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Workspace Personalization and Organizational CultureDoes Your Workspace Reflect You or Your Company?
Abstract
Approximately 70% to 90% of American workers personalize their workspaces. Personalization has many benefits for employees (e.g., enhanced job satisfaction and well-being) and organizations (e.g., improved morale and reduced turnover). Personalization is also related to organizational issues such as employee status, workspace quality, and policies. This study extended the research by examining organizational commitment and culture. It was predicted that highly committed employees personalize more than do less-committed employees and that culture has an indirect effect on personalization. Thus, 172 office employees from 19 businesses were surveyed. Path analyses revealed that employee commitment was only indirectly related to personalization through status. As expected, organizational culture had an indirect effect on personalization, via personalization policies or norms and employee status. Thus, this research suggests for the first time that the primary predictors of workspace personalization are organizational rather than personal. Your workspace most likely reflects your company rather than you.
... smart buildings where Information Technology (IT) management systems regulate services) while grade "B" buildings may lack such qualities [54,65]. Highergrade spaces enhance the health, safety, and well-being of employees and facilitate job processes, operations, and productivity [15,66,67]. Establishing quality in a workspace relies on the uniqueness of the business structure, culture as well as individual employee's personality traits and behavioural characteristics [68]. ...
... Business culture influences the working environment and office layout [67,68,70]. For example, depending on the business culture, workspaces could be enclosed with private offices or open plans with no constraints [15,17,67,70,48,58]. ...
... Business culture influences the working environment and office layout [67,68,70]. For example, depending on the business culture, workspaces could be enclosed with private offices or open plans with no constraints [15,17,67,70,48,58]. ...
... Olson-Buchanan and Boswell (2006) refer to objects from one domain displayed in another domain as symbolic role referencing. One study found that 77% of participants had at least one object related to family in their office (Wells, thelen, & ruark, 2007). ...
... the clearest impact that hr practices have on boundary permeability control is perhaps through practices that limit employee choices regarding objects in their work environment and their attire. Office décor conveys meaning about our identity (Byron & laurence, 2015;elsbach, 2004) to others around us. environmental psychologists have examined how employees personalize their workspaces, through the display of personal photos, trinkets, and symbols of their personal relationships (Wells, 2000;Wells & thelen, 2002;Wells et al., 2007). Wells et al. (2007) found that organizations often lack explicit guidelines about workplace personalization. ...
... Office décor conveys meaning about our identity (Byron & laurence, 2015;elsbach, 2004) to others around us. environmental psychologists have examined how employees personalize their workspaces, through the display of personal photos, trinkets, and symbols of their personal relationships (Wells, 2000;Wells & thelen, 2002;Wells et al., 2007). Wells et al. (2007) found that organizations often lack explicit guidelines about workplace personalization. yet, employees who do work for organizations that have practices limiting personalization may feel constrained in their ability to achieve fit between their preferences and behavior if they wish to display family photos and trinkets in their workspace. ...
A core concept of work–home interface research is boundary permeability – the frequency with which elements from one domain cross, or permeate, the boundary of another domain. Yet, there remains ambiguity as to what these elements are and how these permeations impact important outcomes such as role satisfaction and role performance. The authors introduce a multidimensional perspective of work–home boundary permeability, identifying five forms of boundary permeation: task, psychological, role referencing, object, and people. Furthermore, based on the notion that employee control over boundary permeability behavior is the key to achieving role satisfaction and role performance, the authors examine how organizations’ HR practices, leadership, and norms impact employee control over boundary permeability in the work and home domains. The authors conclude with an agenda for future research.
... The personalisation of space can also indicate something about the individual and his or her emotional relationship or commitment to the unit or organisation. Wells (2000), Wells and Thelen (2002) and Wells, Thelen and Ruark (2007) highlighted the importance of understanding user needs and office personalisation; Wells (2000:239) in his research revealed that there is an indirect relationship between personalisation and employee well-being with satisfaction with the physical work environment and job satisfaction as intervening variables. ...
... For example, concept/code/keywords of bringing personal belongings to the office were grouped into the theme of personalisation. A study done by Wells (2007) and Wells and Thelen (2002) showed that 70% to 90% of workers personalised their workplaces. They also found that personalisation gives many benefits to the workers and the organisation where it could enhance their job satisfaction, well being and morale improvement. ...
