Understanding the Difference between Office Presence and Co-presence in Team Member Interactions

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorMoe, Nils Brede
dc.contributor.authorUlsaker , Simen
dc.contributor.authorHildrum, Jarle Moss
dc.contributor.authorSmite, Darja
dc.contributor.authorAy , Fehime Ceren
dc.date.accessioned2023-12-26T18:53:18Z
dc.date.available2023-12-26T18:53:18Z
dc.date.issued2024-01-03
dc.identifier.doi10.24251/HICSS.2023.873
dc.identifier.isbn978-0-9981331-7-1
dc.identifier.otherec89ee29-6f36-41b8-a193-fa4fadb6813d
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10125/107259
dc.language.isoeng
dc.relation.ispartofProceedings of the 57th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
dc.rightsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.subjectAgile and Lean: Organizations, Products and Development
dc.subjectagile teamwork
dc.subjectcase study
dc.subjecthybrid software development
dc.subjectlarge-scale agile.
dc.titleUnderstanding the Difference between Office Presence and Co-presence in Team Member Interactions
dc.typeConference Paper
dc.type.dcmiText
dcterms.abstractAlthough the public health emergency related to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has officially ended, many software developers still work partly from home. Agile teams that coordinate their office time foster a sense of unity, collaboration, and cohesion among team members. In contrast, teams with limited co-presence may experience challenges in establishing psychological safety and developing a cohesive and inclusive team culture, potentially hindering effective communication, knowledge sharing, and trust building. Therefore, the effect of agile team members not being co-located daily must be investigated. We explore the co-presence patterns of 17 agile teams in a large agile telecommunications company whose employees work partly from home. Based on office access card data, we found significant variation in co-presence practices. Some teams exhibited a coordinated approach, ensuring team members are simultaneously present at the office. However, other teams demonstrated fragmented co-presence, with only small subgroups of members meeting in person and the remainder rarely interacting with their team members face-to-face. Thus, high average office presence in the team does not necessarily imply that team members meet often in person at the office. In contrast, non-coordinated teams may have both high average office presence and low frequency of in-person interactions among the members. Our results suggest that the promotion of mere office presence without coordinated co-presence is based on a false assumption that good average attendance levels guarantee frequent personal interactions. These findings carry important implications for research on long-term team dynamics and practice.
dcterms.extent10 pages
prism.startingpage7280

Files

Collections

Agile and Lean: Organizations, Products and Development