Making sense of teamwork in mobile hybrid teams: a lexical analysis

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to investigate the ways mobile hybrid team members make sense of their teamwork. Design/methodology/approach Using surveys, this study examined 579 US-based mobile hybrid team members as they discussed their professional team activities. Leximancer software determined, through frequency and co-occurrence analysis of survey-resulting unstructured data sets, the themes mobile hybrid team members use to make sense of their teamwork. Findings Participants included the concepts Team, Technology, Communication, Context and Time relative to 25 specific content themes within their talk about teamwork. While thematic clusters such as Team and Communication were densely packed, Technology and Time co-occurred more widely in support of other content themes within the mobile hybrid team member data set. This suggests mobile technologies pervade mobile hybrid team members’ sensemaking about their work. Originality/value A first of its kind inquiry into how mobile hybrid team members make sense of work and performance within their teams, this study highlights the need to explore further how mobile hybrid team members frame and enact technological processes as integral to their organizational work and team outcomes.