Organising for thin places during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

This study aims to investigate some of the socio-spatial aspects of thickness and thinness in large Swedish organisations that arose from working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. The questions that this study aimed to answer are ‘How do representatives who manage their staff by allowing or restricting WFH in public and private organisations describe how aspects of thickness, in terms of physical proximity and social relations, changed when their staff worked from home during the pandemic? How can organisational thickness and thinness be further developed to understand the detachment of workers from their working places in terms of consequences for the location and size of offices, leadership, control, and management?ʼ. The study shows that organisations have been able to adjust and develop strategies for coping with long periods of absence from offices and that thin places can be created with the help of technology. Finally, the study shows that the pandemic may have future consequences regarding how work is organised, for instance, in terms of how large office spaces are needed and where these offices should be located.