How are communication and invisibilization experienced by teleworkers and how may it re-regulate collaboration?

Details

Supervisors

Taskin, Laurent

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [120] : ingénieur de gestion, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many employees or managers have worked in a context of intense despatialization. For everyone, the situation was unprecedented: lockdown and forced telework. Although the pandemic context has passed, intense practice of despatialization remains. Nowadays, teleworking is considered as a norm in the labour market. This thesis questions the experiences of teleworking on collaboration, specifically focusing on the lived experiences of the teleworkers regarding two challenges: the invisibilization of work and communication, and how it may re-regulate collaboration. First, the theoretical concepts of despatialization and collaboration will be defined based on the existing literature. Then, the challenges of collaboration while teleworking will the highlighted with their consequences on close related concepts. Additionally, ten semi-structured interviews were conducted to complete thematic analysis and answer the research question (and the two sub- questions), supplementing the theoretical contribution. This thesis has for objective to study the experiences regarding the invisibilization of work and communication of the teleworkers. Key factors for enabling remote communication and management practices to address the invisibility of the worker, as well as organizational practices to ensure the well- being of the worker, will be introduced based on the contributions of the literature and the interviews.