Governing relational opportunity in hybrid work: structural relational deprivation and the reproduction of workplace inequality.

Abstract

Hybrid work changes not only where employees work but also how they access the relationships through which information, support, development and recognition are obtained. This article argues that employee relations scholarship has paid insufficient attention to how organisations govern and distribute this access. It introduces relational opportunity governance, defined as the formal and informal rules, managerial decisions, technological arrangements, resource allocations and voice institutions through which access to employment-relevant relationships is enabled, constrained and contested. It also develops structural relational deprivation, a work-system condition in which such access is persistently, systematically and consequentially restricted or unevenly distributed across identifiable groups, roles or organisational arrangements. Drawing on a critical integrative review of South African and international scholarship on hybrid work, employee relations, organisational inequality, workplace networks and digital communication, the article identifies eligibility, temporal coordination, developmental and informational arrangements, performance-evaluation and recognition arrangements, material provision and voice institutions. It proposes that restricted relational access may weaken employees' network position, relational confidence, visibility and organisational influence, thereby reducing their capacity to exercise effective voice and challenge the arrangements that produced the disadvantage. Exposure may vary across occupational, organisational and materially differentiated groups, although demographic patterns require direct empirical investigation. The article reconceptualises hybrid work as a question of governance, power and distributive fairness rather than location or communication frequency. Six propositions and a provisional governance typology are advanced to guide future multilevel and longitudinal research.