Table 1 Differences in impact of the... | Emerald Publishing

Table 1

Differences in impact of the remote and hybrid work models on teamwork and team dynamics

	Remote work model	Hybrid work model
Communication	A team that is purely remote is easier to manage as everyone faces the same challenges	The problem of asynchronous communication, in particular across time zones, remains with the move to the hybrid model. While it helped make communication easier, when F2F, it created a new problem: because of proximity, some people could not have better access to team management and to informal team interaction, leading to differences in the quality of communication across the team members
Communication	The key communication challenge is one of difficulties in capturing non-verbal messages and ambiguous responses. This makes it difficult to understand team members
Coordination	Team coordination requires additional planning and tools. Achieving visibility on work performance and results consumes much more time. It is beneficial to rely on tools/dashboards and to limit the number of persons one supervisor coordinates	The hybrid work model requires additional planning to ensure that the little face-to-face time the team has is optimally used for tasks that are best performed F2F, in particular brainstorming, team building, strategic discussions, defining objectives and purpose
Connection	It is necessary to really think through and intentionally plan meetings, and implement processes to drive the required connectedness across the team	Hybrid work exposed the team to the creation of ‘fault lines’ as people living in the same location could now meet while they were still unable to meet with the entire team
Creativity	Fostering creativity as something generated with others is difficult to achieve remotely. It is important to hire people with high openness and curiosity because they are better at managing themselves and more creative in a remote work setting	Hybrid work re-opens opportunity for meetings conducive to creativity
Culture	A fully remote team is able to create its own culture, which is not marginalized by local office culture. However, the team then becomes an island that can easily separate from the overall organization	F2F work is hugely beneficial for onboarding new joiners into a team and into organizational culture. The F2F time is an opportunity for the organization to instil its unique culture and atmosphere

	Remote work model	Hybrid work model
Communication	A team that is purely remote is easier to manage as everyone faces the same challenges	The problem of asynchronous communication, in particular across time zones, remains with the move to the hybrid model. While it helped make communication easier, when F2F, it created a new problem: because of proximity, some people could not have better access to team management and to informal team interaction, leading to differences in the quality of communication across the team members
Communication	The key communication challenge is one of difficulties in capturing non-verbal messages and ambiguous responses. This makes it difficult to understand team members
Coordination	Team coordination requires additional planning and tools. Achieving visibility on work performance and results consumes much more time. It is beneficial to rely on tools/dashboards and to limit the number of persons one supervisor coordinates	The hybrid work model requires additional planning to ensure that the little face-to-face time the team has is optimally used for tasks that are best performed F2F, in particular brainstorming, team building, strategic discussions, defining objectives and purpose
Connection	It is necessary to really think through and intentionally plan meetings, and implement processes to drive the required connectedness across the team	Hybrid work exposed the team to the creation of ‘fault lines’ as people living in the same location could now meet while they were still unable to meet with the entire team
Creativity	Fostering creativity as something generated with others is difficult to achieve remotely. It is important to hire people with high openness and curiosity because they are better at managing themselves and more creative in a remote work setting	Hybrid work re-opens opportunity for meetings conducive to creativity
Culture	A fully remote team is able to create its own culture, which is not marginalized by local office culture. However, the team then becomes an island that can easily separate from the overall organization	F2F work is hugely beneficial for onboarding new joiners into a team and into organizational culture. The F2F time is an opportunity for the organization to instil its unique culture and atmosphere

Source(s): Own elaboration