond the traditional sales approach and respond differently to the market. By choosing digital nomads who are at the location of corporate clients, corporate organisations can answer faster and in a personal way to clients’ requests. This ultimate client proximity allows real-time communication, quick changes in demand of the client and a very personal connection. Martinazzo (2016) stated during the interview that his travel locations were actively used by his corporate organisation. He was constantly visiting actual and potential clients and talked regularly to local partners at the locations of his travel route. The demanding process of building strong client relationships can be managed through the symbiosis of corporate organisations and digital nomads. Therefore, digital nomadism is seen as a strong motivational factor by corporate organisations. (3) Time zone effectiveness: Working in a global context obviously has the advantage of time zone effectiveness. According to Isik (2016), corporate organisations can follow the “work around the clock” approach. For that, companies can have employees in Asia who are finishing their work and employees in South America who are taking over at a Page | 58
certain point from their Asian colleagues. As the day in Asia ends and the day in South America starts, there does not exist any idle period and corporate organisations can literally work around the clock. By following the sun and allowing digital nomads to work normal business hours wherever they live, benefits corporate organisations in the sense of increased efficiency and productivity and “keeps the wheels turning for 24/7”. The integration of digital nomads enables corporate organisations to create this multiple time zone workforce, which opens up new opportunities of time zone management. To sum up, it has to be stated that the reactive motivations as cost effectiveness, client proximity and time zone effectiveness have been mentioned by every single interviewee whereas the proactive motivations were not the primary goal of most of the corporate organisations. This clearly reveals the corporate organisation’s attitude towards future developments and strategic thinking.
4.1.3. Motivations of digital nomads The drivers for digital nomads consist of three categories: (1) the freedom and flexibility at work, (2) increased productivity and (3) the collaboration with digital nomads. The following table summarizes the illustrative quotes of digital nomads and is afterwards followed by a detailed description of each category.
Motivations Illustrative quotes
“I think the thing I like most is: flexibility. I like the ability, like today I woke up at 7am and started working at 8am. Yesterday I started at 9:30 and the day before I started at 10am. So, I like the ability of: I am going Freedom and to make my own schedule. I can just go and do whatever I want during the day.” (Walsh, 2016) flexibility at work “So, the biggest advantage is, that they can work from wherever they Motivations want. If you want to go somewhere else, if you want to travel, you can just pick up yourself and move.” (Brown, 2016) of digital nomads “Like I said, you have an employee that is happier and a lot more productive and I am not just saying this from experience. So, you are probably getting a more engaged person, employee.” (Hoijen, 2016)
Increased productivity “The quality of work was, when we were focused on working … I would say that it was even better than back in the office. You knew that you would only have those two hours … so you were really focused … and wanted to finish the things you have to do.” (Martinazzo, 2016)
Page | 59
“I am more productive overall. I am much more aware of how I use my time and how I get things done.” (Brown, 2016)
“Digital nomadism definitely attracts a certain kind of person Absolutely, yeah. The kind of people that I work with are people that love to travel, that love to have the flexibility of being able to set their work schedule as well as work from wherever they want. And it is great and refreshing to work with them” (Brown, 2016) Collaboration with digital nomads “I do believe that someone who likes to travel, who puts himself out there - those are more open to whatever the world has reserved for them. They are more open to new environments, to new kind of people, to everything. So, I think also that this openness brings the creativity you need for work and it is great to work with this kind of people.” (Nascimento, 2016)
Fig. 11: Overview of motivation categories for digital nomads and examples of corresponding illustrative quotes
(1) Freedom and flexibility at work: Freedom and flexibility at work are characterized by the chance that agreements on when, where and how a person will work are adjustable. Time, location and manner of how an employee works normally lies on the digital nomad’s side within digital nomadism and offers the employee an extraordinary feeling of freedom and flexibility. The four interviewed digital nomads all stated flexibility as their primary advantage, as it enables them to have a location-independent lifestyle. Going beyond this, digital nomads also have the opportunity to visit different places and participate in events during their travel stops, beside scheduling their working hours according to their needs. Of course, this has to be set into perspective, as many corporate organisations are forcing digital nomads to work at the predefined working hours. Therefore, this advantage may not be feasible for every job accomplished within digital nomadism. (2) Increased productivity: In general, digital nomads state that their level of productivity increases during the periods of travelling. Having just a few hours to work, motivates digital nomads to work more efficient and productive than in their former corporate jobs. It has been observed that digital nomads unconsciously put self-imposed stress on themselves as they want to go out and visit new places and have to manage several appointments beside work. Consequently, this lifestyle requires effective time management skills which ultimately lead to higher efficiency and increased productivity. (3) Collaboration with digital nomads: Digital nomadism definitely attracts “special kind of people”. These people like to travel, love flexibility and like to put Page | 60 themselves out to something new. It is no surprise that digital nomads like to be surrounded by digital nomads who give them a feeling of “home” while settling down for a while in a place. Having a network of fellow nomads helps to network in different locations, get advice on other places and overcome potential social challenges. To sum up, it is essential to take beside the corporates’ motivations the digital nomads’ perspective on the integration process into account. Only by matching both views the development of suitable design principles to successfully integrate digital nomads into corporate organisations can be managed.
Page | 61
4.2. Challenges to integrate digital nomads in corporate organisations Corporate organisations who integrate digital nomads in their post-bureaucratic structures are facing several challenges. The extensive literature review shows four main challenges associated with remote work: (1) to discover the right work-life balance, (2) to conquer workplace isolation, (3) to build trust between remote employees and corporate organisations and (4) to compensate for the lack of visibility (Cousins and Robey, 2015; Kirkman, 2002; Mulki et al., 2009; Symon, 2000). As digital nomadism is an advancement of remote work, which is characterized by frequent changes of destinations while working online, the challenges derived from literature can only be seen as a preliminary research. In the discussion with senior managers of corporate organisations who are integrating digital nomads, further insights were gained on the main challenges of the integration process from a corporate organisations’ point of view. The preliminary findings can be summarised in: (1) organisational challenges and (2) social challenges. Furthermore, this chapter examines the challenges from the digital nomads’ perspective which consist of two sub- categories. This chapter includes exemplary data supporting the challenges as well as some preliminary insights on how practitioners are trying to manage these challenges. These insights will help in a later stage to develop suitable design principles for corporate organisations.
Organi- Digital Lack of Social nomads' sational organisational Lack of perspective Facilitation understand- social of reliable ing and connection internet leadership Fear-of- Time zone Proof of missing-out differences productivity (FOMO)
Fig. 12: Overview of integration challenges for corporate organisations and digital nomads
Page | 62
4.2.1. Organisational challenges The category of organisational challenges comprises of two challenges corporate organisations are facing internally and need to find solutions for: (1) lack of organisational understanding and leadership and (2) time zone differences.
Organisational challenges Potential countermeasures Lack of organisational understanding and Strong and high management leadership commitment Development of new norms, values and corporate culture Training and education of employees Experimentation and pilot projects Time zone differences Clear messages between distributed team members Avoidance of too extreme time zones Asynchronous collaboration
Fig. 13: Organisational challenges and potential countermeasures
(1) Lack of organisational understanding and leadership: Organisational understanding of digital nomadism is critical. Nowadays, corporate organisations try to design policies to empower employees and to implement remote work (Berkun, 2013). Nevertheless, only a few develop and enforce a new corporate culture which accepts digital nomadism as its core within post-bureaucratic structures. According to Gross (2016), prejudices against productivity, worries about objectives and missing targets are common fears of senior leadership. Therefore, accurate research in the field of digital nomadism is needed to overcome this challenge, as one manager pointed out: And well, what managers know about remote work is not necessarily true. It can be easier to implement than you think, because others have done it before. There is evidence. It can increase productivity, save costs and improve your recruitment retention. I think that doing research in hearing out what remote work is all about and how companies are getting ready instead of being close-minded to change, is something I would encourage companies to do.” (Gross, 2016) Page | 63
Furthermore, one of the main underlying reasons for the lack of trust and understanding can be found in the existence of a large gap in between senior leadership and the core of the workforce, which is more and more becoming millennials (Eisner, 2005). Millennials are demanding a different style of work, which offers flexibility. A study from Eisner (2005) emphasises the importance of identifying the abilities of millennials and future generations and matching them with challenging, meaningful work that pushes them forward. Hence, answering to the needs of the millennial generation. The interviews clearly reveal that digital nomadism is a new trend which bridges the generation gap and matches the needs of future generations: “I think for corporate organisations; they need to understand what millennials demand, because there is going to be peaks and pies in terms of labour market, when supply and demand mismatch in every country, in every economic cycle.” (Gross, 2016) “Companies need to listen to the voice of millennials and they need to be able to implement digital nomadism in their organisations. I think that that is the trend and we are getting to see it across the industry.” (Gross, 2016) Furthermore, an important question is who in the company is trying to push digital nomadism forward. The kick-off for such a new way of working might come from the next generations but leadership has to pick up this evolution and boost it within the organisation (Berkun, 2013; Eisner, 2005). This manager cut it right in the chase by saying: “I think there is no constraint if someone is too young or too unexperienced to take that first step. I see the amount of impact that people who are a few years out of colleague, millennials, are making by banding together and really proofing to their companies that digital nomadism is the future. That is something that our generation believes in.” (Gross, 2016) Insights on managing this challenge: To overcome this cognitive challenge, corporate organisations need to become more agile, which can be achieved through the development of three meta-capabilities: strategic sensitivity, leadership unity and resource flexibility (Zott et al., 2012). This study observed the development and application of these three mete-capabilities in its interviews as potential countermeasures: First, corporate organisations can inform and educate their employees about the phenomenon of digital Page | 64 nomadism (best practises, job tracks, benefits, challenges, etc.) to create understanding and awareness through the organisation. Furthermore, they can conduct workshops, create internal memos and newsletters and involve different departments in the development of a digital nomad program. According to one senior executive these information campaigns are a slow, but essential step to overcome the lack of understanding. Second, even if millennials start the move towards digital nomadism, normally such development needs to be accompanied and guided by high management commitment. Managers through their values and visions can create a novel and supportive corporate culture that fosters acceptance within the company (Chesbrough, 2010). This study also observed high-level leadership commitment for digital nomadism as a new working style. Third, some companies may be well advised not to put “all eggs in one basket” and experiment with different programs in order to find the most appropriate approach to implement digital nomadism in their corporate organisations. This explanation, in turn, also gives time to create understanding and acceptance among employees (Chesbrough, 2010). For the head of an international remote program this behaviour is intelligible: “The early-movers are already running now, people who are a little slower are dipping their toes into the water, trying pilot programs, and there are the antiqued companies that are moving when it is a little too late.” (Gross, 2016) In a nutshell, it can be said, that if corporate organisations want to maintain a leading position in a radically changing environment, new working arrangements need to be developed. However, one of the main requirements for reaching ambidexterity and securing future competitiveness is a general understanding and acceptance of digital nomadism within the post-bureaucratic organisation. In general, the interviewed managers consider remote work as an inevitable trend, which has to be implemented better sooner than later. (2) Time zone differences: After analysing the integration process of digital nomads in detail the challenge of collaboration between different time zones arose (Naumann and Iqbal, 2005). Due to the location of digital nomads, corporate organisations often have to interact with them across time zone differences. Therefore, conventional mechanism such as synchronous meetings and unplanned calls are becoming very precarious (Tang, 2011). The interviews clearly show that corporate organisations and digital nomads still find it
Page | 65 difficult to coordinate active collaboration due to the severe time zone offset. A digital nomad makes this point clear by stating: “I saw from my colleagues on Remote Year that the biggest challenge was the time difference. Like, I could see that someone who was working for a company with no flexible hours, meaning they have to be online during specific hours, faced huge challenges. (Isik, 2016) In addition to that, research shows that power asymmetries strongly influence time management meaning “weaker” groups have to synchronize their temporal rhythms to the “stronger” ones (Tang, 2011). In the case of corporate organisations collaborating with digital nomads generally digital nomads represent the “weaker” group. Interviewed corporate organisations are mainly working in U.S. hours and force their digital nomads to adapt to their rhythm. As many digital nomads are travelling in Asia due to low living costs, etc., communication especially in this eight hour offsets becomes problematic. Overtiredness from nightshifts do not enhance work quality and productivity and therefore, corporate organisations are challenged to adapt to time zones or to increase flexibility within the organisations. Several digital nomads confirmed this by stating: “So, while going to Asia, I had struggles to be awake in the night time. Everyone managed it at the end, but it was really unpleasant, let’s say. Not that ideal to be at this location trying to work.” (Isik, 2016) Beside time zone differences, it is interesting to notice that also fine-grained time problems occur, for example, awareness of local holidays, different dates for changing to Daylight Savings Time, among others (Tang, 2011). Insights on managing this challenge: In order to overcome the time zone problematic, different strategies have been extracted from the interviews. First, clear messages between distributed team members are highly important (Imai et al., 2000). Especially, during asynchronous collaboration it is important to circulate clear instructions to reduce misunderstandings, hence collaborators do not waste times for clarifications. Martinazzo confirms these findings by saying: “Communication should be pretty much straight-forward. We were more straight to the point, really talking just about business to work efficiently.” (Martinazzo, 2016)
Page | 66
Second, the avoidance of extreme time zones can be helpful to manage the differences in time. As mentioned above, to work in the eight hour offsets can be highly problematic. Geographical locations should be assessed beforehand and discussed with all collaborators. Homepages, like Nomad List make the assessment of international workplaces easier (Nomad List, 2016). The following statements underpin this finding: “For me personally, I have discovered that I cannot work out of Asia. The time zones are too extreme and I work US East coast hours. So, Europe is fine, South America is simple, North America is simple … I have a lot of choices, but Asia for me is a place to go on vacation not to work remotely.” (Gross, 2016) “Corporate organisations were expecting that their digital nomads would be working from 9-5, but in the U.S. time. So, imagen, when they were in Thailand … during the U.S. time it was just impossible.” (Nascimento, 2016) A third observed strategy to overcome the time zone differences is to strengthen asynchronous collaboration. As indicated in subchapter 4.1.2., non-overlapping time zones increase the speed and efficiency of work. Subsequently, asynchronous work enables geographically distributed teams to work around the clock (Imai et al., 2000; Tang, 2011). That means, teams are passing their work off at the end of the day to another team, who is just starting the day. This around-the-clock-working is seen as the future of work as several managers and digital nomads explain: “I do not have full 24 hours, every single day, I rather talk my way around the world. So, in the morning, I start with Australia and New Zealand, because there it is their evening time and then by my evening time when it is time for me to sign off, it is about close to lunch time in the U.S.. So, it covers a really big span of the day.” (Brown, 2016) “As long as the hours are flexible and everyone would work around eight hours a day in their own time zone it actually flows. For example, the person in Asia is finishing their work and the person in South America just starts their day and picks work up. I have seen examples like this and it does work, it is the future of work. (Isik, 2016) To conclude, it can be summarized that collaboration between different time zones remains challenging. Conventional mechanism, such as synchronous meetings and spontaneous calls are vanishing and power asymmetries force “weaker” groups to adapt to Page | 67 the time management of “stronger counterparts”. Nevertheless, clear messaging, avoidance of extreme time differences and the enhancement of asynchronous collaboration can help corporate organisations to take countermeasures.
