Manager-Employee Relations at the Hybrid Workplace

Organizations are facing an unprecedented demand for flexible work arrangements, sparking a critical discussion: What is the future of work? Hybrid work—a blend of in-office and remote work—has emerged as a potential long-term model, and many organizations are currently experimenting with different approaches to flexibility and "work-from-home" days. This is reshaping the spatiotemporal boundaries of work (i.e., where and when work happens) (Sewell & Taskin, 2015) particularly for line managers, altering how they supervise and interact with both employees and top managers in their daily tasks (Barber et al., 2023; Ipsen et al., 2022; Teng-Calleja et al., 2024). Despite these changes, most research on hybrid work has focused primarily on employees’ perspectives and experiences (Ajzen & Taskin, 2021; Boell et al., 2016), leaving a gap in understanding how line managers navigate hybrid work and its impact on the manager-employee relationship. This PhD research aims to address this gap by (1) examining how line managers in Danish public administrations experience and make sense of their evolving roles as ‘hybrid work managers,’ and (2) investigating how the hybrid work model influences the manager-employee relationship.

Research approach

This project involves a case study examining the transition to a hybrid work model in five public administrative departments in Denmark. A mixed-methods approach is employed, combining qualitative and quantitative data collection through semi-structured interviews with line managers, focus group interviews with employees, and a survey questionnaire distributed to both managers and employees. This PhD research is part of the SPACE project, a collaborative initiative between the Technical University of Denmark and the HK Trade Union.

Keywords

Hybrid work, remote work, telework, line managers, sensemaking, organizational tensions, manager-employee relationship, psychological contract, organizational justice

Publications

Hasle et al. (2024). Managing the multilevel tensions of hybrid work. In C. Biron, J. Dextras, Gauthier, C.L. Cooper (Eds.), Research Handbook on Psychosocial Conditions at Work: Interventions to Prevent Recognised and Emerging Psychosocial Risks, Edward Elgar publications. (accepted/in press).