When shifts matter for hybrid teams: The moderating role of location predictability.

In recent years, changes to the nature of work and evolving employee preferences have led to the rise of hybrid teams. In contrast to traditional teams, hybrid teams frequently shift between remote and face-to-face interaction. This structure raises new questions about how such dynamism impacts team engagement, an emergent state typically thought to develop under long periods of stability and face-to-face interaction. Drawing on the boundary transition theory of dynamic teamwork, we theorize that weekly downshifts in face-to-face interaction (i.e., relative decreases from the prior week) harm weekly team engagement and performance, but only for teams with lower levels of location predictability-an important yet understudied differentiator of hybrid team functioning. To test these ideas, we use a within-team, repeated-measures field survey design with a sample of hybrid sales teams at a large alcohol distributor in China. We surveyed 164 hybrid teams and their supervisors across 6 weeks (648 team-level weekly responses) to capture shifts in team work locations and examine their impact on weekly team engagement and performance. Results supported our hypotheses. By focusing on the role of weekly fluctuations in team structures and how location predictability shapes these effects, we advance our understanding of the unique and dynamic nature of hybrid teams. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).