A Cross-Cultural Perspective On Coworking Spaces

The concept of coworking has recently received increasingly more attention but still remains under-researched. Given the diverse composition of coworking space members, the proposed project seeks to a) explore the impact of national culture values on organizational culture in coworking spaces and b) investigate the effect of personal values and cultural intelligence on well-being and performance in coworking spaces. In addition to these potentially direct relationships, moderating effects of coworking culture values, cultural diversity and value congruence of members will be investigated.
This will be achieved through mixed-methods research by conducting interviews with approximately 15 community managers and owners of coworking spaces and running a questionnaire with at least 120 of its members. The qualitative data will subsequently be coded and analysed, to further inform the preliminary theoretical model. The obtained quantitative data will be analysed using regression analysis.

The project introduces a new perspective to coworking, that could prove beneficial both to practice by facilitating the management of coworking spaces which is currently undergoing rapid growth. The proposed project would, therefore, be advantageous also to the research field on coworking, where a new, thus far not considered perspective would be taken. In addition to that, both the fields of cross-cultural management and organizational culture might further benefit from the research, as coworking spaces pose a unique environment, that differs from the traditional notion of an office. New insights might, therefore, lead to new themes or approaches of value.