Assessing Information: The Content of Asynchronous Communication in Hybrid Work

Organizations are often viewed as information processors, and an efficient, robust information architecture can be a source of competitive advantage. However, measuring the content and flow of information is challenging. We describe three metrics for capturing aspects of these products and processes, analyzing intraorganizational email data from the perspectives of production, consumption, and pure novelty. We then leverage a field experiment to determine how the structure of work—specifically, hybrid work arrangements—affects these metrics, finding that workers who split their time between home and the office may be particularly effective at transmitting information their audiences find useful and new.