The social construction of the workplace and the practice of remote work

The paper addresses the transition from office work to telework and its outcomes for employees' identification and the role of place therein. The study shows that people's answer to the question 'where do I work?' is a key factor in the process of transitioning from office work to telework and its outcomes for employees and organizations. Introducing the social construction of the workplace makes two contributions to research. First, it establishes a link between research on the structural conditions shaping remote work, such as the remote work arrangement and task, with the meaning that people attribute to their workplace and which will inform how they experience and enact the transition to remote work. Second, it integrates the role of meanings with the role of practices in the explanation of the link between people's use of IT and the effects of IT in organizations.