Effective strategies for managing and maintaining organisational culture in virtual and hybrid teams: Insights for organisational leaders

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought significant changes in workplace cultures, leading to an increased focus on building and maintaining a positive organisational culture, particularly in remote or hybrid work contexts. This paper explores the impact of virtual and hybrid teams on organisational culture and provides practical recommendations for leaders to effectively manage remote and hybrid work environments. To achieve this, the paper adopts the five-step model proposed by Newman and Ford (2021) and conducts two semi-structured inter-views with the Heads of Human Resources from two large, international compa-nies practising hybrid and virtual work. The study findings reveal the crucial role of leaders in maintaining the organisational culture, establishing trust, and effec-tive communication. It also emphasises team members' need for shared leader-ship, autonomy, and responsibility. Regular assessments of activities, procedures, and objectives are recommended to evaluate employees' engagement and percep-tion of organisational culture. The paper contributes to the existing literature by offering valuable insights into the perspectives of Human Resources leaders re-garding the effective management of remote and hybrid teams and the importance of organisational culture in this process.