Coworking: Finding Value Through Work Companions

Many workers have the flexibility to work across different work locations, and some choose to join coworking spaces, where they work alongside others with different employers, occupations, and backgrounds. Yet, little is known about the nature of relationships formed within this type of work location, where individuals lack shared goals and a common organizational umbrella. Thus, we ask: How do workers manage and find value from relationships within coworking spaces? Applying grounded theory techniques to collect and analyze observational, archival, and interview data collected from 80 workers in 21 coworking spaces, we derive a theoretical model that centers around the novel construct of work companions – individuals who work alongside one another with a shared focus on work but without family, friendship, or employment relationship obligations. The coworking space environment, overseen by one or more space managers, provides favorable conditions for the formation of work companions. Through interaction flexibility, coworking space members socially engage or parallel work with work companions, extracting both personal and professional value. Relational embeddedness, defined as the existence of family, friendship, or employment relationships, imposes obligations that make work companion interactions less flexible, creating a boundary condition to these findings. Introducing the work companion construct and elaborating relationships among coworking space members offers promising avenues for future research and informs management practice on work companions, coworking, and remote work.