Happy at home - A qualitative study of employee work satisfaction related to team communication in virtual administrative work

Sammanfattning: We have been forced into a new reality and new ways of working due to the Covid-19 pandemic, during which remote work has become the new normal in many workplaces. Working in virtual teams creates many opportunities for organizations to develop with society using modern technology. Nonetheless, many still argue that face-to-face communication is a richer medium for organizations to coordinate their teams and to develop high quality transactive memory systems within the teams rather than communicating in digital channels. There is a lack in previous research that indicates the effects of virtual teams on the outcomes of transactive memory systems. In the thesis, we focus on the affective outcomes, explicitly employee satisfaction, which is lacking in research, both regarding transactive memory systems and a disruption such as the COVID-19 pandemic that forced virtual teams onto organizations. The thesis aims to gather implications from complementing theory and empirics, investigating if possible changes in affective outcomes could be a result of changes in TMS or solemnly changes in moderators such as virtual settings, and environmental turbulence. The purpose is to contribute to research by filling the empirical gap of dynamic use of virtual settings and disruptions as moderating effects in the relation of TMS leading to changes in satisfaction among employees, meaning affective outcomes. Through a qualitative case study in a complex administrative department of a large multinational retail bank which came up with a hybrid solution for their employees, 12 in-depth interviews were conducted. Our findings imply that while the transactive memory systems are affected by virtual teams, generally stalled in a team with an already functioning transactive memory system, the employee satisfaction still remained rather high, leading us to believe it might be the bearings of the COVID-19 pandemic that has employees easier comply with the new ways of working. Findings from the study contribute new insights to theory and practice to the field of research and broaden the perspective on how to manage virtual teams to foster transactive memory systems and employee satisfaction.