4.2.2. Social challenges Corporate organisations are facing two different challenges to successfully manage the integration process on a social level: (1) the lack of social connection and (2) the proof of productivity. These challenges will be briefly presented below:
Social challenges Potential countermeasures Lack of social connection Implementation of all-team chatrooms/platforms in an internal network Organisation of meet-ups and “kick-off” weeks in the corporate’s headquarter Proof of productivity Implementation of project management software
Fig. 14: Social challenges and potential countermeasures
(1) Lack of social connection: Most corporate organisations emphasise the importance of social interaction between team members. As briefly mentioned in subchapter 2.5. on the challenges of remote work, the feeling of isolation challenges both corporate organisations and digital nomads. Co-workers easily leave-out digital nomads or give them the feeling of disengagement. Coffee talks, lunch breaks or happy hours, which are normally spent together with the whole team, are not possible anymore. Subsequently, maintaining connection with digital nomads becomes difficult for the location-dependent workforce of corporate organisations. The interviews reveal, that digital nomads are already aware of this issue: “So, working remotely one of the biggest difficulties is trying to build relationships between you and your co-workers, you and your boss, you and everybody. It is hard sometimes. Because they don’t see the true work you are putting in. They don’t get to know you and the way you are.” (Walsh, 2016)
Page | 68
“Yeah … this is something that maybe influenced me the most. When I was in the company … Ähm … I had like more random talks with people from other departments. Like that we would meet in the café area or for lunch … So, this is something that I missed during this year. Having this more personal connection.” (Martinazzo, 2016) This feeling of disconnection goes beyond the “normal” social interactions within corporate organisations and consequently, influences the functioning of teams’ collaboration. Especially, if only one team member is out of office, understanding and acceptance of colleagues is limited and notably traditional companies are missing regular face-to-face communication as one manager tries to explain: “When you can sit down with somebody and spend an hour in a room, you can get so much more done. For four hours, you can be a week on the phone. Because you are able to share more, you are able to talk more, you are able to really read the person, and so, you do miss out on that factor.” (Walsh, 2016) Insights on managing this challenge: To increase social interaction between location-dependent and location-independent employees within corporate organisations, several measurements have to be taken. First, by implementing all-team chatrooms in internal networks, where employees can check in and out, corporate organisations can create a platform where everyone can virtually “meet” (Graber, 2015). In addition to that, to schedule regular informal calls either one-on-on or as a group might support the social environment within a company. Even if these measurements are not as effective as spending time together, they have the same goal: to recognize digital nomads as human beings, understand their feelings and learn about their lives outside of the office (Graber, 2015). At this point it has to be mentioned that new technologies for instance Skype, Google Hangout, etc. improved virtual communication and make real-time and virtual “face-to-face” communication much easier. This was also pointed out by one manager: “I think a lot of Skype and those other new technologies with video-sharing and file- sharing are making it easier. Now we can share files, we can work on them together, we can talk, I can see where you are, I can see your face and we can still have this full conversation, without having to physically be there.” (Walsh, 2016) Another counter measurement was pointed out by a manager from the Netherlands:
Page | 69
“So, I think in sort of really relationship building and team building, if you are the only person that is outside of a team, I would definitely recommend to meet up at some place or fly over to have a status update.” (Hoijen, 2016) Companies should bring its entire team together once or twice a year to foster its relationship. Furthermore, it might be useful to implement a “kick-off” weeks for new employees in the headquarter of the corporate organisation to enable them to develop an understanding of the company’s corporate culture before they become digital nomads (Graber, 2015). For a manager of an international software company based in San Francisco, this step is inevitable: “We have a week of boot camp, like an introduction week. They send all new hires to San Francisco. Every two weeks there is such a camp in San Francisco. So, we on- board around 600 people every month. They have been flown in from all over the world.” (Hold, 2016) To sum up, it can be concluded from interview observations, that the establishment of internal platforms helps to improve the social environment throughout the company. In addition to that, regular staff meet-ups in person positively affect social interaction between collaborators and kick-off weeks proactively encourage employees to be part of the corporate organisation. (2) Proof of productivity: To hear that an employee is currently located in Thailand, makes most managers suspicious. The question arises if it is possible to keep up the level of productivity and the quality of work. By having employees in the office, managers can constantly check their work and make sure that the productivity level is accurate. One manager drew an appealing description: “I think what is most important is the way you bring it. I mean if you go up to your manager and say hey from now on I am going to sit on a beach in Thailand and I am going to work from there. Obviously, they are not going to think that this will work out.” (Hoijen, 2016) As already mentioned in subchapter 2.5 on challenges of remote work, building trust between employers and employees is a crucial step to successfully enable remote work (Cousins and Robey, 2015; Mulki et al, 2009). Digital nomadism demands even more trust, which is very difficult to understand for corporate organisations, as one manager stated:
Page | 70
“Because we think that not being able to look someone over their shoulders and not having colleagues next to them, makes them a little bit lazier.” (Brown, 2016) Insights on managing this challenge: In the previous abstract, the author already rose the matter of the appearance of new technologies which help to coordinate communication within corporate organisation. Companies should try to implement project management tools for instance Asana or Basecamp which enable employees to stay tuned on the projects and deliver their work (Graber, 2015). Through this tools managers can assign roles and responsibilities, create detailed project plans and establish performance metrics (Graber, 2015). Even if such a software might be overwhelming in the beginning, they guarantee constant tracking and monitoring of the digital nomad’s work: “So, the way to manage that is through an internal tool, which has been created for me. If I did not have that, I would be totally lost and I would not be able to do anything.” (Brown, 2016) Overall, the interviews reveal that digital nomads believe that they are more productive than in the office environment: “It makes me a lot more productive, I am much more aware of how I use my time and how I get things done. My days are very long and work load is pretty high. So, I kind of have to use my time and really make sure to keep the level of productivity as high as I possibly can.” (Brown, 2016)
4.2.3. Challenges of digital nomads During the interviewing process, digital nomads highlighted two distinctive challenges while being at the road: (1) the need of reliable internet connection which is essential for digital nomads to work efficiently and (2) the fear-of-missing-out (FOMO). It is highly important that corporate organisations also take these challenges into consideration, as by solving them they are improving the working environment and subsequently productivity of their employees. The challenges of digital nomads are described in detail below:
Challenges for digital nomads Potential countermeasures Need of reliable internet connection Distribution of pocket Wi-Fi devices Page | 71
Check of internet speed before hand Booking of co-working seats Fear-of-missing-out (FOMO) Creation of coupons for “free hours” Option to share “moments” Fig. 15: Challenges for digital nomads and potential countermeasures
(1) Need of reliable internet connection: Digital nomads can work basically from anywhere in the world and are work-wise location-independent. But the top priority for every destination they want to go is the availability of a reliable internet connection, as it is essential for their work. Especially while travelling digital nomads often face the challenge to find an accurate internet connection. In several countries in Asia it might be even difficult to find normal 3G portable internet connections. It seems to be the challenge number one for digital nomads, as stated by an expert below: “The only challenge for me, that gets pretty significant, is making sure that I have Wi-Fi. Because working on a remote team, especially a global team, we are doing business 24 hours a day. So, it is important that everyone is online and plugged in for as long as they can.” (Brown, 2016) Insights on managing this challenge: Corporate organisations can leave this responsibility to the digital nomad or step into this process. By assisting with the facilitation of a good internet connection, corporates can speed up the “arrival phase” in new locations and ensure a constant connection with the digital nomad (Johns and Gratton, 2013). Subsequently this enables the digital nomad to constantly stay connected and plugged in and consequently work. Potential options of internet facilitation are pocket Wi-Fi devises, SIM cards, etc. An additional option would be the use of established WI-FI hotspots. Therefore, corporate organisations can check the internet speed with speedtest.net before their digital nomad moves into a new apartment, hostel or hotel (Speedtest, 2016). Besides that, corporate organisations can rent a co-working space for their digital nomads, determine therewith the location of their employees and ensure a reliable internet connection (Johns and Gratton, 2013). By providing simple tools to digital nomads, corporate organisations can enhance the working process of their nomads and guarantee a constant connection with them.
