Beyond Where We Work: Daily Informal Communication, Knowledge Sharing, and Commitment in Hybrid Teams

Hybrid work not only redistributes where employees work; it also reshapes how they stay connected to their colleagues. Drawing on Communicate–Bond–Belong (CBB) theory, we examine how daily work location shapes employees’ team commitment in hybrid work environments through informal communication and knowledge sharing, and how these daily links depend on task interdependence. Using a daily diary study with 219 employees who work at least one day a week from home and one day a week in the office (1655 day-level observations), we applied multilevel structural equation modeling in Mplus 8.8 to capture within-person day-to-day fluctuations. Our findings show that on days when employees worked from home rather than in the office, they reported less informal communication and less knowledge sharing with colleagues, which in turn related to lower team commitment. These indirect effects suggest that it is not physical distance per se, but the loss of cue-rich, relationship-building and task-related exchanges that erodes commitment on remote days. We further show that task interdependence differentially qualifies these daily relationships: for informal communication, the positive association with commitment is stronger when task interdependence is low and weaker when interdependence is high. In contrast, the positive association between knowledge sharing and commitment becomes stronger at higher levels of task interdependence. Together, the results advance understanding of social dynamics in hybrid work environments and offer actionable guidance for leaders and organizations.