... Personalisation is also related to organisational issues. Users' workplaces most likely reflect their company rather than the user (Wells, Thelen and Ruark, 2007). Thus Brunia and Gosselink (2009) claimed that, personalisation could create an identity, status, place ownership and comfort. ...
... There are benefits on the side of the employees too, such as greater flexibility in space use and greater possible autonomy (Frank o, 2019). However, the biggest potential disadvantage of the shared desk is also on the employees' side which is the possibility of experiencing loss and lost opportunities for personalization (Fried, 1963;Wells et al., 2007;Dúll, 2015;Vischer and Wifi, 2016). All these changed circumstances can rewrite the space-user transactions and affect many other organizational processes, which must be taken into account in the case of design or cultural change. ...
... It is the most researched type of human territorial behaviour in organizational environments, and it also occurs most frequently. More than 90% of employees personalize their workplace if the space and company policies allow it (Wells et al., 2007). It is manifested primarily in the placement of objects that are important to the space user (e.g. ...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present an environmental psychological case study regarding an office design change. The employees of the researched company had the chance to decide whether to stay in the classic open office set-up or to switch to a shared desk supplemented by a one-day-a-week home office possibility. The authors examined the development of participants’ territorial behaviour and place attachment.
Design/methodology/approach
The given organizational situation is a quasi-experimental design; the variables were examined via questionnaire in a longitudinal model. Quantitative measurement was supplemented with focus group discussions.
Findings
The degree of personalization (a type of territorial behaviour) decreased significantly not only among those who lost their permanent workstations – as we expected – but also in the entire population. Workplace attachment stagnated for the entire population, but workstation attachment showed a significant decrease among those who switched to the shared desk.
Research limitations/implications
The limitations and the advantages are also followed by the nature of a case study: high ecological validity with relatively low sample size.
Practical implications
Redesigning an office is never just an economic or interior design issue, but a psychological one. This paper provides practical environmental psychological insights into implementing office designs without permanent individual workstations.
Originality/value
This paper presents the environmental psychological background of shared desk design implementation. The authors point out the significance of repressing personalization behaviour and as per the authors’ knowledge, they are the first to introduce the concept of workstation attachment.
... As various public services are provided within public offices, it is essential to understand the configuration of such workplaces. Visual artifacts such as the personalization of workspaces (Wells, Thelen, and Ruark 2007) have been shown to have complex relationships with antecedents and effects. Scheiberg found that the decoration of the individual workspace with personal mementos serves as "reflexive communication" (1990,335) to help cope emotionally and intellectually with the day-to-day work. ...
... While our data does not show a significant effect of non-work role referencing artifacts, there are various types of signals and cues from service interactions left to examine. There are only a few studies on such aspects of workplace configurations in a public sector context (Karl, Hall, and Peluchette 2013;Scheiberg 1990), however, studies from the private sector emphasize their relevance (Brill 1984;Brown and Zhu 2016;Wells 2000;Wells, Thelen, and Ruark 2007). ...
Public service stereotypes have been the subject of various studies in public administration research. However, the cognitive processes that form the basis of these stereotypes and the heuristics processing of stereotypical information, remain empirically vague. Starting from insights on the anti-public sector bias and representativeness heuristic, we apply an experimental vignette study (n = 1,412) in which we analyze how citizens process information on employees' sector affiliation. Furthermore, we integrate non-work role-referencing to test the stereotype confirmation assumption underlying the representativeness heuristic. Our results show that sector as well as non-work role-referencing influences perceived employee professionalism but has little effect on positive stereotype confirmation. However, our results do not confirm a congruity effect of consistent stereotypical information.
... Workplaces such as call centres (where employees typically work in their own small cubicle) are frequently decorated with family photos, plants, and children's drawings in an effort by employees to mark a territory as their own, to make work seem more like "home", or to stamp their own identity on the space. Research from the United States indicates that 70% to 90% of employees who have their own workspace, personalise it (Wells & Thelen, 2002;Wells, Thelen, & Ruark, 2007). Personalising a workspace may been thought of as "territorial behaviour" (Brown, 2009) and the ubiquity of this behaviour in society (e.g., gang graffiti, locks on doors, or a jacket over a chair in a café) is evidence of the fundamental 7 importance territory has for many people. ...
