Beyond the office walls: Exploring trust and knowledge sharing in the hybrid work setting -A qualitative study on employees' perception of the challenges and opportunities when adopting the hybrid work setting

Abstract: The covid-19 pandemic has led to many changes for organizations and has accelerated the shift from a traditional work model to a hybrid one. The purpose of this study is to deepen the understanding of how trust and knowledge sharing have been impacted by the hybrid work setting from an employee’s perspective. To achieve this, the study uses a qualitative approach with an abductive design. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with Swedish employees from three different industries that operate in the greater area of Gothenburg, Sweden. The findings show that there are challenges in building non-work-related relationships which have a negative effect on trust as well as creating trust with new colleagues. Further, the findings show that explicit knowledge has been impacted positively while tacit knowledge has been impacted negatively. The hybrid work setting has given more flexibility to employees, which has positively affected their work-life balance and enhanced productivity.