Page | 72
(2) Fear-of-missing-out (FOMO): The fear-of-missing-out, further abbreviated as FOMO, can be described as the uneasy and sometimes all-consuming feeling to miss out on something what peers or colleagues are doing which is apparently better than the current activity (Wilding, 2016). Digital nomads are constantly on a journey and subsequently receive stimuli to do activities and to see new things at every location they are going. The two digital nomads exemplary pointed out the feeling of FOMO during the interview: “One word that I learned, what I learned this year, was FOMO – the fear of missing out. Because there were a lot of situations like that. Because you had your meeting settled in the time zone of your origin, but that happened to be in the night hours in Asia and you had to deal with that. You learn to be more flexible and adapt to this kind of situations.” (Martinazzo, 2016) “What I do find is more difficult is the FOMO, the fear of missing out. You are travelling, there a way more cooler things happening. If I am missing out on drinks in the neighbourhood bar where you go with your friends every week anyways it is ok. But if you are missing out on a tour in the Hagia Sophia or skydiving or doing like cool things around the world, that is hard. So, that is one of the harder parts.” (Gross, 2016) According to Wilding (2016), constant questioning and doubting of elements in private and professional life can negatively impact performance, job satisfaction and work- life balance. Therefore, corporate organisations have to take this challenge serious and come up with solutions to guide digital nomads through the feeling of FOMO. Insights on managing this challenge: Corporate organisations can offer coupons for “free hours” to digital nomads to overcome the feeling of FOMO. As most of the digital nomads have to be available during the working hours of their corporate counterparts, digital nomads often feel restricted to this tight schedule and consequently, have the feeling to miss out on certain activities. By offering them the freedom to take off two or three hours during working hours to do something differently, they can overcome this challenge. These “free hours” have to be communicated in the beginning of the week to ensure coordinated planning for the rest of the team. Furthermore, it has to be mentioned that such a measurement should not only be offered to digital nomads but to the whole workforce of a company to ensure that there does not exist an advantage to be out of the office. In addition to that, corporate Page | 73 organisations may create the option to share “moments”. For instance, by creating the option to share exciting moments, activities or adventures on the intranet of a corporate organisation, companies can ensure a positive vibe, the feeling of belongingness and being heard (Graber, 2015).
Page | 74
4.3. Derived design principles for appealing integration process Based on the extensive analysis of the derived motivations and challenges of corporate organisations and digital nomads the author believes that a company that seriously wants to integrate digital nomads into their workforce needs to master each of the five design principles described below. This subchapter discusses each design principle in detail and gives three or four specific recommendations for each principle to make it more tangible for corporate organisations. Appendix I.VI. shows the illustrative quotes for each design principle.
4.3.1. Design principle 1: Corporate culture As already mentioned in subchapter 2.4., it is essential to create a corporate culture that understands and values digital nomadism. Corporate culture defines the shared set of customs that foster trust and engagement within a corporate organisation and is closely linked to the values of each employer (Graber, 2015). Creating the “right” corporate culture to stimulate and support digital nomadism in corporate organisations is a key responsibility of executives within the company. Derived from the countermeasures described in subchapter 4.2.1., three steps have been developed to help corporate organisations to establish a corporate culture that values digital nomadism. First, executives should motivate and mobilize the entire organisation (De Jong et al., 2013). The successful and sustainable implementation of digital nomadism in a corporate organisation requires high level of energy and commitment of the leadership in charge of digital nomads (De Jong et al., 2013). Since digital nomadism is not tied to a specific department, generally different departments within a corporate organisation are involved. Therefore, it is highly important to generate an understanding throughout all departments within a company. Second, it is important to define clear goals and benefits for the corporate organisation so that employees can understand the motivation and monetary investment behind it. By pointing out these corner points, cognitive trust which is based on competence and reliability can be developed (Sarker, 2011). Furthermore, to enhance cognitive trust, it is crucial to address communication and coordination. For that, corporate organisations should implement clear, concise and concrete ways of communication (Sarker, 2011). Third, to establish affective trust which is based on feelings face-to-face meetings Page | 75 might be needed to build a good relationship (Sarker, 2011). If employees decide to become digital nomads and travel for a longer period, these face-to-face meetings are not possible anymore on a regular basis. Therefore, corporate organisations have to prepare and train their employees beforehand. Active discussions, workshops and preparation sessions help digital nomads and location-dependent employees to cope with the new situation and enable them to find creative solutions to communicate on a regular basis. For example, companies can schedule informal calls with digital nomads either one-on-one or as a group. These meetings may not be as effective as spending time together in person but they have the same objective: to create an awareness that remote team members are human beings and an understanding of their feelings and their lives outside of the office (Graber, 2015; Sarker, 2011). These practises may feel awkward at first, but building a shared identity and personal connection will lead to greater engagement and subsequently a better performance (Graber, 2015; Sarker, 2011). Three steps to build a corporate culture that values digital nomadism 1. Create high management commitment Brown (2016); 2. Establish goals and benefits for digital nomadism Hoijen (2016); and communicate them clearly Hold (2016); 3. Create the possibility for active preparation and Gross (2016) participation regarding digital nomadism Fig. 16: Three steps to establish a corporate culture
4.3.2. Design principle 2: Career planning The importance of career development plans has grown in recent years and became a key component of companies’ attention and retention strategy (Lent et al., 2013). A career development plan focuses on the employees’ needs for growth and development. Both perspectives the perspective of the corporate organisation and the perspective of the employee should be taken into consideration (Lent et al., 2013). On the one side, the corporate organisations’ role in career planning is to assist the employees so that they receive the opportunity to grow in their careers. On the other side the employee’s role is to think about goals they want to reach and skills they want to learn (Lent et al., 2013). Overall, the common development of such a plan increases the motivation of employees and makes them work harder towards their goals. From the corporates perspective, the benefit lies in the planned development of the whole team. Page | 76
The interviewees suggested to integrate digital nomadism in the career development plans of employees. By pre-planning such a conversion in the working routine, a coordinated switch can be guaranteed and bad surprises can be ruled out. After design principle one has been implemented the option for employees to become a digital nomad should be given. Subsequently, three different steps should be taken to implement the second design principle. At this stage of the integration process it is the task of the managers to actively talk and discuss the opportunity of digital nomadism with their employees. If an employee agrees on taking this step, the basic points of the new working arrangement should be defined. For instance, aspects such as travel route, length of stay, contact person on site, among others should be pre-defined. Finally, both parties should take it slow. This means, that digital nomadism should first be tried out only on short trips within the country and in a later stage within the continent. By starting with short trips in the surrounding areas, it can be guaranteed that both corporate organisations and employees test the situation and get a feeling for the new working style. If those short trips work out and the productivity level and quality of work meets the required standard a long journey can be taken. Three steps to integrate digital nomadism in career plans 1. Talk with employees about the possibility of digital Hoijen (2016); nomadism Martinazzo (2016); 2. Pre-define corner stones of the journey, i.e. travel route, length of stay, contact person on site, etc. 3. Start slow: Start with short trips to test the new working style of digital nomadism Fig. 17: Three steps to integrate digital nomadism in career plans
4.3.3. Design principle 3: Governance The journey of digital nomads should be accompanied by the corporate organisation. Corporate organisations can take this chance to actively shape the journey of digital nomads and consequently create benefits for the corporate organisation itself. By giving digital nomads the chance to visit different company sites in the world, employees get the chance to gain in-depth experience across a range of business areas within a company and see more aspects of the business. Corporate organisations can allow digital nomads for example to work three months out of Europe, three months out of Asia and three months out of South America. This kind of rotational development enables corporate organisations to create Page | 77 global citizens who truly understand how the company works and enhance each person in different aspects of the business. Employees are empowered to truly evolve themselves in the lifestyle of digital nomadism while being accompanied by their corporate organisation. During the interviews, many digital nomads mentioned that after being away for a longer period they do not feel any motivation to return to their “normal” job. This feeling mostly appears after traveling over a one year period. By contrast corporate organisations are interested in the valuable knowledge digital nomads create during their journey and want them to return for a certain period of time to “give back” to the company what they have learned. Therefore, the author suggests to limit the experience of digital nomadism. Employees should not be allowed to travel longer than for one year. After this period, they have to return to the company for a period of at least six months. This limitation allows companies to gain from the knowledge acquired by the experience of digital nomads and prevents the loss of their employees. After being in the company for six months or longer, corporate organisations can send their employees again on a journey. By limiting the period away from the company, corporate organisations do not lose control over their stuff and guarantee the existence of a close boundary between the digital nomad and the corporate organisation. Conference calls and long distance communication have changed the business world and enable digital nomads to travel the world while working online. Nevertheless, face-to- face meetings are enormously important and create a different boundary between employees and their companies (Sarker, 2011). Face-to-face meetings ensure engagement, clarify meanings and drive participation. Therefore, the author suggests to encourage employees to meet face-to-face occasionally even if there is more time, cost, or inconvenience involved. During a one-year period of digital nomadism, interviewees suggested to meet once or twice with colleagues or even return to the corporate site to catch up with recent developments and discuss difficult issues. Subsequently, digital nomads stay more attached to the corporate organisation. In the case, that an employee wants to start his career as a digital nomad at a corporate organisation, companies are advised to organise an onboarding-month, in which a career entrant gets the chance to internalize the corporate culture of the organisation, to meet all his colleagues on site and to get familiar with the tools of the company. This onboarding-
Page | 78 month allows corporate organisations to funnel the most important messages into their new employees before they go abroad and get detached from the organisation. Four steps to govern digital nomadism 1. Send digital nomads on a “corporate journey” Hoijen (2016); 2. Limit the length of travelling Hold (2016); 3. Organise regular face-to-face meet-ups Gross (2016); 4. Organise an onboarding-week for career entrants Walsh (2016) Fig. 18: Four steps to govern digital nomadism
4.3.4. Design principle 4: Performance measurement It might seem, that for digital nomad’s job performance is solely measured by one factor: the final outcome. It does not influence the career of digital nomads, if they talk loud in meetings, if they stay at their desk in the evening or whether they are a nice person to sit next to or not. Thus, digital nomads have no incentive to take long coffee breaks or sit around doing Facebook quizzes, they rather prioritize on their job and try to get things done. Nevertheless, for corporate organisations it is essential to develop key performance indicators to measure productivity, performance, and efficiency of digital nomads. Well- designed KPIs are useful for digital nomads to track their own performance and self- motivation, as well as to see how their accomplishments affect the overall success of the organisation. In general, it can be said, that KPIs should encompass the following seven characteristics: simplicity, alignment with organisational goals, relevance, measurability, achievability, timeliness and visibility (Repsly, 2015). First, it is important to establish simple KPIs, which are both easy to comprehend and assess. So, that teams do understand them and managers can effectively measure their digital nomads. Second, they should be relevant to the business and also be achievable because otherwise employees will become frustrated and disengaged. Third, the frequency of KPIs’ reporting should be clear and lastly, KPIs should be visible across the entire organisation so that all employees are engaged with its goals. After the establishment of suitable KPIs and goals, it is important for corporate organisations to implement software tools to track whether a project is on track. For managers, it is essential to know how digital nomads are progressing and if the project is going to be delivered on time. Software tools like Basecamp, Asana or Mavenlink among others may help to stay on track.
Page | 79
As a third step, the author recommends to establish penalties for failures. This means, if certain outcomes or KPIs are not reached, the digital nomad has to expect a reaction from the corporate side. This fact simply strengthens the importance of the implemented goals and KPIs. Three steps to establish performance measurement 1. Establish clear and simple KPIs 2. Implement a project management software tool 3. Establish penalty measures Fig. 19: Three steps to establish performance measurement
4.3.5. Design principle 5: Tools Considering the above, it is obvious that digital nomads and corporate organisations need technical assistance to facilitate a productive and qualitative collaboration. The theoretical background on the tools which are used by digital nomads has been summarised in subchapter 2.3.4. After analysing the interviews with digital nomads, two findings were identified: First, the list provided in subchapter 2.3.4. was confirmed by the digital nomads. Second, three categories of digital nomad tools can be added to the existing list. Those tools should be set up in advance to test the workability of them. Both, corporate organisations and digital nomads must get familiar with the tools to guarantee a smooth working flow. Furthermore, it is important that both parties know which tool to use when. A protocol might help to standardize the communication flow. An excerpt of those tools follows in Figure 18.