... People usually decorate or modify their work environment to reflect their own identity; and personalisation has been found to have numerous positive psychological and psychosocial outcomes. Wells (2007) describes the functions of workplace personalisation, claiming it will express an employee's personality, individuality, and uniqueness (Heidmets, 1994;Wells, 2000). In addition it has been found to buffer stress, evoke positive emotion (Scheiberg, 1990;Wells, 2000), and give workers a sense of control and agency over their work environment (Heidmets, 1994). ...
The prevalence of flexible and shared office spaces is increasing significantly, yet the socioemotional outcomes associated with these environments are under researched. Utilising the job demands-resources (JD-R) model we investigate both the demands and the resources that can accrue to workers as a result of shared work environments and hot-desking. Data were collected from work experienced respondents (n=1000) assessing the extent to which they shared their office space with others, along with demands comprising distractions, uncooperative behaviours, distrust, and negative relationships, and resources from co-worker friendships and supervisor support. We found that, as work environments became more shared (with hot-desking being at the extreme end of the continuum), not only were there increases in demands, but co-worker friendships were not improved and perceptions of supervisory support decreased. Findings are discussed in relation to employee well-being and recommendations are made regarding how best to ameliorate negative consequences of shared work environments.
... To which extent have you been able to individualize your workplace? Amabile and Gryskiewicz (1987), Wells, Thelen, and Ruark (2007), Harris (2016) 2 I was able to put up some individualization on my assigned desk. 1 (not at all) to 5 (to a large extent) Lee (2001), Lu et al. (2006), Carmeli et al. (2013) IX_4 I make sure to be available for sharing experiences with my colleagues in this organization. ...
With the ongoing changes in the work environment, specifically turning from fulltime to no time at the office and nowadays pending somewhere in between, there is a need for decision makers to redefine their expectations of a day at the office. Previously, organizations worldwide focussed on creating workplaces that foster interaction and collaboration to enhance knowledge exchange and communication. Both are among the main drivers for stimulating creativity at the workplace, leading to increased innovation activities. Since offices are dramatically changing from lean, work‐focused, and hierarchical workstations into employee‐oriented, creativity‐enhancing spaces with playground artefacts, the need for quantitative research on the effects of workplace design on creativity seems evident for researchers and practitioners. Although prior research has attempted to describe the physical work environment and its impact on creativity, empirical evidence is still lacking on what concrete attributes of a workplace employees perceive as inspiring. We therefore contribute to the existent body of knowledge by establishing a definition for inspiring physical workplaces as perceived by employees in times of digitalization and provide a conceptual model analysing the effects between workplace design, internal knowledge exchange, and creative problem‐solving capacity. We assess our survey data with partial least squares structural equation modelling and provide first empirical evidence that our proposed formative index supports the common research agenda within the context of workplace design, and further, that aspects of workplace design not only enhance creative problem‐solving capacity as an important dimension of creativity itself, but that this relationship is also partially mediated by internal knowledge exchange.
... Therefore, personalization is an expression of an acoustemological and relational world-building in which sound contributes to the construction of self-identity, and allows for recognition, thus bringing about the co-construction of organizational culture. Personalizing the workspace not only allowed for greater work efficiency but also worked as an expression of status and as a bridge to collaboration with other colleagues in the organization (Wells, Thelen, and Ruark 2007). During the session, in fact, Francesco had several interactions with colleagues explaining the details of his system and giving technical advices. ...
Drawing on ethnography, this study investigates the treatment of blind and visually impaired people (BVIP) in the workplace adopting a sociomaterial framework based on acoustemology. This approach concerns the process of knowing with and through sound. In line with interest in multimodality within organization studies, acoustemology recognizes the auditory as a way to access systems of meanings, negotiations, co-constructions, discrimination and culture within organizations. Considering visual impairment as a culture, this research explores the way in which sound and sonic technologies act as relational (both social and material) channels through which BVIP conduct themselves in the workplace, interact with sighted co-workers, gain recognition and produce and reproduce a system of meanings. Through acoustemology, this study contributes to the issue of organizational inclusion of people with disability proposing dis-continuity, a concept that helps explore inclusion as a practice that involves alternative epistemologies and brings about changes in organizational culture.
... Approximately 70% of American workers personalize their workspaces. Some employees, such as managers and employees with enclosed offices, personalize more than others [36,37]. There are also gender differences in personalization: women personalize their workspaces more than men and with different items and for different reasons [38]. ...
