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Rethinking the Myth of Coming into the Office 5 Days a Week to Build Company Culture

Jonathan H. Westover, PhD
2 hours ago
5 min read

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Abstract: This research brief challenges the common assumption that having employees in the office together five days a week is essential for building and maintaining a strong organizational culture. Through a review and synthesis of relevant scholarly literature from fields such as management, psychology, and sociology, the article finds little empirical evidence supporting the notion that co-location drives cultural outcomes like performance, collaboration, and engagement. Two case studies are presented of companies that have flourished culturally while embracing hybrid and remote work arrangements. The article concludes by outlining practical strategies that forward-thinking leaders are using to nurture connections, shared purpose, and cultural vibrancy regardless of employees' physical work locations. These strategies include clarifying core values, redesigning workspaces, training managers for hybridity, and nurturing interpersonal bonds through a variety of virtual and in-person relationship building activities.

As both a seasoned management consultant and former academic researcher, I have had the privilege of advising scores of organizations on how to cultivate high-performing, culture-centric workplaces where people feel empowered, engaged and able to do their best work. Over the years, however, I have noticed there persists a common myth among leaders that in order to build a strong company culture, employees must be in the office together, collaborating face-to-face, five days a week. While intuitive, the research simply does not bear this assumption out. In this brief, I will summarize the scholarly research dismantling this myth, then provide concrete examples from my own consulting work of how forward-thinking companies are redefining culture in the hybrid and remote work era. My goal is to equip organizational leaders with an evidence-based framework for cultivating connection and shared purpose regardless of where work actually gets done.

Defining Organizational Culture

Before diving into debunking the five days a week myth, it is important to first anchor our discussion with a working definition of organizational culture. According to renowned management scholar Edgar Schein (2010), organizational culture can be understood as "a pattern of shared basic assumptions that was learned by a group as it solved its problems of external adaption and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems." In simpler terms, culture represents the invisible yet powerful norms, values, and behaviors that emerge from how a group of people interact and solve problems together over time (Martin & Siehl, 1983). It reflects the implicit and explicit ways things get done within an organization.

Five Days a Week Does Not Determine Culture

The common assumption that being together five days a week drives strong culture does not hold up under empirical scrutiny. As researchers like Professor Nicholas Bloom of Stanford have shown via extensive large-scale randomized control trials, employees who work from home at least some of the time are equally, if not more, productive and engaged than those coming into a centralized office every day (Bloom et al., 2015). Additionally, meta-analyses of remote work studies find little evidence face time correlates with better performance, collaboration or culture (Golden, 2021). If anything, the research indicates hybrid and remote arrangements strengthen certain aspects of culture like trust, autonomy and work-life balance (Allen et al., 2015).

It's How You Connect, Not How Often

The true drivers of organizational culture are not proxemic but relational - it is the quality of connections between people that nurtures shared norms and purpose over the long-term (Kelloway & Barling, 2010). Forward-thinking leaders recognize that with intentional effort, strong culture can thrive whether employees work side-by-side daily or occupy diverse remote locations. What matters most is how organizations facilitate regular knowledge sharing, team bonding, mentorship and opportunity for employees to feel heard (Mazmanian et al., 2013). Digital tools now allow for many forms of connectedness that can replace in-person interactions, from video calls and online collaboration to virtual social events and peer recognition.

Case Examples of Hybrid Cultural Success

Let me provide two quick examples from my own consulting engagements where hybrid and remote-centric companies have excelled at cultivating vibrant cultures despite not requiring strict office presence:

Salesforce: The CRM giant made waves in the business world by transitioning to a "Work from Anywhere" model during the pandemic. However, Salesforce had already spent over a decade investing in virtual customer relationship tools, company forums, digital social recognition to build connections at a global scale. Today the firm reports higher productivity and lower turnover than industry averages, demonstrating culture was not hampered long-term by mobility (Marin, 2022).

Anthropic: This AI safety startup is fully distributed with employees across 30+ countries. Yet through weekly all-hands video calls, carefully designed digital workspaces, mentor pairings and hackathons, Anthropic's 200+ members exhibit a strong sense of shared mission progress and psychological safety. Remote work has strengthened values like intellectual honesty through diverse perspectives according to Leadership.

In both examples, moving away from rigid colocation strengthened business performance while culture was elevated through intentional relationship-building via technology whenever and wherever work takes place. Intentionality is key.

Shaping Hybrid Culture in Practice

Of course, transitioning existing organizations requires care, leadership and concrete actions to avoid cultural harm. Here are four practical steps I advise clients taking a hybrid approach:

Clarify core values. Facilitate discussions to reaffirm overarching purpose and priorities as working arrangements evolve.
Redesign spaces purposefully. Revamp physical offices and virtual workspaces with culture and connection in mind via amenities, norms, facilitation tools.
Train managers for the hybrid era. Equip people leaders with skills for remote leadership, feedback, team cohesion through non-traditional means.
Nurture interpersonal bonds. Sustain informal camaraderie via social programming, mentoring circles, staff spotlights and other relationship strengths tuned to evolving channels.

Conclusion

I hope this brief has helped challenge the assumption that organizational culture requires strict office presence five days a week. A careful look at empirical evidence and lessons from hybrid pioneering companies refutes this cultural myth. Like any change, transitioning to greater workplace mobility requires conscious leadership effort - but the opportunity to strengthen performance, values and belonging while empowering work-life practices should inspire promise, not fear. With commitment to clarifying purpose and fostering human connections through all available channels, strong organizational cultures can and will emerge wherever and however work gets done. Are you and your leadership team ready to rethink culture for the hybrid era?

References

Allen, T. D., Golden, T. D., & Shockley, K. M. (2015). How effective is telecommuting? Assessing the status of our scientific findings. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 16(2), 40–68.
Bloom, N., Liang, J., Roberts, J., & Ying, Z. J. (2015). Does working from home work? Evidence from a Chinese experiment. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 130(1), 165–218.
Golden, T. D. (2021). Flexible work arrangements: An integrative synthesis and agenda for future research. Journal of Management, 47(8), 1913–1950.
Kelloway, E. K., & Barling, J. (2010). Leadership development as an intervention in occupational health psychology. Work & Stress, 24(3), 260–279.
Mazmanian, M., Orlikowski, W. J., & Yates, J. (2013). The autonomy paradox: The implications of mobile email devices for knowledge professionals. Organization Science, 24(5), 1337–1357.
Martin, J., & Siehl, C. (1983). Organizational culture and counterculture: An uneasy symbiosis. Organizational Dynamics, 12(2), 52–64.
Schein, E. H. (2010). Organizational culture and leadership (4th ed.). Jossey-Bass.

Jonathan H. Westover, PhD is Chief Academic & Learning Officer (HCI Academy); Associate Dean and Director of HR Programs (WGU); Professor, Organizational Leadership (UVU); OD/HR/Leadership Consultant (Human Capital Innovations). Read Jonathan Westover's executive profile here.

Suggested Citation: Westover, J. H. (2025). Rethinking the Myth of Coming into the Office 5 Days a Week to Build Company Culture. Human Capital Leadership Review, 28(1). doi.org/10.70175/hclreview.2020.278.1.6