Digital cohesion and organizational effectiveness in hybrid work: a multi-case qualitative study of digital social capital

Abstract

This study examines how hybrid and remote work structures enable or constrain the formation of digital social capital within organizations and how this relates to perceived organizational effectiveness. It aims to bridge productivity-focused and well-being-oriented perspectives by analyzing how relational and technological infrastructures jointly shape the experience of working effectively in hybrid contexts. Adopting an interpretivist, multi-case qualitative design, the study investigates three multinational firms operating hybrid and remote configurations. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, digital ethnography and organizational documents. The analysis integrates social capital theory and sociomateriality to explore how leaders and employees sustain connection and coordination across digital boundaries. The study develops the concept of digital cohesion – the alignment of relational trust and functional synchrony maintained through digital artefacts, communication routines and leadership practices. The findings show how structural, relational and cognitive dimensions of digital social capital are enacted through sociomaterial arrangements in hybrid work systems and how digital cohesion emerges as a key mechanism through which digitally mediated relationships are experienced as effective, reliable and sustainable. The findings offer actionable insights for leaders and HR professionals seeking to design inclusive, cohesive and high-performing hybrid workplaces. They underscore the importance of intentionally cultivating digital cohesion by curating communication ecologies, clarifying digital norms and routines, and embedding practices that support trust, psychological safety and predictable coordination across locations. This research extends social capital theory into digitally enabled work contexts by showing how structural, relational, and cognitive social capital are produced and mobilized through digital interaction histories and platform practices. It also contributes to sociomaterial understandings of hybrid organizing by articulating digital cohesion as an integrative analytic category that links digital social capital to perceived organizational effectiveness, offering a processual account of how technology and relationships co-evolve in hybrid organizations.