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into interior design education is a growing trend. This study presents a warm-up assignment where students used AI design tools to develop a concept of contemporary office designs inspired by characters from the TV series "Avrupa Yakası." The goal was to prepare students for an office design project while introducing them to AI applications. The AI-generated designs reflected character personalities and aesthetic preferences. Findings show the AI's capability to translate textual cues into visual designs, but limitations arise due to insufficient definitions in the AI's memory. The study highlights AI's potential for assisting in design inspiration but also emphasizes the need for continuous AI database development. This initiative contributes to understanding AI's role in design education and its evolving impact on creative processes.
... Poggio et al. (2013) had previously shown that competence and warmth, as set out in the Stereotype Content Model, were associated with the functional and symbolic categories of the objects, respectively. Results differed in the work context, where workspace personalization reflected more closely organizational policy rather than worker personality (Wells and Thelen, 2002;Wells et al., 2007). ...
The studies presented here apply the concept of entitativity in order to understand how belonging to a particular geographical area – neighborhood - can determine the way others organize information and form impressions about area’s residents. In order to achieve this objective, three studies were carried out. The first study aims to verify if a neighborhood varies in terms of perceived entitativity, and identify the physical and social characteristics of the neighborhoods that are more strongly associated with the perception of entitativity. The Study 2 and 3 used an experimental paradigm to explore how people’s perceptions of neighborhoods’ entitativity influenced their impressions of residents. To activate stereotypes, Study 2 used the name of real neighborhoods, and Study 3 employed only a set of pictures of unknown neighborhoods. The results show that the neighborhoods vary significantly with the regard to the perception of entitativity, and a set of physical attributes of place were strongly related with entitativity. The results showed that, independent of stimuli, the neighborhoods perceived as highly entitative, the supposed residents were subject to more extreme and quicker trait judgments, supported by greater confidence on the part of perceivers. Study 3 also reported that in highly entitative neighborhoods, the perceivers transferred more traits from the group to individual members. These results provide strong evidence that physical structure of neighborhoods imply different entitatity judgments that influences the way in which residents are perceived.
... the six questions are about the following topics: dominant characteristics, organizational leadership, management of employees, organizational glue, strategic emphases, criteria of success. the method of cameron and Quinn is one of the most widely cited, it is applied to many researches because it is easily accessible and linkable to other kinds of research (berthon & pitt & ewing, 2003;chin-loy & mujtaba, 2007;Wells & thelen & ruark, 2007;teo & ahmad & rodwell, 18 2003). ...
Nowadays disciplines of maintenance management are widely applicable in other fields of science as well. This paper shows the possible uses of maintenance strategies in connection with inter-corporate cooperation by determining the relations between procurer and supplier. The objective of the paper is to support the CEOs in describing the business processes maintenance system and its attributes in the company. The research is based on a survey attended by the CEOs of more than 260 companies from different operational fields in Hungary. The basic theory of the research is that the inner operations of a company are driven by the principles of some sort of maintenance strategies or a combination of those. Based on this theory the research answers the question of whether these companies can be integrated into clusters and how they can conclude the expectation systems of the members of a certain cluster towards the suppliers. The paper also shows which corporate culture types are more or less resistant to different failure types of the business processes such as misuse fault, manufacturing fault, systematic fault, etc. Key words: business process maintenance, maintenance strategy, failure type, corporate culture.
... Thus, applicants may perceive a work environment as either high-or low-value. Accordingly, we define workspace value as applicants' perceptions of the quality and valence of a firm's workspace design (see also Wells, Thelen, & Ruark, 2007). We expect that this perceived value of a work environment (high value vs. low value) will evoke differing associations. ...
Attracting talent is key for every organization. This research introduces a novel way to attract talent: creative workspace design. In two studies with complementary samples and methods, we examine whether, when, and how a firm's creative workspace design enhances organizational attractiveness. In Study 1, we use an experimental design to examine the attraction effect of creative (vs. conventional) workspace design from the applicant's perspective. First and foremost, we find that creative workspace design has a positive effect on organizational attractiveness. Second, our findings reveal two underlying mechanisms that help to explain this positive attraction effect: perceived climate for creativity and perceived innovation ability of the firm. Moreover, findings show that this attraction effect is stronger for highly creative (vs. less creative) individuals and attenuated for high-value (vs. low-value) workspaces. In Study 2, we validate the positive attraction effect of creative workspace design from the firm's perspective by using international survey data on a firm level. Taken together, this work sheds new light on how workspace design influences organizational attractiveness, elucidates why and when applicants are attracted by creative workspace design, and provides actionable implications for practice.
