Reconfiguring digital embeddedness in hybrid work: The case of employee experience management platforms

As organisations respond to the increasing preference for hybrid work, employee experience management (EXM) platforms are becoming integral to transforming employees' experiences in hybrid workplaces. In this article, we theorise that EXM platforms are implanted into the workflow through digital embeddedness, which is appropriated and reconfigured through the interactions between human and digital subsystems in hybrid work. We adopt the lens of digital/human interaction to explore the reciprocal process of how EXM platforms configure and are reconfigured in hybrid work. Based on a case study of Microsoft Viva, an AI-based EXM platform, we propose a conceptual model that identifies two dimensions of digital embeddedness: digital/human embeddedness and digital/workplace embeddedness. The study contributes to a theoretical understanding of digital embeddedness as a dynamic process whilst also showing the reconfiguration of hybrid work practices evidences a joint optimization. The study further contributes insights into how hybrid work, which resulted from the enforced remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic, continues to emerge due to the digital embeddedness of EXM platforms in the flow of hybrid work.