Interpersonal Connectivity Work: Being there with and for geographically distant others

Abstract

In this paper we ask how interpersonal connectivity can be achieved at a geographic distance. This is in contrast with extant literature that focuses on states of connectivity rather than the work needed to achieve it. We draw on phenomenological ideas of embodiment, presence, and distance, in combination with empirical material from an extreme remote work context - telenursing in Australia. The nurses we interviewed triage patients entirely by telephone. We argue that even with low social and technical connectivity, interpersonal connectivity is achievable through skilful work with technology. We explore the work that goes into ‘being there with and for distant others’ by combining the phenomenological concepts of ‘maximal grip’ and ‘intentional arc’ with empirical examples. We propose that interpersonal connectivity is oriented empathetically towards both the other person and agentically towards the joint situation. We thereby develop a conceptual model of interpersonal connectivity work, which argues that distributed workers need to skilfully balance the dualities of freedom/control and nearness/farness to achieve interpersonal connectivity. Achieving and maintaining interpersonal connectivity is an important skill, particularly for leaders who operate in work contexts that are increasingly distributed, flexible, and temporary.

Productive and connected while working from home: what client-facing remote workers can learn from telenurses about ‘belonging through technology’

“…Through this process we learned that triaging over the phone requires considerably different skills to those needed in hospital wards. This is corroborated by prior literature (see Ernesäter et al, 2009;Hafermalz & Riemer, 2020;Snooks et al, 2008;Wahlberg & Wredling, 2001). The work that went into figuring out this new way of nursing was significant, as was the challenge of dealing with setbacks and difficult calls.…”

Connectivity in and around Organizations: Waves, tensions and trade-offs

“…Meanwhile, Ella Hafermalz and Kai Riemer (2020) suggest that it is quality, not quantity, that really matters in personal connectivity practices. Investigating remote medical care service providers, they discover that interpersonal connectivity can be effectively and efficiently established over low-tech media (i.e.…”

Control and Surveillance in Work Practice: Cultivating Paradox in ‘New’ Modes of Organizing

“…The shift from office-based work to telework, from direct supervision to distance management, from face-to-face to technology-mediated communication, from co-located teams to various forms of virtual and physical collaboration, from pre-defined work time to ‘flex time’ (Bailey & Kurland, 2002; Brocklehurst, 2001; Gonsalves, 2020; Hafermalz & Riemer, 2020; Kurland & Egan, 1999; Sewell & Taskin, 2015; Tietze & Musson, 2005; Wilson, O’Leary, Metiu, & Jett, 2008), in particular during the Covid-19 crisis (Leonardi, 2021), raises many paradoxical organizational challenges, not least a continuing and indeed tightening association of autonomy with surveillance and control, along with the organizational question of understanding, anticipating and controlling what is beyond the sensory purview of managerial practice (Dambrin, 2004; Halford, 2005; Sewell, 2012). Though in response surveillance is becoming mobile, flexible, pervasive and unbounded (Bauman & Lyon, 2013; Hansen & Weiskopf, 2021), and so in turn control is becoming more a capillary than an overt force, organization is being mediated by technological processes whose incessant spread is accompanied by an unruliness that upsets the hitherto unchallenged coupling of work practice and managerial oversight.…”