The purpose of this research is to study how informal communication and information flow changed
when the COVID-19 pandemic forced many organizations to transfer from working at the office to
remote work at home. In the pre-pandemic world, informal communication occurred at the workplace
on a daily basis, thus creating more opportunities for information exchange, whereas in the present,
the new remote work mode has erased informal communication from the equation nearly completely.
This research studies how the flow of information was impacted by the sudden lack of informal
communication, and whether these changes were seen in the basic workflow of organization
members. The study is conducted in collaboration with CSC – ICT Center for Science Ltd.
Qualitative semi-structured interviews were used as the research method in this study. All
interviewees worked in specialist positions, and the sample represented all units in CSC. The
interviews were analyzed with qualitative content analysis, which was based on the coding frame built
on themes that arose in the interviews. Such themes were meetings, silos, communicational
environment and information flow.
The results show that without informal communication, the organization members do not have as
good of a comprehension of the organization’s projects and daily operation as they did before the
pandemic. Furthermore, the individuals’ informal communication networks have reduced during the
pandemic, and they no longer communicate with anyone who they do not work with consistently. The
reduced communication network and informal communication have impacted the information flow to
have become more formal and focused on the substance at hand. Information has become more
difficult to access without informal communication to maintain an understanding of who works with
what information.
The results are corresponding with what is known by previous research. However, this study
elaborates more on not only the relationship between informal communication and information sharing, but also on how the dynamics of that relationship works in a changing environment. Without informal communication, individuals are unaware of the information that is flowing elsewhere in the organization. This creates uncertainty and feelings of missing out on potentially relevant information.
