Motivating Hybrid Teams In The Digital Era: Leadership Strategies, FOMO Dynamics, And The Psychology Of Dispersed Workforce Engagement

12 Mar

Authors: Mr.C.Rahuram, Zubair Ahamed.S

Abstract: When organisations split their workforces between home offices and central buildings, they gain scheduling flexibility but quietly erode something harder to measure: the motivational glue that holds teams together. This paper investigates why that erosion happens and what leaders can do about it. Two interrelated forces are placed at the centre of the analysis. The first is a phenomenon the authors term Occupational FOMO—a workplace variant of the consumer-behaviour concept in which remote employees develop a persistent worry that career-shaping conversations, project opportunities, and collegial trust are accumulating on the other side of a screen they cannot fully access. The second force is leadership style, specifically whether managers actively compensate for the structural disadvantages remote workers face or allow physical proximity to quietly determine who gets noticed. Drawing on Self-Determination Theory, Social Comparison Theory, the Job Demands-Resources Model, and Transformational Leadership Theory, the paper maps the psychological mechanisms through which these two forces either compound each other into disengagement or, when well managed, cancel out into sustained motivation. The study concludes with a four-pillar strategic framework intended for immediate application in BBA-level management practice and broader organisational HR planning.