Travel tools Work tools Communication tools (Help digital nomads to start their (Foster collaboration with the (Supports digital nomads and journey and provide guidance on corporate organisations) corporate organisations to stay in where to go.) touch with each other.) Nomadlist: Asana: Skype and Zoom: Provides information on cost of Supports process and work Supports video conferencing living, weather and safety in management various cities in the world Hitlist: Google everything: Slack: Finds great flight deals Facilitates cloud collaboration Facilitates internal communication in groups and on individual basis Compass or Workform: Wetransfer: Finds good co-working spaces Helps to transfer and share large files Page | 80
Whatisitlike: Figure out the best time to travel somewhere Fig. 20: Tools to foster collaboration between digital nomads and corporate organisations
Fig. 21: Summary key findings
Page | 81
5. Discussion of the results The aim of this study is to gain further insight into the motivations of corporate organisations for integrating digital nomads in their post-bureaucratic organisations as well as shed more light on possible challenges for such initiatives. Relying on qualitative research this exploratory study reveals several interesting findings. Firstly, there are various reasons for companies to integrate digital nomads. The most important motivational factors for integrating digital nomads identified in the interviews have been classified into two main categories, which are proactive and reactive motives. Simultaneously, however, corporate organisations are facing several challenges during the process of integrating digital nomads. These were summarized into the three main categories (1) organisational challenges, (2) social challenges and (3) challenges from digital nomads’ perspective. Furthermore, the motivations and challenges from a digital nomads’ perspectives have been taken into consideration. This chapter will now reflect on the findings of the study in the light of existing literature as well as business and management. First, as by 2020, an entire generation, will define computers, the internet, mobile phones, texting and social networking as their second nature, literature shows that new forms of working are needed to satisfy the needs of future employees (strategy&, 2016). Subsequently based on the familiarity with technology and reliance on mobile communication, it is no surprise that employees become more location-independent and transform their way of working (Koloc, 2014; McKinsey Quarterly January, 2016). The opportunity of digital nomadism is the answer of corporate organisations to satisfy the need of the future generation. As a study of Eisner (2005) shows that monetary remuneration becomes less important for the generation Y than contributing to society, performing meaningful work and working with committed co-workers with shared values, the relevance of the new lifestyle and employment opportunity of digital nomads extremely enhances its attractiveness (Eisner, 2005; Guppta, 2015). Hence, this study confirms the in-depth literature analysis. The interviews in this study clearly reveal that digital nomadism is a new trend which bridges the generation gap and matches the needs of millennials. This study therefore derives at the following implication:
Page | 82
Implication 1: Digital nomadism is a trend to stay and an attractive type of work for future generations.
Second, in this study the findings categorize the motivations of corporate organisations to integrate digital nomads into two divisions: (1) reactive motives and (2) proactive motives. The reactive motives describe the rational reasons behind the decision to integrate digital nomads, such as (1.1) cost benefits, (1.2) client proximity and (1.3) time zone effectiveness. Cost savings, being close and available to your client and working around the clock are appealing reasons for corporate organisations to take the step to integrate digital nomads. The proactive motives are more ideologically driven and point out (2.1) the enhanced knowledge and creativity generated by digital nomads and (2.2) the access to a worldwide talent pool. Even though, that most companies point out that they are future-oriented and follow a proactive strategy, they do not seem to be as much convinced from the proactive motives than from the reactive motives. The proactive motives have not been confirmed by the interviews as being equally important to the corporate organisations than the reactive ones. The interviewed companies are rather fascinated by reactive motives and cost-driven factors. According to the study, managers react to the occurring trend of digital nomadism, but mostly do not proactively engage in the trend. Therefore, corporate organisation’s commitment to employ digital nomads has rarely anything to do with a company’s desire to be proactive (Kirkman, 2002; Mulki et al., 2009). Of course, it stays difficult to determine whether corporate organisations are genuinely guided by proactive reasons or whether they are driven by more economic concerns such as cost effectiveness, client proximity or time zone effectiveness within the context of changing institutional strategies. Overall, it still can be concluded from this study’s observations that:
Implication 2: Reactive motivations of corporate organisations are a more dominant motivation to integrate digital nomads in a corporate environment than proactive motivations.
Page | 83
Third, despite the benefits of integrating digital nomads into corporate organisations in combination with enhanced knowledge and cost-effective solutions, the majority of corporate organisations hesitate to take the step to employ digital nomads. Until now, research does not provide an insight on the phenomenon of digital nomads, but provides various explanations of remote work challenges. Drawing on an in-depth literature review, this study concludes that all analysed studies, in terms of content, identified the same challenges for remote work. Existing differences mainly stem from distinct labelling and clustering efforts of the respective authors. Generally, a distinction can be made between two main segments of challenges associated with remote work: (1) organisational challenges such as (1.1) to discover the right work-live balance or (1.2) to compensate for the lack of visibility (Kirkman, 2002; Mulki et al., 2009) and (2) social challenges such as (2.1) to conquer workplace isolation or (2.3) to build trust between remote employees and corporate organisations (Cousins and Robey, 2015; Symon, 2000). Nevertheless, scholars in general agree on the importance of discussing potentially different ways of categorizing barriers, as re-defining categories could open new ways of looking at problems. Notwithstanding, in particular for corporate organisations, not only theoretical insights but also the nature of these challenges from a market perspective is of high interest. This empirical study is the first to discuss the phenomenon of digital nomads and to analyse challenges also from a digital nomad’s point of view. Until now studies have focused either theoretically or empirically on challenges from a remote worker’s point of view. This study, however, addresses the issue of digital nomads and therefore adds a new dimension to the discussion on how to integrate digital nomads into corporate organisations. As a result, this study summarizes the challenges to successfully integrate digital nomads in a corporate environment. In this study, the challenges of corporate organisations are also classified as (1) organisational and (2) social challenges. Organisational challenges comprise the (1.1) lack of organisational understanding and leadership and (1.2) the time zone differences. With regards to social challenges corporate organisations face two different challenges to successfully integrate digital nomads: (2.1.) the lack of social connection and (2.2) the proof of productivity. Lastly, two further challenges are pointed out in this study, which relate to the digital nomad’s perspective: (3.1) the need of reliable internet connection and (3.2.) the fear-of-missing-out (FOMO). Page | 84
It is important to note that even though this study’s findings are in some aspects congruent with the above-mentioned studies, they nonetheless add value in different ways to the current literature. Most importantly, the identified and classified challenges add value by simplifying the challenges towards a more practise-oriented view. Therefore, this study’s insights may thus help managers in overcoming some of the complexity of the challenges pointed out firstly by simplifying the different types of challenges and making managers better aware of them, and secondly by bringing assumptions about digital nomads on the surface. Overall the following can be concluded:
Implication 3: The more managers understand potential challenges to integrate digital nomads, the better they may overcome these challenges.
Fourth, this study also aims at identifying managerial suggestions on how to overcome the identified challenges. The five derived design principles are based on the gained knowledge on how to deal with the various challenges related to the integration process of digital nomads. This study identified several ways for corporate organisations to overcome respective challenges which are all linked to a derived design principle. The following challenges exemplary illustrate the link to the derived design principles: • Lack of organisational understanding and leadership: strong and high management commitment; development of new norms, values and corporate culture; training and education of employees, experimentation and pilot projects to start the integration process Design principle 1: Corporate culture • Time zone differences: clear messages between distributed team members; avoidance of too extreme time zones; asynchronous collaboration Design principle 3: Governance • Lack of social connection: implementation of all-team chatrooms/platforms in an internal network; organisation of meet-ups and “kick-off” weeks in the corporate’s headquarter Design principle 2: Career planning • Proof of productivity: implementation of project management software Design principle 4: Performance
Page | 85
Through this study, it was observed that companies have different approaches on how to solve the ambiguity for each identified challenge and for integrating digital nomads into their corporate environment. Nevertheless, the broad variety of countermeasures which corporate organisations take to mitigate the downside risks of each challenge are summarised in the five derived design principles. By implementing or following these five design principles, companies can be assured that they minimize the negative side effects of the challenges pointed out in this study. Therefore, the following can be concluded:
Implication 4: A successful implementation of the five derived design principles includes a decrease of the negative side effects of each individual challenge related to the integration process of digital nomadism.
Page | 86
6. Conclusion 6.1. Research Contribution As outlined in previous chapters, there are several preliminary insights and conclusions that can be drawn from this study and are critical from a theoretical and managerial point of view.
6.1.1. Theoretical relevance From a theoretical point of view, there exists a significant gap in the literature on the research which describes the phenomenon of digital nomads. To the author’s knowledge, no theoretical and empirical research has been conducted on the fit of digital nomads into post- bureaucratic organisations. Therefore, this research tries to get insights into this topic and contributes a first empirical analysis on this literature. On the one hand, the various motives which have been researched in this study create awareness of the importance of this new lifestyle and employment opportunity called digital nomad. The deeper understanding of the motives of corporate organisations, allows researchers, managers and policy makers to determine the relative efficacy of command and control mechanisms, market measures and voluntary measures. On the other hand, this study also identified and summarized challenges of integrating digital nomads and classifies them into three main categories, namely: (1) organisational challenges, (2) social challenges and (3) challenges from the digital nomads’ view. Scholars may see this paper as a starting point for future research on this topic, because with a better understanding of the challenges related with the integration process, more effective strategies for overcoming them may be developed. Lastly, the development of the five derived design principles underlines the theoretical relevance by revealing a first theoretical contribution for the integration process of digital nomads.
6.1.2. Managerial relevance From a managerial point of view, this research has four significant contributions. First, this thesis intends to help managers understand the new trend of digital nomadism and its relevance and importance of integration into their corporate organisations. This thesis gives an overview of the different motivations related to remote work in theory as well as to digital nomadism in practise. Second, this thesis intends to support practitioners in managing Page | 87 challenges related with digital nomadism. By making managers aware of potential challenges, by bringing assumptions to the surface and by sharing best practices in managing these challenges, practitioners may profit from this study. Third, by analysing both the corporate as well as the digital nomad’s perspective, solutions which are answering both needs can be developed. Forth, the derived design principles shall create an easy-to-follow guideline to smoothly integrate digital nomads into corporate organisations. With a better understanding of these design principles, more effective and future-oriented strategies can be developed and implemented in the corporate’s overall strategy.
In a nutshell, this study contributes to both theory and practice by bringing more clarity to the understanding of this phenomenon of digital nomadism. Moreover, the categories on motivations and challenges could illustrate avenues and directions for developing grounded theories and theoretical insights.
6.2. Limitations and future research of this study In this section, the study’s limitations are identified and described and corresponding suggestions for future research are presented. First, as described in the methodology part, this study makes use of an inductive theory building approach. The advantage of this research design is its revealing of new insights and relationships. The data indicates that corporate organisations are mainly motivated through proactive and reactive motivations and are limited by organisational, and social challenges. These findings, though, could not be tested so far, because the data set was used to come up with these categories and cannot be used at the same time for statistically testing them. Hence, future research could validate these identified motivations and challenges and their relation to the integration process of digital nomads through quantitative methods. Second, and related to the first observation, the interview sample size of four companies and five digital nomads is sufficient to develop a first theoretical model or concept, but the generalizability of answers may be limited due to the limited number of respondents and variability of their responses due to open questions (Eisenhardt, 1989a).
Page | 88
Hence, there is the opportunity to increase the sample size in a future research study to confirm the thesis findings or even gain further interesting insights. Third, the study interviewed corporate organisations from four different corporate size and regional scope categories (multinational, regional, large local, small local) in order to have a very representative sample correlating with the robustness of the preliminary insights. Since this study was the first one its kind, the focus was on identifying motivation and challenges of integrating digital nomads and not to examine the effects of their regional scope (local versus multinational players) on these categories. A more homogeneous sample with only multinational or local companies could improve the abilities to generalize the findings and would allow distinguishing motivations between the different enterprise sizes. Fourth, even though the interpretation of the collected information (interviews and archival documents) was done rigorously, the data sources may have a potential bias. The information and opinion of one person could be rather subjective, unrepresentative and not reflecting the real situation in a company. An effort was made to minimize the bias by only interviewing employees from different departments and who are also part of the decision process related to digital nomads within the company. Regarding the archival data, the information gathered from corporate websites is usually prepared and presented by employees of this particular company, which may have the goal of presenting the company better and therefore may not always be completely reliable. Nevertheless, future research can apply a more nested approach and interview more manager of the same firm, to get more reliant information about their motivations and barriers. In a nutshell, further research should be carried out in order to improve the understanding of why corporate organisations are integrating digital nomads, what challenges they are facing and how they successfully manage the arising challenges. Meanwhile, any attempt to derive normative or policy recommendations from the empirical findings of this study should be approached prudently, keeping this limitation in mind.
