Chapter 1: What Does “Hybrid Work” Truly Mean? The Conceptualization and Operationalization of Hybrid Work in Occupational Health Research

Hybrid work arrangements present both benefits and costs to employees’ well-being, performance, and relationships at work. However, a clear and consistent conceptualization and operationalization of hybrid work is missing in the psychological and management literature. Therefore, definitive conclusions on how hybrid work affects employees’ well-being and health based on current literature are difficult to draw. In this chapter, we offer a unified framework of hybrid work by defining hybrid work and providing specific measurement recommendations for capturing hybrid work arrangements. To this end, we conducted a comprehensive review of the hybrid work literature. Our findings show that current research uses a variety of terms and definitions for hybrid work. Additionally, the operationalization of hybrid work has predominantly focused on the frequency with which employees work away from a company-based workplace. Therefore, current research overemphasizes a single feature of hybrid work while overlooking others, such as hybrid work control, that could clarify which hybrid work features promote and which undermine occupational health outcomes. Based on our findings and the conceptual and measurement gaps identified in the review, we propose a comprehensive definition of hybrid work and provide specific recommendations on the measurement of various hybrid work features that will increase the comparability of results across studies and offer new research avenues to gain a clearer understanding of the opportunities, risks, and dynamics presented by hybrid work arrangements. Such insights are essential in advancing occupational health research in the context of hybrid work and informing hybrid work policies in teams and organizations.