 Employee-Office Workplace Alignment in Hybrid Work SettingsMartin Christian Höcker Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) from Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) Abstract: In the context of structural change in the economy and society, it is not only organisations and their business models that have to adapt continuously. Work itself is also undergoing constant transformation. In the case of knowledge work, this is reflected in hybrid working enabled by digitalisation and flexibilisation. Office work is no longer performed solely from the office. Within organisational boundaries, employees working in hybrid settings can choose autonomously and flexibly between the office, working from home and working in third locations. When employees consider their preferred place of work, the office often is not the favoured location. As a result, many employees want to do their work primarily outside the office. From an organisational perspective, however, the office plays an im-portant role. It contributes to the organisation’s success at the levels of employees, teams, individual business units, and the entire organisation. To leverage this potential, many organisations want employees to return to working in the office. However, a mandated return to the office is not a suitable strategy due to its negative consequences, such as declining satisfaction and rising resignation rates. Many organisations are therefore striving to attract employees back to the office by providing an attractive working environment. In practice, they face the challenge that it is still unclear to many what measures can be taken to enhance the office’s appeal. Even the research available to answer this question remains fragmented and underdeveloped. Embedded in the research framework of Employee-Workplace Alignment theory, the five research articles that constitute this cumulative dissertation address this research gap. The first research article examines the negative consequences of misalignment between employees and the workplace. To this end, survey data from German office workers are analysed to determine the extent to which hybrid working affects burnout. The results show that both increased remote work and greater work autonomy reduce burnout. The effect of remote working on burnout is mediated by work autonomy. Hybrid working can thus be classified as a resource for employees. The study shows that a misalignment between em-ployees and the workplace can have negative health consequences. The study demonstrates that traditional offices are apparently still not well adapted to employees’ needs. The second article examines the factors influencing work success and workplace choice in hybrid settings. A best-worst scaling study of German office workers examines 34 environ-mental, personal and job-related factors. It analyses the extent to which individual factors influence satisfaction and productivity as important determinants of work success, and the extent to which these factors influence employees’ considerations regarding different work locations in hybrid settings. The results show that factors related to work success are highly correlated with factors related to workplace choice. Furthermore, the results show that job-related factors in particular influence work success and workplace choice. The results pro-vide organisations and their departments with insights for the design of hybrid work settings. Since environmental factors play only a minor role in employees’ work success, the results also show that offices are apparently not yet sufficiently adapted to the requirements of hybrid work. The third article addresses the question of what measures can be taken to better adapt offices to the requirements of hybrid work. Based on 25 expert interviews with corporate real estate managers and the quantitative verification of the qualitative results, quantitative, qualitative, and location-related measures for the transformation of offices are examined. The results illustrate that corporate real estate management is facing increasingly complex tasks. The respondents agree that the quantitative demand for office space will decline. However, there is still significant uncertainty about the measures for qualitative space upgrading. What is certain is that offices will undergo a flight to quality. This is also reflected in the question of future office locations. In the future, attractive locations with stimulating surroundings will be in particular demand. The fourth article also addresses the adaption of offices to the requirements of hybrid settings. In particular, the article explores the extent to which employees’ personalities influence their office needs and preferences. To this end, survey data from German office workers is analysed. The respondents are first clustered according to their needs and prefer-ences. Cluster membership is then explained using multinomial logistic regression based on employees’ personalities. The results show that a heterogeneous workforce has different office requirements. There is therefore no one-size-fits-all solution for workplace planning. Furthermore, personality explains employees’ cluster membership. Consequently, future office planning should take the human factor into account to a greater extent than before. The last article examines the role of organisational context in improving alignment between employees and office workplaces. Specifically, a moderation analysis examines whether a corporate culture geared towards office presence moderates the effect of workplace satisfac-tion on the desire to work in the office. Positive effects of both office workplace satisfaction and a corporate culture geared towards working in the office on the desire to work in the office are identified. The assumed moderating effect of organisational culture can also be observed. The results thus show not only that an increase in the attractiveness of the office is accompanied by a greater willingness to return voluntarily. The article also shows that the full potential of workplace measures can only be realised through a coordinated approach with the organisational context. The article thus emphasises the need for organisation-wide coordinated measures to create better alignment between employees and the office work-place. Overall, this dissertation offers a holistic view of how offices in hybrid settings can be better adapted to employees’ needs. It not only provides important insights for business practice but also supplements theoretical knowledge of the alignment between employees and the physical work environment. In particular, the article’s theoretical implications for the devel-opment of Employee-Workplace Alignment theory are discussed. The dissertation thus serves as a starting point for further research into the alignment between employees and office environments. Date: 2026-06-17 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:dar:wpaper:161045 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) from Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) Contact information at EDIRC. |
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