6.3. Conclusion Limitations aside, this study developed design principles to successfully integrate digital nomads into corporate organisations. The principal motivation of this study was to gain a better understanding of the phenomenon of digital nomads in general. In particular, Page | 89 since there is a lack of plausible existing theory for this phenomenon that has been occurring more often recently, this study was interested in understanding why and how corporate organisations are integrating digital nomads. On top of that, this thesis tried to shed light on the nature of the challenges of the integration process and also answered how practitioners are managing these challenges. More broadly this study was motivated by the desire to bring more clarity to the poor understanding of the phenomenon of digital nomadism for both scholars and managers. The results of this study, the methodological implications as well as its limitations will hopefully stimulate future research in this increasingly important area of inquiry. Because, thinking back at the quote in the introduction, it is great that that is the time we are in now, as we can become citizens of the world.
Page | 90
I. Appendix I.I. Overview of travel programs for digital nomads
Program Description Hard facts Offering Accommodations Perfect for: aspiring (a mix of hotels and Remote Year digital nomads apartments) consists of a group Length of program: Shared workspace of 75 interesting 1 year Access to 24/7 Remote Year and like-minded Locations: Europe, internet (http://www.remoteyear.com/) professionals, that Asia and South Transportation travel to a new America between countries country every Cost: $3,000 down (bus and planes) month for 1 year. payment; $2,000 per Community events month and networking opportunities Perfect for: those working on personal Hacker Paradise projects organizes trips all Length of program: Accommodations over the world for 3 months (minimum (a mix of hotels and developers, 2 weeks) apartments) Hacker Paradise designers, and Locations: one of the Shared workspace (http://www.hackerparadise.org/) entrepreneurs who following locations: Community events want to travel while Bali, Indonesia, and networking working remotely Chiang Mail, opportunities or focusing on Thailand, and personal projects. Portugal Cost: $500 - $1,980 per month Perfect for: aspiring Accommodations ‘ We Roam is a digital nomads (a mix of hotels and program that takes Length of program: apartments) a group of 50-100 6 - 12 months Shared workspace remote workers and We Roam Locations: Europe, Transportation digital nomads on a (http://www.we-roam.com/) South America, and between countries trip around the Asia (bus and planes) world, working and living from a new Cost: $5,000 down Community events city each month. payment; $2,000 per and networking month opportunities Accommodations (a mix of hotels and Remote Trip takes Perfect for: aspiring a group of 30 apartments) digital nomads digital nomads on a Shared workspace Length of program: trip around the Access to 24/7 3 - 6 months Remote Trip world. There are internet Locations: Asia and (http://www.theremotetrip.com/) two packages: 3- Transportation Latin America month Asia and 3- between countries Cost: $2,000 down month Latin (bus and planes) payment; $1,900 per America, which Community events month can be combined and networking opportunities
Page | 91
I.II. Overview of interview partners Interview partner Date and Position and Company Short description Location 1 Brown Ashlee 29/09/16 Manager at Toptal Ashlee Brown has worked in several Amsterdam, (www.toptal.com) industries in customer service and The administrative functions and is Netherlands currently working as a Sales Engineer at Toptal. Toptal is a global network of over 200 elite software engineers and designers. The entire company works on a remote basis. Toptal works with clients to understand their project/team needs and custom-matches them with pre-screened designers and developers who join their teams on a full-time, part-time, or hourly basis. 2 Gross Jesse 15/09/16 Manager at Remote Year With a background in finance at UBS Split, (www.remoteyear.com) and Flexpoint Ford in New York, Jesse Croatia Gross brings Remote Year to life by helping more people break free of their desks. He is Head of Commercial/Partnerships and tries to convince corporate organizations to employ digital nomads. 3 Hoijen Michelle 15/09/16 Manager at Remote Trip Michelle Hoijen is the founder of the Panama (www.theremotetrip.com) Remote Trip. The Remote Trip is a City, traveling community that invites Panama individuals to live, work, and travel together with 30 remote professionals for 3 to 6 months. During the month- long visits to different locations around the world, they focus on personal and professional development, exploring local cultures, and simply enjoying life as much as possible while working. Before founding Remote Trip, Michelle worked as a consultant at Deloitte in the Netherlands for two years. 4 Hold Michael 01/10/16 Employee at Salesforce Michael Alexander Hold is passionate Alexander Dublin, (www.salesforce.com) about leveraging the power of Ireland technology to enable companies of all sizes and from all corners of the world to dramatically grow their business and increase their profitability. Currently, he has a role at Salesforce.com. He is responsible for business development for the Nordic market. Salesforce.com helps customers to adopt cloud technology and CRM to improve their turnover by as high as 37% and efficiency by 42%. Some of Michael Alexander Hold’s notable customers in
Page | 92
the Nordic market are Maersk Line, Alm. Brand, Jysk, Stokke and Spotify. 5 Martinazzo Fabio 02/08/16 Employee at Datacom Fabio Martinazzo has been working in Rio de (www.datacom.com/br) the IT and telecommunication field for Janeiro, & Participant at Remote 12 years. He stands out due to a strong Brazil Year technical knowledge of the solutions and technologies applied in the projects he took part in. During 2015/16, Fabio was working for Datacom as a digital nomad. He participated in the Remote Year, where he was travelling for 12 months around the globe while simultaneously working for Datacom. 6 Nascimento Manuel 20/10/16 Senior Consultant at Manuel Nascimento is a Senior Sydney, Deloitte Consultant in the Consulting division Australia (www.deloitte.com) of Deloitte’s Lisbon Office at Financial Participant at Remote Services Industry. Since joining Year Deloitte in 2008, he has been expanding his technology knowledge and improving his technical, analytical and leadership capabilities. He had the opportunity to work in many projects between Portugal, Angola and Australia where he is currently based. Manuel was also a participant of the Remote Year program and enjoyed the digital nomad lifestyles several times during his career. 7 Nur Sila 20/09/16 Director at of mind to ad Sila Isik is a graphic designer from London, (www.mindthead.com/) Istanbul who has been living in London United & Participant at Remote for the past eight years. She combines Kingdom Year her design work with entrepreneurial consultancy, acting as a business development director for several small business clients. Sila Isik also participated in the Remote Year program while working for her agency in London and supporting different Turkish start-ups. 8 Walsh Jeffrey 15/09/16 Sales Manager at HP Jeffrey Walsh is Enterprise Service New York, (www.hp.com) Alliance Manager at Hewlett and United & Participant at Remote Partner. He is working for HP for States Year around 10 years and has been travelling all over the world. In 2015 he participated in the Remote Year and officially became a digital nomad. 9 Wickert Mario 21/09/16 Manager of the Mario Wickert works at Datacom in Porto International Department Brazil. Datacom is a leading Alegre, at Datacom manufacturer of equipment for Brazil (www.datacom.com/br) telecommunication networks in Latin America. Founded in 1998, the company is headquartered in the metropolitan area of Porto Alegre, with commercial and support offices in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia.
Page | 93
Mario Wickert manages the International Sales Department. Currently, Datacom’s products are distributed in more than 45 countries. Mario Wickert was the manager of Fabio Martinazzo, who was a digital nomad of Datacom for one year.
Page | 94
I.III. Interview guidelines Interview Guidelines | Digital nomads 1) General Overview: • What's your name? • Where do you come from? • What is your occupation? • What is your age? (20-30, 30-40, 40-60, 60+)
2) Working environment of a digital nomad: • How did you come up with the idea of becoming a digital nomad? • Describe your role and activities as a digital nomad? (daily routine) • What tools do you use during your daily routine? • Describe the quality and productivity level of your work? • How do you manage 24 hours of availability?
3) Relationship with the corporate organisations: • For which company/companies are you/have you been working? • Describe your relationship with your corporate organisation? • With whom are you in regular contact within the company? Do you have a special contact person? • What medium do you use for staying in contact with the corporate organisation? • Do you see room for improvement regarding relationship building with your company? If yes, what measures/activities would you introduce?
4) Emotional relationship with the corporate organisation: • Do you feel part of the company? • Are you participating in personal meetings? (Christmas Party, etc.) • What measures/activities would you introduce to strengthen the boundaries between you and the corporate organisation?
Page | 95
5) Wrap-up: • What do you like most of being a digital nomad and what is making your digital nomad life difficult? • What are the risks and opportunities of the digital nomad lifestyle? • From a company’s perspective, what are potential opportunities/risks of employing a digital nomad?
Interview Guidelines | Corporate Organisation: 1) General Overview: • What is your name? • For which corporate organisation do you work? • What position do you hold within the company? • Are you/have you been working with a digital nomad?
2) Relationship with digital nomads: • Describe your relationship with the digital nomad? • What medium/tools do you use for staying in contact with the digital nomad? • Do you see room for improvement regarding relationship building with your digital nomad? If yes, what measures/activities would you introduce? • What do you wish from digital nomads to make your working easier? (contact points, monthly meetings in person, etc.)
3) Emotional relationship with the digital nomads • Are digital nomads participating in personal meetings throughout the year? (Christmas Party, etc.) • What measures/activities would you introduce to strengthen the boundaries between you and the digital nomads?
