Is Distance Dead? Face-to-Face Communication and Productivity in Teams
Jordi Blanes i Vidal,
Tom Kirchmaier () and
Diego Battiston
No 11924, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers
Abstract:
Has technology made face-to-face communication redundant? We investigate using a natural experiment in an organisation where a worker must communicate complex electronic information to a colleague. Productivity is higher when the teammates are (exogenously) in the same room and, inside the room, when their desks are closer together. We establish face-to-face communication as the main mechanism, and rule out alternative channels such as higher effort by co-located workers. The effect is stronger for urgent and complex tasks, for homogeneous workers, and for high pressure conditions. We highlight the opportunity costs of face-to-face communication and their dependence on organisational slack.
JEL-codes: D23 M11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hrm and nep-ict
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)
Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP11924 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org
Related works:
Working Paper: Is distance dead? Face-to-face communication and productivity in teams (2017)
Working Paper: Is distance dead? Face-to-face communication and productivity in teams (2017)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11924
Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP11924
Access Statistics for this paper
More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().