The social glue of the workplace? Informal communication and organisational identification after the outbreak of COVID-19
(2021) SKOM12 20211Department of Strategic Communication
- Abstract
- Due to COVID-19, many organisations have switched to a predominantly remote working environment. Whereas formal meetings have quickly been integrated, informal commu-nication appears to be more difficult online. Despite the importance of informal commu-nication and several positive outcomes of informal communication on employees, this aspect has largely been neglected in organisational communication research. This study problematises the change in informal communication after the outbreak of COVID-19 as well as the lack of research on informal communication in organisations by taking an employee perspective and using theoretical concepts of sensemaking and organisational identification. The purpose of this study is therefore to shed light... (More)
- Due to COVID-19, many organisations have switched to a predominantly remote working environment. Whereas formal meetings have quickly been integrated, informal commu-nication appears to be more difficult online. Despite the importance of informal commu-nication and several positive outcomes of informal communication on employees, this aspect has largely been neglected in organisational communication research. This study problematises the change in informal communication after the outbreak of COVID-19 as well as the lack of research on informal communication in organisations by taking an employee perspective and using theoretical concepts of sensemaking and organisational identification. The purpose of this study is therefore to shed light on informal communi-cation between employees after the outbreak of COVID-19, to examine which conse-quences the outbreak of COVID-19 does entail upon the organisational identification of Novo Nordisk employees and how these two concepts are intertwined. To address this purpose, a case study based on Novo Nordisk was conducted and empirical material was collected using qualitative interviews with Novo Nordisk employees. The results indicate that, despite stressing the importance of informal conversations, employees perceive a major change in informal communication after the outbreak of COVID-19 which includes that informal communication becomes formalised in a digital environment. Surprisingly, the findings moreover show that informal communication can both decrease or increase when working remotely. Furthermore, the results suggest that informal communication and organisational identity are closely interconnected, as employees can experience dif-ficulties with maintaining a sense of belonging to their organisation and can feel detached after informal communication has largely been eliminated as a result of COVID-19. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9053264
- author
- Ehlers, Greta LU
- supervisor
-
- Mats Heide LU
- organization
- course
- SKOM12 20211
- year
- 2021
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- informal communication, organisational identification, organisational com-munication, COVID-19, sensemaking
- language
- English
- id
- 9053264
- date added to LUP
- 2021-07-01 10:20:01
- date last changed
- 2021-07-01 10:20:01
@misc{9053264,
abstract = {{Due to COVID-19, many organisations have switched to a predominantly remote working environment. Whereas formal meetings have quickly been integrated, informal commu-nication appears to be more difficult online. Despite the importance of informal commu-nication and several positive outcomes of informal communication on employees, this aspect has largely been neglected in organisational communication research. This study problematises the change in informal communication after the outbreak of COVID-19 as well as the lack of research on informal communication in organisations by taking an employee perspective and using theoretical concepts of sensemaking and organisational identification. The purpose of this study is therefore to shed light on informal communi-cation between employees after the outbreak of COVID-19, to examine which conse-quences the outbreak of COVID-19 does entail upon the organisational identification of Novo Nordisk employees and how these two concepts are intertwined. To address this purpose, a case study based on Novo Nordisk was conducted and empirical material was collected using qualitative interviews with Novo Nordisk employees. The results indicate that, despite stressing the importance of informal conversations, employees perceive a major change in informal communication after the outbreak of COVID-19 which includes that informal communication becomes formalised in a digital environment. Surprisingly, the findings moreover show that informal communication can both decrease or increase when working remotely. Furthermore, the results suggest that informal communication and organisational identity are closely interconnected, as employees can experience dif-ficulties with maintaining a sense of belonging to their organisation and can feel detached after informal communication has largely been eliminated as a result of COVID-19.}},
author = {{Ehlers, Greta}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{The social glue of the workplace? Informal communication and organisational identification after the outbreak of COVID-19}},
year = {{2021}},
}