Is distance dead? Face-to-face communication and productivity in teams

Diego Battiston, Jordi Blanes i Vidal and Tom Kirchmaier ()

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Has technology made face-to-face communication redundant? We investigate using a natural experiment in an organisation where a worker must communicate complex electronic information to a colleague. Productivity is higher when the teammates are (exogenously) in the same room and, inside the room, when their desks are closer together. We establish face-to-face communication as the main mechanism, and rule out alternative channels such as higher effort by co-located workers. The effect is stronger for urgent and complex tasks, for homogeneous workers, and for high pressure conditions.We highlight the opportunity costs of face-to-face communication and their dependence on organisational slack.

Keywords: teamwork; face-to-face communication; distance; organisations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J01 R14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 60 pages
Date: 2017-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-hrm, nep-ict and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/83603/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Is distance dead? Face-to-face communication and productivity in teams (2017)
Working Paper: Is Distance Dead? Face-to-Face Communication and Productivity in Teams (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:83603

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