Commentary: A Space for Place in Business Communication Research Updated

Abstract

In a Commentary published in 2017, I urged researchers to consider place both as a setting and an agent fostering collaborative practices in open-plan corporate offices (Andrews, 2017). This Commentary updates that article. The 2020 pandemic shuttered offices and sent individuals home, where they are gaining new habits and personal control in working remotely. To lure reluctant workers back to the office, companies are reimagining and redesigning their workplaces—a biophilic perspective helps—as homey studios or collaboration centers which an individual might choose to come to for the in-person gatherings unavailable at home. Hybrid strategies, negotiated with empathy between employees and employers, are emerging to manage work life and individual well-being across these principal workplaces.