Doing Differently: Enactment, experience, and emergence of new ways of working when foundational work practices are disrupted

Abstract

Moments in which foundational work practices are disrupted can confront individuals and teams with the need to “do” work differently, enacting new and unfamiliar practices in place of established ways of working. This dissertation examines how new ways of working come into being through this process of doing differently and how they shape individuals’ experiences of work. Specifically, it addresses the question: How do individuals and teams recalibrate their relationship to work when the foundational practices that organize work are disrupted? In one empirical and one theoretical chapter, this dissertation focuses on the enactment of new work practices as individuals and teams confront disruption to established ways of working. The empirical chapter draws on interview data from middle managers at a professional services firm to examine how individuals recalibrate their relationship to work by crafting provisional fit when their organization’s culture is destabilized. The theoretical chapter develops a framework to explain how teams enact remote work arrangements and how these enactments can shape experiences of psychological safety in a world where remote work is increasingly common and foundational practices such as colocation can no longer be assumed. Taken together, this research shows that doing differently can reshape how people experience and relate to their work, and that these experiences play a central role in how new work practices emerge over time. Overall, this dissertation makes overarching contributions to the work practices and future of work literatures, while the individual empirical and theoretical chapters each contribute to additional literatures, including person-environment fit, psychological safety, and telecommuting and virtual teams.