Metaverse workspaces and the future of organizational culture: a sociological inquiry

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to make sociological inquiry into the manner in which metaverse workspaces are reconfiguring the institutional architectures of contemporary organizations. Design/methodology/approach The rapid proliferation of immersive digital environments, collectively designated as the metaverse, poses profound and hitherto inadequately theorized implications for organizational culture, labor relations and collective identity formation. This paper undertakes a rigorous sociological inquiry into the manner in which metaverse workspaces are reconfiguring the institutional architectures of contemporary organizations. Drawing on secondary data analysis, systematic content analysis of peer-reviewed literature and comparative case study examination of organizations such as Accenture, eXp Realty, BMW Group and PricewaterhouseCoopers, the study interrogates how immersive virtual environments mediate processes of organizational socialization, surveillance, social capital formation and cultural reproduction. Findings Theoretically, the paper mobilizes Erving Goffman's dramaturgical theory, Michel Foucault's analytics of power, Pierre Bourdieu's conceptual apparatus of capital and field and social presence theory to construct a multi-perspectival analytical framework. Findings indicate that metaverse workspaces simultaneously engender novel forms of organizational community and intensify pre-existing inequalities, impose sophisticated regimes of algorithmic surveillance and reconfigure professional identity through avatar-mediated self-presentation. Originality/value The paper concludes with a set of evidence-based policy recommendations directed at organizational leaders, platform developers and regulatory bodies, aimed at ensuring equitable, humane and culturally sensitive deployment of metaverse technologies in workplace settings.