HOW DIGITALIZATION OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION AFFECTS EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND CONSEQUENTLY PERCEIVED LIFE SATISFACTION

HOW DIGITALIZATION OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION EFFECTS EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND CONSEQUENTLY PERCEIVED LIFE SATISFACTION Post-pandemic working patterns are going to accelerate many pre-existing trends. The average employee wants to work from home almost half the time, while employers do not share this approach. This overlapping of home and office already has and will continue to have vast consequences. It will force both, organizations, and employees, to raise their game. It will lead to changes in all aspects of work and create bigger divides. It will also bring improvement. Managers will have to communicate better and stop expecting employees to pick up information by osmosis. To understand new patterns of communication and how they affect employees’ lives, this project aims to develop a theory of internal communication preference and explore how it connects perceived digital channel value, culture, personality, social exchange quality indicators, engagement, and life satisfaction. Main questions driving the project are: • How does digitalization of communication channels affect internal communication, engagement, and life satisfaction of employees in a post-pandemic world? • How do culture orientation and personality traits determine internal communication preferences? • What are the solutions to designing optimal internal communication systems in a new digital society? The project has four objectives: 1. Describe a theoretical and conceptual framework for assessment of internal communication in diverse contexts. 2. Explain the link between digital communication preferences and internal communication. 3. Predict the potential effect of cultural orientation and personality traits on internal communication and consequently engagement and quality of life. 4. Provide a new theoretical paradigm and empirical validation to propose change and improvement of internal communication. To accomplish the main research objectives, the project is structured under four work packages with three data collection stages. In Work Package 1 we will establish the antecedents of perceived (digital) channel value, which we assume affects quality of internal communication (i.e., internal communication satisfaction). At this step we plan to make theoretical advances to existing literature and theoretically define constructs used for next stages of the project. In Work Package 2 we will conduct three experiments to empirically establish what shapes perceived (digital) channel value. After finishing this stage of data collection, this work package also includes applying a diary method which will help shed light on how perceived (digital) channel value affects internal communication satisfaction among employees. Results from this work package will help develop a scale to measure perceived channel value which will be incorporated into the next work package. Work Package 3 comprises of a multi-wave survey on purposeful stratified samples of employees in four countries, to explore the proposed model. The results of this stage will help determine the effect of culture and personality on internal communication, engagement, and quality of life, as well as the potential mediating effect of social exchange quality indicators. By understanding different responses of employees in various settings, the model can be assessed and redefined. Finally, Work Package 4 will include the development of guidelines about best practices in internal communication and indicate pitfalls to avoid. Providing research-based guidelines and assessment tools will provide practice-based innovations for this field. This will help the scientific community and practitioners to improve the elements of internal communication for the benefit of organizations and their employees.