Conceptualizing Phygital Work Experience (PH-WX): A Framework for Enhanced Employee Well-Being

2026/02/17 by Amie Gustafsson, Boris Bartikowski, Kara Lund +2

paper · doi:10.1177/02761467261422574

crossref issued 2026/02/17 · crossref published 2026/02/17 · crossref published-online 2026/02/17 · crossref created 2026/02/17 · crossref deposited 2026/07/25 · crossref indexed 2026/08/05

Abstract

Hybrid work has turned employee experience into a phygital phenomenon, in which physical and digital experiences jointly shape well-being and organizational performance. Yet existing employee experience models often treat physical and digital domains as isolated, parallel, or only partially connected, offering limited insight into how their interaction produces coherence or tension in employees lived work experiences. This conceptual article develops the Phygital Work Experience (PH-WX) framework to theorize work experience within an integrated physical and digital environment. We introduce a dual-realm conceptualization of work experience as 4Ps (Person, People, Purpose, Place) and 4Ds (Design, Data, Device, Decision) and define phygital work congruence as the degree to which the 4Ps and 4Ds align to support coherent, meaningful, and psychologically supportive work. Drawing on employee well-being research, internal market orientation, sociotechnical systems, and paradox theory, we theorize how phygital congruence and misalignment in work experience emerge across three levels: micro (broader employee experience), meso (leadership, culture, HRM, infrastructure, ethical governance), and macro (economic, technological, socio-cultural, institutional forces). The paper contributes to macromarketing by offering a human-centric lens for analyzing and designing hybrid work experiences.

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