Hybrid work environments – Implications for leadership

Since the 2000s due to increasing popularity of digital devices and the establishment of social media, virtual work environments are evolving. Just recently, the Covid-19 pandemic has powered this evolution. Working from home, a form of virtual work environment and before Covid-19 pandemic only applied by very few companies, is now a familiar term and present in almost every company worldwide. During the Covid-19 pandemic, applying working from home was a mandatory decision in many companies and industries in order to keep the business running. However, since the intense phase of the Covid-19 pandemic thankfully is over, a solely focus on working from home is not mandatory anymore. Therefore, a new form of working, hybrid work, started becoming a popular phenomenon. Hybrid work environments are characterized by employees working remotely at home or elsewhere during part of the week and the rest of week physically from the office. However, traditional leadership theories are based on employees being physically present. Therefore, hybrid work environments challenge existing leadership theories. This thesis paper intends to investigate the implications hybrid work environments have on leadership and how leadership needs to adapt to hybrid work environments. In order to investigate the subject, qualitative research in form of qualitative interviews with experts from the automotive industry was conducted. After analyzing the results, implications hybrid work environments have on leadership are defined and suggestions on how leadership needs to adapt to hybrid work environments are given.