Page | 96
I.IV. Interview transcripts (exemplary DATACOM’s digital nomad)
Interview partner: Fabio Martinazzo Position: Consultant Date: 2nd of August 2016 Time: 2:30-3:30pm (BRST) Time in industry: 12 years in the IT and telecommunication field
TL: Can you tell me a little bit about your background? FM: Alright, so my background is in Computer Engineering and I also have a Master in Business Administration at FGV in Porto Alegre. And well my whole career was developed in this one company, that develops, manufactures and commercializes telecommunication material for telecom operators. And I started there in a more technical position, more development and then technical support and the last four years was more towards like commercial activities. More specifically to the international market. Ähm … the last four years. So, I used to talk a lot with our distributors outside of Brazil. The company strategy outside of Brazil is having a partner, like a distributor in each country. So, my daily routine was basically talking to this partners about the business opportunities that were going on, or if they have a new project to work or to develop with the end-customers in these countries. So, lots of emails, lot of Skype-calls, Skype-meetings … yeah … also I used to travel for work, I would say once per two months, every two months for like visiting theses distributors when it was a specific or important phase of a project or a sales process that was going on or for some trade fairs, also outside of Brazil. TL: How did you come up with the idea of becoming a digital nomad? FM: Well, I have never ever thought of becoming a digital nomad. Ähm … I knew friends that could work from home and I also liked this idea of having this flexibility, of not being stuck in the office the whole day or maybe managing better your schedule. Maybe during your working hour, you want to do something, during the day, like enjoy sun time. And you could not do that when working in the office. So, I really had that in mind, that at some point
Page | 97 in my life I would like to become … well I did not know this term … I think it is pretty new … but home office is something that has been out there for a while. When I first thought of becoming a digital nomad was when I heard about this program Remote Year. That what I was doing the last 12 months. Since the very beginning, I just loved the idea of travelling to different cities in different countries in the world and keep working for my company or whatever company that would allow me to take my job with me. While I was travelling, which I loved … being able to do both was just amazing. TL: Could you shortly describe the Remote Year program? FM: Yes, so Remote Year is the name of a company, a business and also the program that they run. They started in 2015. And … the whole idea is to have a community of digital nomads, more precisely 75 people that they select out of 25.000 people that apply for these positions. So, they run this selection process, where they want to see if you already have some experience in working remotely … Ähm … if you gonna fit to the community, like like-minded people that fit into the community to make it to be nice. They want nice people travelling with nice people and doing nice things and also … I think they are trying to grow this culture of working remotely. The founder, Greg, is a guy who used to work for Groupon. And he was there able to work from home or from wherever he wanted. And his idea was to like … to give this opportunity to more and more people and that this people would not have to worry about the logistic and organisational part. So, the company, the program, takes care of all the transportations, all the accommodations throughout the year and we the participants only have to take care of paying the monthly fee, which in my case was $2.000. So, we paid this monthly fee and they arranged all this logistics and boring part. So … yeah this is the whole idea! TL: Can you describe your daily routine as a digital nomad? FM: Yeah … So basically, me and most of the other remotes would do … would try to do between four and eight hours of work per day. Of course, this depends on what are you working on in this moment. Sometimes you have to work more, sometimes you have to work less. Basically, in all these cities, where we were the program arranged co-working spaces. So, this was actually our working base, our headquarters. So, we usually would meet there and we would work from there, because it had like good and reliable internet. And basically, this Page | 98 is the main tool that digital nomads need, like good reliable internet. There are a lot of people that already do remote work by themselves. The only thing is every day you have to either look for a café with a good Wi-Fi or you have to do the research in the city, where you can find a good workspace … Ähm … So, this was something that the program was doing for us, which was good. Because usually it was a nice co-working space, where we could get in touch with the local community, with locals working from there, like freelancers and start- ups. So, this also helped to integrate with the community where we were. So … Ähm … Talking about the routine again. I would be working for a few hours. Basically, it also depends if you have to be in the same time schedule as your company is based in or you can have a few hours like overlapping and the other hours not. And this kind of helps with the productivity, I would say. Because and this is something that we, or the digital nomad community talks about, of how keeping productive while you are on the road. Because you can get very much distracted by new places, you want to do the touristic stuff, you want to meet people and do nice things. But you have to keep working and keep getting things done. What helps, is the time when you don’t have your co-workers from home country work in the same time. So, you can really focus on getting the things done. And then in the few hours that you are overlapping, you have to do meetings or you gonna talk about the projects which are going on. I really feel that this works better for me and for most of the people. Because if you are working in totally different time schedules, like when you are in Asia and then people from Brazil or United States, you are in totally different time zones and it is hard to have meetings in the middle of the night or it is an emergency and they have to call you. This is something all the remotes are concerned … ok, I would like to go to this country … but is gonna work because of the time schedules. So, you have your few hours working and the rest of the day you can do whatever you want, which is the best part. TL: During the Remote Year program you have been working for Datacom, right? FM: So, yes. When I was accepted to be part of Remote Year … Ähm … I went to talk to my employer, my boss to see if they were interested to keep having me as an employee and … Ähm … if it is gonna work with them or not. So, my boss really like the idea, and supported me and was sure that it will work between us. I could keep doing my work. The only thing was, like if the leadership of the company would support the idea or not. So, after talking with the CEO, my boss would come back to me and … Ähm … actually they gave me this Page | 99 option, or actually not option, they were suggesting me that yes, I could keep working for them, but not as a regular employee. I would leave the company, I would open a business and they would contract me as a contractor. So, this was how it worked for us. In the months where I was in the places where we had business, where the company had business, they would hire me or contract me to work from there. Ähm … and in the months where, like in Asia where they did not have business and it was not of their interest, I would not be working. TL: Would you say the quality of work did not suffer from that? FM: So, no. The quality of work was, when we were focused on working … I would say that it was even better than back in the office. You knew that you would only have those two hours … so you were really focused … and wanted to finish the things you have to do … so you would be free to explore the city or do something else that your friends were inviting you. So, it is different from when you are in the office and you know that you have to be there from 9 to 5. So sometimes you spent a lot of time in the café area or talking about your soccer teams last games, like yesterday … I would say you are spending a lot of time in the office with things that doesn’t matter or that does not have to do with your job. And when you are travelling or when you are in a different place, you manage better your time. These two hours I am really gonna work on my project and then I will visit the city. And then during the night I will do two more hours of work. TL: So, what tools do you use to stay in contact with your company? FM: So, the tools, that we were using the most, were tools that allow you to communicate with your company back home. So, Skype was the one I was using the most. Talking to colleagues, my boss, to other people in the company, also to other distributors we had in different places and with whom I have been in contact. A lot of emails, a lot of messaging tools. One thing, I have never used, but the Americans use it a lot is Slack. I realized that a lot of companies use it for enterprise communication. Ähm … so even in their smartphones they would receive their messages from work in Slack and not WhatsApp or whatever. We also had our Slack from our Remote Year group. It really helps you to have your messages, your talks more organized. I would say these three, so email of course, Skype which is very well know and Slack, which was new for me, not for others maybe. And yeah again … internet is crucial! Page | 100
And other tools which helped you to do local phone calls was Skype. I put some credits on Skype and I could call some fixed lines, for instance in Peru. So, you can use Skype to call your clients or your partner in a traditional way. So, you don’t have to set a certain time for a Skype meeting or whatever. Other people that were also … who wanted to be reached by a fixed number … they also use some sort of SkypeOut, GoogleHangout. But this, pretty much depends on your job. Like most of the people who were in our group were programmers, software developers, app developers, web developers … they just do like coding. So, I guess this is the easiest job that allows you to go remote. It is definitely just working from your computer and you can do whatever you want, and just send your code. And yeah … TL: How did you deal with 24 hours’ availability? FM: Ähm … for me, with my company, my colleagues from work, it was easy to manage. Like, I used to tell them in advance where I will be and what the time zone will be and what will be the best time to reach me. Ähm … so with them it was no problem, let’s say with that. But with some distributors they did not know where exactly I was or they should not know. So, they sometimes would call me in different times. And that could be a little bit annoying, but this is kind of the counterpart. Ähm … in my case, it was not so often. Once every one or two weeks, I would receive a call when I was still sleeping or I was out at night in a bar. But it was funny to see … sometimes we had … Ähm … while going out with friends, like a birthday party or something like that and a few people in our group would take their laptops, because they had a meeting already scheduled at that time and they did not want to miss either the party nor the meeting of course. One word that I learned, what I learned this year, was FOMO – the fear of missing out. Because there were a lot of situations like that. Because you had your meeting settled in the time zone of your origin, but that happened to be in the night hours in Asia and you had to deal with that. You learn to be more flexible and adapt to this kind of situations. But nowadays with more and more Wi-Fi available everywhere and even the 4G plans, like good and reliable mobile network data plans. You can handle it better. TL: Could you describe the relationship with your company at home? How would you describe your relationship with Datacom during the Remote Year program? FM: Ähm … When I was working in the office, I definitely had much more contact with the co-workers there. Because … First, I was sitting next my boss, like in the same room with Page | 101 the other people who were working in the same department as me. So, communication was pretty much straight-forward. Ähm … which as I said before, that can be good and bad, because the same way you are easily talking about some business issues and situations that you have to figure out, you are also wasting time talking about other stuff, that are not working related. So … Ähm … When I was travelling and I was working away from the office, usually when we were talking or had some meetings scheduled, we were more like straight to the point, really talking just about business. Because for example, maybe it was already time for the people back in the office to go home or it was not a good time for me. So yeah … We had to solve this, so you go straight to the point. So, 10 to 15 minutes you go through the whole thing. Meanwhile when you are in the meeting, there are lots of unproductive meetings sometime and you talk for one hour and half of the time is not related to what you have to really talk about. I guess this is also more related to the culture in your country. For me as a Brazilian … In Brazil, we have this culture to talk about everything before, you know, going to the point of the meeting or something like that. TL: Where do you see room for improvement in the relationship to Datacom? FM: I would say it worked really well. Because again, also with my co-workers when it was this small issues, we would just message. That worked fine. When we had something bigger to deal with we had those meetings … yeah … I don’t see anything that could be improved. And in my case specifically, besides working remotely, like in a traditional way, we took advantage in many of the cases where I was, we had also our local partners there. For example, in Prague we had our local partner there. This local partner develops our business in the region, in Eastern Europe. And I was also visiting them, so I was doing local work, let’s say. I was also talking a lot with my boss. Like to prepare for these local meetings and after the meetings I would again have these conversations through Skype about what we talked about, how business is going … well, I guess that worked very well. TL: After this year remote, do you still feel emotionally connected with the company? FM: Yeah … this is something that maybe influenced me the most. When I was in the company … Ähm … I had like more random talks with people from other departments. Like that we would meet in the café area or for lunch … So, this is something that I missed during
Page | 102 this year. And I would definitely miss it if I keep working remotely for a company. Having this more personal connection. And also, when you are working in the office …. Through Happy Hours or something like that with the same group of people, I would say you get a kind of deeper relationship with them … Ähm … on the other hand, I got new friends by doing what I did … Even if I was not travelling with the big group of people of Remote Year, but if I would go by myself, I would try somehow to connect with people from this place. And the co-working spaces are a very nice place to do that, because you meet with other people that are also freelancers, or entrepreneurs that were working by themselves and they also want to meet people to hang out with. So, it is different, but there are the pros and cons. But definitely I miss some people that I used to see every day in my company. Especially because I was there for 10-12 years. I feel that our connection was not the same this year, but we are still friends. So, yeah… TL: Did you go back to your company during your Remote Year? FM: During this whole year I came back once. After eight months of travelling, we came back to South America. Then yeah … I went to the company to do some updates, new products … yeah … have some meetings there. So, I spent one day in the company during this year. TL: What are the points you liked the most during your Remote Year experience, and what has been challenging? FM: The thing I liked the most was discovering the world, discovering new places, new ways of living. Both regarding like the places where I was and also regarding the people I was travelling with. Like seeing how they manage also this new way of living, travelling. So, you learn some travel hacks, that people do and you don’t know how to handle with different situations. So, you grow a lot as a person, as a traveller … you learn different tools, new ways of dealing with problems … Ähm … and yeah, all the benefits you have and when you travel as a tourist or for another purpose, you have when you travel for work or when you travel remote. You do not have a routine, every day is a challenge, that keeps you very aware and awake … so today is a new day … what I am gonna do … make plans and that is something, when you are living a routine in your city in your work, you don’t have to think much. You wake up, you go to work, you come back, you go to the gym and that’s it. So, you live more mechanically and automatically. And when you have this challenge of everyday, you are Page | 103 responsible for what you do … it is a great day … Ähm … I feel you are more responsible for making your life great and you become happier. Because you are choosing all the time what to do next. But I felt that I was living more in the presence. Because of having to think all the time of what’s next. So, that is something that I really liked. I feel I was not lazy of doing things. I was actually talking about physical level, I was more active this year. I was doing things every day, even practising sports with this friends I was travelling with. I think this is the highlight of my Remote Year. And on the other side, I missed a lot having this interaction with people and friends back home. Family in a certain way. Going to some places that I like and used to go. So, I think that was the worst. Like not having the things, I had back home. But yeah … it was ok. TL: From a company perspective, do you see an opportunity to employ digital nomads? FM: Yeah … I think for the companies, maybe they don’t even have an option in the future. They will have to do that. I mean, allow their employees to work more flexible at least. Maybe you cannot travel for one year as I did, but you definitely can be one or two months away … Ähm … and then you come home and work from the office for a certain period for some specific trainings or meetings. But I think with the tools we have nowadays … Ähm … it is pretty much … it is pretty easy to handle all of the issues and problems and to keep going with your business. It is essential to have people in different parts of the world. And also another thing is, that if you learn how to develop your business working from different places, you gonna have … yeah … you can hire people from other places in the world. Maybe where you are, you don’t have the number of people or the skills you want, specific skills, and you might find this in people who are at different places. So, it allows you, it allows the company to hire people from other countries or cities. And another thing is, for the companies to keep their talents to work for them … Ähm … this kind of incentive, allowing them to go more freely to work form another place, will make these good employees to be happier to work for them. Otherwise they will just leave and work for someone else who is more flexible. So … as I said, I think it is gonna be something more and more common in the future. Especially, when you are in the business that is really having young people, open-minded people. They don’t want to have the whole year just 20 or 30 days to go and see the world. They want to do both things at the same time. And you have to know how to deal with that. Page | 104
TL: Do you also see risks for companies who are employing digital nomads? FM: The big risk … Ähm … Yeah … Maybe you gonna loose someone here and there. They are gonna stay, they will find something else that they are passionate about. But I think that is great. You allow your friends, your employees, to find what makes him or her happy. So, at the end of the day, it is still good. You are not making a prison, so like he or she has to stay. It is like in a relationship between a man and a woman. You want the other person to be happy. The start-ups that are coming, this new generation generate this environment. It has to be a win-win-situation. Otherwise it is not sustainable. There is another thing, I wanted to say about, like the good point for the companies … Ähm … The fact when you are travelling and you can keep being productive, even while working less hours. That is a good thing for both, for the employer and the employee. And also for the company some practical facts are that: you are not responsible of, you do not have the costs of having a desk like available for this person. You don’t have to have other tools, like their laptop. Like in my case, since I was not an employee, I was like a contractor, I was responsible for my laptop, for my insurance, whatever. I would say, it is cheaper for the companies to have employees away from their headquarters. So, companies don’t have to waste funds on light, energy, space … You can have a smaller area in your office. With that you save a lot of money. TL: Thank you very much for your valuable insights, Fabio!
