European doctoral researchers’ work communication during the COVID-19 pandemic

AbstractThe situation caused by coronavirus disease 2019 closures in the spring of 2020 resulted in various restrictions for universities and led to a reorganisation of their operations. This created unprecedented challenges for all academic work. This study aimed to analyse the pandemic-related wor...

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Main Author: Seppo Poutanen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2023-12-01
Series:Cogent Education
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/2331186X.2023.2274314
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author Seppo Poutanen
author_facet Seppo Poutanen
author_sort Seppo Poutanen
collection DOAJ
description AbstractThe situation caused by coronavirus disease 2019 closures in the spring of 2020 resulted in various restrictions for universities and led to a reorganisation of their operations. This created unprecedented challenges for all academic work. This study aimed to analyse the pandemic-related work experiences of doctoral researchers from several European universities. Thirty-eight doctoral researchers of management and organisation studies wrote voluntarily about their pandemic-related work experiences. The analysis focused on work communication since it emerged as the key theme in the writings. An analytical framework was developed to capture corporeal, virtual, formal, and informal dimensions of work communication in 72 relevant mentions that were extracted from the writings. These mentions created a rich evaluative space in that they evaluated different aspects of work communication. The general finding that all combinations of corporeal, virtual, formal, and informal work communication received both positive and negative evaluations theoretically made sense from a sociomaterial—technological perspective. Doctoral researchers must become immersed in specific sociomaterially and technologically constructed entanglements to achieve their goals of work communication. The findings revealed that these entanglements were both impeding the determinants of work communication as well as enabling researchers to carry out work communication in novel and creative ways.
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spelling doaj.art-dc209c249f55434395f179710f2d731a2023-12-15T10:31:08ZengTaylor & Francis GroupCogent Education2331-186X2023-12-0110210.1080/2331186X.2023.2274314European doctoral researchers’ work communication during the COVID-19 pandemicSeppo Poutanen0Turku Centre for Labour Studies (TCLS), University of Turku, Turku, FinlandAbstractThe situation caused by coronavirus disease 2019 closures in the spring of 2020 resulted in various restrictions for universities and led to a reorganisation of their operations. This created unprecedented challenges for all academic work. This study aimed to analyse the pandemic-related work experiences of doctoral researchers from several European universities. Thirty-eight doctoral researchers of management and organisation studies wrote voluntarily about their pandemic-related work experiences. The analysis focused on work communication since it emerged as the key theme in the writings. An analytical framework was developed to capture corporeal, virtual, formal, and informal dimensions of work communication in 72 relevant mentions that were extracted from the writings. These mentions created a rich evaluative space in that they evaluated different aspects of work communication. The general finding that all combinations of corporeal, virtual, formal, and informal work communication received both positive and negative evaluations theoretically made sense from a sociomaterial—technological perspective. Doctoral researchers must become immersed in specific sociomaterially and technologically constructed entanglements to achieve their goals of work communication. The findings revealed that these entanglements were both impeding the determinants of work communication as well as enabling researchers to carry out work communication in novel and creative ways.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/2331186X.2023.2274314doctoral studentscomputer-mediated communicationblended learningteleworkingCOVID-19 pandemic
spellingShingle Seppo Poutanen
European doctoral researchers’ work communication during the COVID-19 pandemic
Cogent Education
doctoral students
computer-mediated communication
blended learning
teleworking
COVID-19 pandemic
title European doctoral researchers’ work communication during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full European doctoral researchers’ work communication during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_fullStr European doctoral researchers’ work communication during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full_unstemmed European doctoral researchers’ work communication during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_short European doctoral researchers’ work communication during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_sort european doctoral researchers work communication during the covid 19 pandemic
topic doctoral students
computer-mediated communication
blended learning
teleworking
COVID-19 pandemic
url https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/2331186X.2023.2274314
work_keys_str_mv AT seppopoutanen europeandoctoralresearchersworkcommunicationduringthecovid19pandemic