Internal Communication Strategies of Work-from-Home Teams

Abstract

The work from home arrangement provides a work environment that emphasizes the role of virtual communication in maintaining organizational functioning. This study focuses on how work-from-home teams formulate their internal communication strategies. The framework used by the study to examine the internal communication process of work-from-home teams was inspired by the input-process-output model of Marlow et al. (2017). In-depth face-to-face interviews were conducted with four managers and leaders who have a thorough understanding of their respective teams’ internal communication processes. Each team is different in terms of nature of work or business, organizational structure, and organizational outcomes. The similarities and differences across the perspectives of the respondents are discussed and each team’s communication problems and strategies are identified. Based on the findings of the study, the development of communication strategies within work-from-home teams is mainly influenced by the relationship between the leader, the team members, and the work culture.