Page | 105
I.V. Generated code categories by Atlas.ti Initial codes Description of the company DN - C - jobs DN - C - no routine DN - C - travel to travel Introduction of interviewee R - flexibility R - kind of job R - labour law related RA - meet ups and events RC - availability RC - collaboration RC - communication RC - FOMO RC - internet connection RC - location RC - mindset of companies RC - social connection RC - team disconnect Rotational program RT - change in mindset RT - people RT - program RT - starters kit RW - A - client proximity RW - A - cost benefit RW - A - enhanced knowledge and creativity RW - A - flexibility RW - A - location independence RW - A - passion RW - A - personal comment RW - A - productivity RW - A - working schedule RW - A - worldwide talent pool RwC - communication RY - people RY - program Self-introduction of interviewee
Page | 106
I.VI. Illustrative quotes for derived design principles
Design principle Illustrative quotes Design principle 1: “They do a lot of that and then you can say, culture is this big thing. That is something Corporate culture you have to touch. How you create culture when you have remote people, ok? And again, we embrace technology a lot at Salesforce.” (Hold, 2016)
“But even then, a sort of re-education needs to take place. Working remotely is very, very different.” (Brown, 2016)
“So, I think it is a mindset. Mostly, it is a mindset that you have to change that you don’t have to be present when you actually work.” (Hoijen, 2016)
“You see it at most companies right now, that there is a large gap in between senior leadership and the experience they have around the company and their lives and the core of the workforce which is more and more becoming every day millennials. And I think that gap is something that a lot of corporations are trying to bridge. Ähm … I think for them, they need to understand what millennials demand, because there is going to be peaks and pies in terms of labour market, when supply and demand mismatch in every country, in every economic cycle.” (Gross, 2016)
“I think that doing research in hearing out what remote work is all about and how companies are getting ready instead of being close-minded to change, is something I would encourage companies to do.” (Gross, 2016) Design principle 2: “In the months where I was in the places where we had business, where the company Career planning had business, they would hire me or contract me to work from there.” (Martinazzo, 2016)
“I think that it is good to start slow. So, for example, you tell your manager that you would like to work from home for a week and when you do, you try to be super productive from home. And then, for example, you say, hey I am going away to another country for a few days, but I don’t want to take any vacation time, is that ok for you. So, you really try to take these small steps and then I think that you can kind of ease the corporate managers mind into the remote working and show that you are still very much present or even more productive once you do the remote work.” (Hoijen, 2016) Design principle 3: “So, you know, it gives you more ability to enhance each person in a different aspect of Governance the company. If you do the rotation right, you would do it for three to four months in Europe, for example, and then three to four months in Asia and then three or four months in South America and allow them to truly evolve themselves in this different lifestyle, while truly understanding the company better.” (Walsh, 2016)
“So, I think in sort of really relationship building and team building, if you are the only person that is outside of a team, I would definitely recommend to meet up at some place or fly over to have status updates.” (Hoijen, 2016)
“So, if their managers are based in San Francisco, they would be travelling to San Francisco once month to feel part of the team and this whole idea. But as such they are based remotely.” (Hold, 2016) Page | 107
“I think that there are benefits to meeting in person. But I definitely try a minimum of once a year and usually more to meet with every one of my team in person.” (Gross, 2016)
“So, for me, personally I like to train people in person if possible before they go remote. If it is one month sitting next to each other, there is something about that, that just makes the transition to remote much more simple.” (Gross, 2016)
“Everything from like time zones to communication tools, there are things that you really have to communicate with your team well and discuss in advance before someone goes remote in terms of how those things will work, because it is the gaps in communication that kill you.” (Gross, 2016) Design principle 4: “KPIs have to be easy to comprehend and assess.” (Nascimento, 2016) Performance “Companies quickly forget about their digital nomad and about their performance and measurement achievements.” (Isik, 2016)
“Achievable KPIs enhance the motivation to work on a project, to finish certain tasks and to keep on going while you are millions of miles away.” (Walsh, 2016)
“Reporting should not end up to be a hell of a work... it frustrates when your work consists of reporting stuff.” (Brown, 2016) Design principle 5: “For my team, we have like special software for like project management, stuff that is Tools at work free online. We use communication tools, that are free like Slack and WhatsApp. Of course, we have email like everyone else.” (Gross, 2016)
“So, with Toptal, the company overall, uses Skype. We skype very, very often and very heavily.” (Brown, 2016)
“You can distinguish the tools into three categories: travel, work and communication tools.” (Walsh, 2016)
“But what we do is we communicate which type of communication tool we use when and for what. And when this is clearly defined you know when to look and when things are high priority. When people are in different time zones you don’t want to have emails if it is four in the morning or someone’s weekend or national holidays somewhere else. So, we instead just have protocols to make sure that we are all on the same page for when we communicate, proper response times, what communication media it should be through … I think that is expectation setting.” (Gross, 2016)
Page | 108
II. References
Ali-Hassan, H., Nevo, D., & Nevo, S. (2010). Mobile collaboration: Exploring the role of social capital. Database for Advances in Information Systems, 41(2), 9-24,6. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/747132538?accountid=29104 Amabile, T. M., Patterson, C., Mueller J., Wojcik, T., Odomirok, P.W., Marsh, M. & Kramer S. (2001): Academic practitioner collaboration in management research: a case of cross-profession collaboration. Academy of Management Journal, 44 (2): 418-431. Atkinson, J. (1984) ‘Manpower Strategies for Flexible Organisations’, Personnel Management 8: 28–31. Bailey, D. E., Leonardi, P. M., & Barley, S. R. (2012). The lure of the virtual. Organisation Science, 23(5), 1485-1504. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1081782527?accountid=29104 Baruch, Y., Dickmann, M., Altman, Y., & Bournois, F. (2013): Exploring international work: types and dimensions of global careers. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24 (12), 2369-2393. Bathelt, H., Malmberg, A., & Maskell, P. (2004). Clusters and knowledge: local buzz, global pipelines and the process of knowledge creation. Progress in human geography, 28(1), 31-56. Bennion, N. (2013, June 25): What is a Digital Nomad? Retrieved November 4, 2016, from http://wanderingdesk.com/what-is-a-digital-nomad/ Berkun, S. (2013, March 15). How WordPress Thrives with a 100% Remote Workforce. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved November, 23 2016, from https://hbr.org/2013/03/how- wordpress-thrives-with-a-1. Beth Watson-Manheim, M., Chudoba, K. M., & Crowston, K. (2002). Discontinuities and continuities: A new way to understand virtual work. Information Technology & People, 15(3), 191-209. Bolin, M., and Härenstam, A. (2008). An empirical study of bureaucratic and post-bureaucratic characteristics in 90 workplaces. Economic and Industrial Democracy, 29(4), 541. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/201154547?accountid=29104 Boudreau, J. (2016, March 17). Work in the Future Will Fall into These 4 Categories. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2016/03/work-in-the-future-will-fall-into-these-4-categories. Brennan, A., Chugh, J. S., & Kline, T. (2002). Traditional versus open office design a longitudinal field study. Environment and Behavior, 34(3), 279-299. Brewster, C., and Suutari, V. (2005): Global HRM: aspects of a research agenda. Personnel Review, 34 (1), 5 21. Journal, 15(1), 193-205. Briand, L., and Bellemare, G. (2006). A structurationist analysis of post-bureaucracy in modernity and late modernity. Journal of Organisational Change Management, 19(1), 65-79. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/197578705?accountid=29104 Castells, M. (2000) The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture. Volume 1: The Rise of the Network Society. London and Oxford: Blackwell. Chesbrough, H. 2010. Business Model Innovation: Opportunities and Barriers. Long Range Planning, 43: 345-363. Child, J. (2005) Organisation: Contemporary Principles and Practice. Oxford: Blackwell. Chudoba, K. M., Wynn, E., Lu, M., & Watson‐Manheim, M. B. (2005). How virtual are we? Measuring virtuality and understanding its impact in a global organisation. Information systems journal, 15(4), 279-306. Clegg, S.R. (1990) Modern Organisations: Organisation Studies in the Postmodern World. London: Sage. Cobin, J. & Strauss, A. 1990. Grounded Theory Research: Procedures, Canons and Evaluative Criteria. Zeitschrift fuer Soziologie, 19 (6): 418-427. Cousins, K., & Robey, D. (2015). Managing work-life boundaries with mobile technologies. Information Technology & People, 28(1), 34-71. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1652621905?accountid=29104 Crant, J. M. (2000). Proactive behaviour in organisations. Journal of management, 26(3), 435-462. Daugherty, P., Carrel-Billiard, M., & Biltz, M. (2016, January 6). Liquid Workforce: Building the workforce for today’s digital demands. Accenture Technology R&D. Retrieved from https://www.accenture.com/fr-fr/_acnmedia/PDF-2/Accenture-Liquid-Workforce-Technology- Vision-2016-france.pdf. Davenport, T. H., & Pearlson, K. (1998). Two cheers for the virtual office. Sloan Management Review, 39(4), Page | 109
51-65. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/224964485?accountid=29104 De Boinod, A. (2014). If you’re eating al desko, mind the moose. InvestmentEurope, 50, 48 De Jong, Marston, Roth, Van Biljon (2013): The Eight Essentials of innovation performance Downs, A., & Rand Corporation. (1967). Inside bureaucracy (p. 264). Boston: Little, Brown. Easley, D., & Kleinberg, J. (2010). Networks, crowds, and markets: Reasoning about a highly connected world. Cambridge University Press. Eisenhardt, K. M., & Graebner, M. E. (2007): Theory building from cases: opportunities and challenges. Academy of Management Journal, 50(1), 25-32. Eisenhardt, K. (1989a): Building theories from case study research. Academy of Management Review, 14 (4), 532-550. Eisner, S. P. (2005). Managing generation Y. S.A.M.Advanced Management Journal, 70(4), 4-15. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/231242493?accountid=29104 Farndale, E., Scullion, H., & Sparrow, P. (2010). The role of the corporate HR function in global talent management. Journal of World Business, 45(2), 161-168. Ferriss, T. (2011). The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and join the New Rich. London: Vermilion. Gajendran, R. S., & Harrison, D. A. (2007). The good, the bad, and the unknown about telecommuting: meta analysis of psychological mediators and individual consequences. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(6), 1524. Glaser, B. & Strauss, A. 1967. The Discovery of Grounded Theory. Chicago, IL: Aldine Press. Gouldner, A. W. (1954). Patterns of industrial bureaucracy. Graber, S. (2015, March 20). Why Remote Work Thrives in Some Companies and Fails in Others. