Reconfiguring Digital Embeddedness in Hybrid Work : The Case of Employee Experience Management Platforms

As organisations respond to the increasing preference for hybrid work, employee experience management (EXM) platforms are becoming integral to transforming employees’ experiences in hybrid workplaces. In this paper we theorize that EXM platforms are implanted into the workflow through digital embeddedness, which is appropriated and reconfigured through the interactions between human and digital subsystems in hybrid work. We adopt the lens of digital/human interaction to explore the reciprocal process of how EXM platforms configure and are reconfigured in hybrid work. Based on a case study of Microsoft Viva, an AI-based EXM platform, we propose a conceptual model that identifies two dimensions of digital embeddedness: digital/human embeddedness and digital/workplace embeddedness. The study contributes to a theoretical understanding of digital embeddedness as a dynamic process whilst also showing the reconfiguration of hybrid work practices evidences a joint optimization. The study further contributes insights into how hybrid work, which resulted from the enforced remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic, continues to emerge due to the digital embeddedness of EXM platforms in the flow of hybrid work

Digital Embeddedness and its Effect on Organizational Decision-Making

Popular media suggests that the emerging millenial workforce makes business-to-business purchase decisions more rigorously, because of its increased reliance on digital information sources. This argument seemingly contradicts extant research, which indicates that organizational buyers rely on decision shortcuts (e.g., brand) to mitigate risks or simplify decisions. Furthermore, the use of digital sources has been shown to reinforce biases. In this study, we leverage the Accessibility-Diagnosticity information processing framework to introduce a Digital Embeddedness construct that conceptualizes the extent to which information from digital sources is integral to an individual’s decision-making. Using survey data from 196 purchasing managers, we find that while buyers who rely more on digital sources rely less on some decision shortcuts, namely loyalty, they also use these sources to reinforce reliance on other shortcuts, including brand and peer opinions. Implications are discussed for digital marketing, and for understanding the effect of digital sources on organizational decision-making