Remote workers thriving in co-working spaces:: a configurational analysis.

The present study investigates what drives thriving at work for remote workers in coworking spaces. Coworking spaces are flexible work environments involving individuals from various occupational backgrounds that work in shared, collaborative workspaces that are usually deemed as vibrant and supportive. Coworking spaces reflect significant changes in economic activity due to the increase in digital and location-independent knowledge work. These changes have been further accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, with many companies relying on coworking spaces to host their employees who work remotely. These trends make coworking spaces an ever-more relevant and complex phenomenon. Within this scenario, acknowledging the complexity and importance of coworking spaces, recent literature calls for a more fine-grained understanding of how coworking spaces help achieve positive psychological outcomes such as thriving at work (e.g., represented by a joint sense of vitality and learning at work). A greater understanding of the drivers of remote workers’ thriving in coworking spaces can help coworking providers and employing companies define work arrangements that suit the different – and sometimes conflicting – needs, motives, and psychological experiences of remote workers. Acknowledging the complex set of interrelationships that can underlie thriving at work, this study leverages complexity theory and a qualitative comparative analysis research approach to uncover six different, yet equifinal, configurations of antecedents that drive remote workers’ thriving in coworking spaces.