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2015/03/why-remote-work-thrives-in-some companies-and-fails-in-others. Grey, C., & Garsten, C. (2001). Trust, control and post-bureaucracy. Organisation studies, 22(2), 229-250. Guppta, K. (2015, February 25). Digital Nomads are Redefining What it Means to be Productive. Retrieved November 6, 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/kaviguppta/2015/02/25/digital-nomads-are- redefiningwhat- it-means-to-be-productive/ Hall, R. H. (1963). The concept of bureaucracy: An empirical assessment. American Journal of Sociology, 32-40. Hansen, M. (2004). Virtual Teams That Work: Creating Conditions for Virtual Team Effectiveness. Personnel Psychology, 57 (1), 243-246. Harris, M. (2006): Technology, innovation and post-bureaucracy: The case of the British library. Journal of Organisational Change Management, 19(1), 80-92. Harvey, D. (1990): The condition of postmodernity. Oxford: Blackwell. Heckscher, C. and A. Donnellon (1994) The Post-Bureaucratic Organisation: New Perspectives on Organisational Change. Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage. Hickey, S. (2015, October 4). The innovators: digital nomads make office sharing a reality. Retrieved November 14, 2016, from http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/oct/04/the-innovators-digital- nomadsmake-office-sharing-a-reality Hill, E. J., Miller, B. C., Weiner, S. P., & Colihan, J. (1998). Influences of the virtual office on aspects of work and work/life balance. Personnel psychology, 51(3), 667-683. Huber, G. P. (1984). The nature and design of post-industrial organisations. Management science, 30(8), 928 951. Hughes, O. E. (2012). Public management and administration. Palgrave Macmillan. Imai, T., Qiu, Z., Behara, S., Tachi, S., Aoyama, T., Johnson, A., & Leigh, J. (2000, July). Overcoming time zone differences and time management problem with tele-immersion. In the proceedings of INET (pp. 18-21). Jamali, D., Khoury, G., & Sahyoun, H. (2006). From bureaucratic organisations to learning organisations. The Learning Organisation, 13(4), 337-352. Retrieved from: doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09696470610667724 Johns, T., and Gratton, L. (2013). The third wave of virtual work. Harvard Business Review, 91(1), 66-73. Kirkman, B. L., Rosen, B., Gibson, C. B., Tesluk, P. E., & McPherson, S. O. (2002). Five challenges to
Page | 110
virtual team success: Lessons from Sabre, Inc. The Academy of Management Executive, 16(3), 67 79. Koloc, N. (2014, November 10). Let Employees Choose When, Where, and How to Work. Retrieved November 12, 2016, from https://hbr.org/2014/11/let-employees-choosewhen-where-and-how-to- Work Krystek, U., Redel, W., & Reppegather, S. (2013). Grundzüge virtueller Organisationen: Elemente und Erfolgsfaktoren, Chancen und Risiken. Springer-Verlag. Lent, Robert W., S. Brown, and Gail Hackett. "Career Development." (2013). Leonard-Barton, D., & Deschamps, I. (1988). Managerial influence in the implementation of new technology. Management science, 34(10), 1252-1265. Levels (2015, October 25): https://levels.io/future-of-digital-nomads/. Retrieved November 14, 2016. Makimoto, T., & Manners, D. (1997). Digital Nomad. Chichester: Wiley. Maravelias (2007): Freedom at work in the age of post-bureaucratic organisations, in: ephemera theory & politics in organisations; Vol. 7, Issue 4, p. 555-574. Maznevski, M. L., & Chudoba, K. M. (2000). Bridging space over time: Global virtual team dynamics and effectiveness. Organisation Science, 11 (5), 473-492. McDonnell, A., Lamare, R., Gunnigle, P., & Lavelle, J. (2010). Developing tomorrow's leaders—Evidence of global talent management in multinational enterprises. Journal of World Business, 45(2), 150-160. McKinsey September (2016): Modernizing IT for a digital era. Retrieved November 28, 2016 from http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/modernizing-it-for-a- digital-era McKinsey Quarterly April (2016): Winning the hearts and minds in the 21st century. Retrieved November 14, 2016, from http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organisation/our-insights/winning-hearts and-minds-in-the-21st-century McKinsey Quarterly January (2016): Organizing for the future. Retrieved November 14, 2016, from: http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organisation/our-insights/organizing-for-the-future McKinsey Quarterly March (2016): Managing talent in a digital age. Retrieved November 14, 2016, from http://www.mckinsey.com/industries/high-tech/our-insights/managing-talent-in-a-digital-age Meyrowitz, J. (2006). Global nomads in the digital veldt. Revista FAMECOS: mídia, cultura e tecnologia, 1(24). Mohn, T. (2014, March 19). How to Succeed at Becoming a Digital Nomad. Retrieved November 14, 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyamohn/2014/03/19/tips-forbecoming-a-successful-digital- nomad/ Mohn, T. (2015, January 19). Co-Working on Vacation: A Desk in Paradise. Retrieved November 14, 2016, from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/20/business/co-working-onvacation-a-desk-in- paradise.html?_r=0 Moore, T. D., & Serva, M. A. (2007, April). Understanding member motivation for contributing to different types of virtual communities: a proposed framework. In Proceedings of the 2007 ACM SIGMIS CPR conference on Computer personnel research: The global information technology workforce (pp. 153- 158). ACM. Moore, P. (2015, September 22). Work's a beach: meet the digital nomads making the world their office. Retrieved November 14, 2016, from http://www.theguardian.com/careers/2015/sep/22/works-a- beach-meet-digitalnomads-making-world-their-office Morrison, G. (2015, August 20). 10 Tools of the Digital Nomad (As in, Work from Anywhere). Retrieved November 14, 2016, from LII http://www.forbes.com/sites/geoffreymorrison/2015/08/20/10-tools- of-the-digitalnomad-as-in-work-from-anywhere/ Muhrbeck, A., Waller, R., & Berglund, M. (2011). Coworking: A Creative Workspace. Mulki, J. P., Bardhi, F., Lassk, F. G., & Nanavaty-Dahl, J. (2009). Set up remote workers to thrive. MIT Sloan Management Review, 51(1), 63-69. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/224962682?accountid=29104 Nauman, S., & Iqbal, S. (2005, September). Challenges of virtual project management in developing countries. In Eng Manag Conf IEEE Int (Vol. 2, pp. 579-583). New Repbulic (2014, July 18). The Google Mega-Campus Can't Compete With Coworking Spaces. Retrieved November 27, 2016, from https://newrepublic.com/article/118738/coworking-space-can-improve- creativity
Page | 111
Nilsson, N. J. (2014). Principles of artificial intelligence. Morgan Kaufmann. Nomad List (2016). Best cities for digital nomads. Retrieved November 23, 2016, from https://nomadlist.com/ Nonaka, I. (1994). A dynamic theory of organisational knowledge creation. Organisation science, 5(1), 14 37. Nutek (Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth) (1999) Flexibility Matters: Flexible Enterprises in the Nordic Countries. Stockholm: Nutek förlag. Oately, A. 1999. The Strengths and Limitations of Interviews as a Research Technique for Studying Television Viewers. Retrieved November 14, 2016 from http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/aeo9702.html Orgler, D. (2016). Comparison of Digital Nomads, Expatriates and Repatriates, Vienna University of Economics and Business oDesk. (2014, February 4). New oDesk Survey shows that the Digital Nomad Lifestyle is here to Stay. Retrieved November 14, 2016, from http://www.marketwired.com/pressrelease/new-odesk-survey- shows-that-the-digital-nomad-lifestyle-is-here-to-stay- 1875530.htm Olsen, J. P. (2006). Maybe it is time to rediscover bureaucracy. Journal of public administration research and theory, 16(1), 1-24. Olson, J. S., & Olson, G. M. (2014). How to make distance work work. Interactions, 21(2), 28. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1511438934?accountid=29104 Olson, M. H. (1983). Remote office work: changing work patterns in space and time. Communications of the ACM, 26(3), 182-187. Osberg, M. (2015, November 12). Now Working from home can be Working while seeing the World. Retrieved November 14, 2016, from http://www.wired.com/2015/12/digitalnomads-telecommuting/ Oxbridgenotes (2016): Bureaucracy And Post Bureaucracy Notes. Retrieved November 14, 2016: https://www.oxbridgenotes.co.uk/revision_notes/management-university-of-exeter-organisational behaviour/samples/bureaucracy-and-post-bureaucracy Ozgur, E. (2015): The Effects of Technological Changes on Business Environment. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/effects-technological-changes-business-environment-ozgur-ertem Patton, Michael Quinn (2002), Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods. Thousand Oaks, London, New Delhi: Sage Publications, Inc. Peterson, H. (2005) Gender, Power and Post-Bureaucracy: Work Ideals in IT Consulting. Uppsala: Universitetstryckeriet. Pollert, A. (1988) ‘The Flexible Firm Pope, C., Ziebland, S., & Mays, N. (2000). Analysing qualitative data. Bmj, 320(7227), 114-116. Repsly (2015, August 25): Retrieved December 18, 2016, from: https://www.repsly.com/blog/consumer goods/kpis-for-measuring-remote-employee-performance-and-accountability Sarker, S., Ahuja, M., Sarker, S., & Kirkeby, S. (2011). The role of communication and trust in global virtual teams: A social network perspective. Journal of Management Information Systems, 28(1), 273-310. Sharma, G. (2013, October 4): 7 Best Practices For Building Client Relationships. Retrieved November 29, 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/gaurisharma/2013/10/04/7-best-practices-for-building client-relationships/#6fa2fc06283d Speedtest (2016): ControlUp. Retrieved November 24, 2016 from http://www.speedtest.net/ Spinks, R. (2015, June 16). Meet the "digital nomads" who travel the world in search of fast Wi-Fi. Retrieved November 14, 2016, from http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/jun/16/digital-nomads-travel- world-searchfast-wi-fi Staples, D. S., Hulland, J. S., & Higgins, C. A. (1999). A self-efficacy theory explanation for the management of remote workers in virtual organisations. Organisation Science, 10(6), 758-776. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/213835689?accountid=29104 strategy& (2016). The Digitization megatrend. Retrieved November 28, 2016 from http://www.strategyand.pwc.com/global/home/what-we-think/digitization/megatrend Study.com (2016). Bureaucratic Structure in an Organisation: Definition & Explanation http://study.com/academy/lesson/bureaucratic-structure-in-an-organisation-definition lesson-quiz.html. Retrieved November 14, 2016. Symon, G. (2000). Information and communication technologies and network organisation: A critical analysis. Journal of Occupational and Organisational Psychology, 73, 389-414. Tang, J. C., Zhao, C., Cao, X., & Inkpen, K. (2011, March). Your time zone or mine?: a study of globally Page | 112
time zone-shifted collaboration. In Proceedings of the ACM 2011 conference on Computer supported cooperative work (pp. 235-244). ACM Tarique, I., and Schuler, R. S. (2010). Global talent management: Literature review, integrative framework, and suggestions for further research. Journal of world business, 45(2), 122-133. Ton van (2000): Enhancing virtual teams: Social relations v. communication technology. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 100(4), 148-156. Townsend, A. M., DeMarie, S. M., & Hendrickson, A. R. (1998). Virtual teams: Technology and the workplace of the future. The Academy of Management Executive, 12(3), 17-29. Volberda, H.W. (1998) Building the Flexible Firm: How to Remain Competitive. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Walden, S. (2015, July 23). The essential toolkit for working remotely anywhere in the world. Retrieved November 14, 2016, from http://mashable.com/2015/07/23/tools-remotework/#GR.axeqvFiqw Wasserman, T. (2014, November 10). Digital nomads travel the world while you rot in your office. Retrieved November 14, 2016, from http://mashable.com/2014/11/09/digitalnomads/#Vixd.yD_CZq9 Weber, M. (1922): Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, Tübingen: Karsten Worm. Wilding, M. (2016, July 6). Career FOMO: How to Stop 'Fear of Missing Out' From Ruining Your Happiness. Retrieved November 30, 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/melodywilding/2016/07/06/career-fomo-how-to-stop-fear-of-missing out-from-ruining-your-happiness/#5ad31fc4267b Yin, R. (2009): Case study research: design and methods. Fourth edition. Applied Social Research Methods Series. Volume 5. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Zott, C. & Amit, R. & Massa, L. 2011. The Business Model: Recent Developments and Future Research. Journal of Management, 37 (4): 1019-1042.
Page | 113