... People generally personalize the places they live in and objects around them. There are studies in literature about how people personalize their offices (Brunia & Hartjes-Gosselink, 2009;Wells, Thelen & Ruark, 2007;Wells, 2000), isolated areas such as the stations in poles (Evans & Carrere, 1994), dormitory rooms (Vinsel, Brown, Altman, & Carolyn, 1980) and hospital rooms (Holahan & Saegert, 1973). Electronic devices such as mobile phones, computers that surround us involve personalization as well and researches about this subject increasingly continue. ...
The overall aim of this chapter is to determine the personalizable online learning environments and learner participation in these environments, learner satisfaction in using them, and the effect of the environment on learners' course performance in terms of learning. With this purpose in mind, the researchers have tried to determine the learners' personalization preferences of content order and appearance in online learning environments offered and personalization-related satisfaction and performances. In data collection and analysis processes, both quantitative and qualitative methods were used and the study is designed as mixed model. In conclusion, more than half of the students carried out the personalization procedure and females customized the appearance of their environment in a high frequency rate compared to males. The study indicated that, in general, learners are satisfied with the personalization procedure and there is a significant difference in performances of students who fulfilled the procedure compared to those who did not.
... The Architectural Assessment showed how different employees used their personal storage, as each workspace had the same locked cabinet under the desk yet some desks were extremely cluttered (mostly with papers not personalization) and others were nearly empty. Studies have shown that there are differing views of personalization and clutter in office cultures, and Wells (2000) found variations in personalization and desk clutter linked to gender and office policy [16]. There were some coffee mugs and dishes and a few food wrappers visible on desks, more in the old office, than the new one which had visible coffee stations from more workspaces. ...
... Wells et Thelen (2002) suggèrent que le statut et le type d'espace de travail (ouvert ou fermé) sont les meilleurs prédicteurs du taux (c'est-à-dire plus ou moins élevé) ainsi que du type de personnalisation (par exemple, des photos; des dessins; des plantes; des diplômes; etc.). Wells, Thelen, et Ruark (2007) ont mesuré un taux de personnalisation des espaces de travail de 98%. Ce taux particulièrement élevé, associé au fait que les employés personnalisent parfois même lorsque cette pratique est interdite par la direction, souligne l'importance du processus d'appropriation et des avantages qui peuvent en découler (c'est-à-dire sentiment de contrôle de l'espace, vecteur social, expression de la personnalité, etc.). ...
ABSTRACT: This article investigates the links between personalization, workplace attachment and perceived workplace quality. Participants (N = 116) work in the same office building. This investigation focus also about the office ability to improve intimacy and appropriation by owners (open space, individual office, shared office). As we were expecting, we observe an effective link between personalization and workplace attachment, and perceived workplace quality. The overall results lead to the conclusion of a solid link between attachment and perceived workplace quality. We will discuss our conclusions furthermore and we will offer recommendations. Keywords: workplace attachment, personalization, workspace quality, comfort, office
RESUME : Cet article a pour objet l'étude du lien qui unit la personnalisation de l'espace de travail, l'attachement à celui-ci et la qualité perçue de ce même espace de travail. Les sujets (N = 116) sont des employés travaillant dans le même bâtiment tertiaire. La capacité des bureaux à fournir une certaine intimité et favoriser l'appropriation par son occupant est également prise encompte (Open space, bureaux individuels ou partagés). Conformément à nos attentes, nous observons un lien entre personnalisation de l'espace de travail et attachement, ainsi qu’avec la qualité perçue de cet espace. Les résultats permettent également d'observer un lien robuste entre l'attachement et la qualité perçue de l'espace de travail. Ces résultats sont discutés au regard de la littérature et des préconisations sont proposées.
.Mots-clés : attachement à l'espace de travail, personnalisation, qualité de l'espace de travail, confort, bureau
... In a similar vein, shared open workspaces can force workers to seek solace at the edges and on the periphery of work, and create informal territories (Shortt, 2015), but it is in our data that we reveal how workers draw on the material elements of the working world at a microlevel in order to regain this sense of identity. Therefore, rather than contributing to the discussion on the extent to which the display of personal items at work is permitted or condoned (Lai et al., 2002;Wells et al., 2007), we focus on the anchoring power of nonpersonal, work-related and mundane objects, which can be (so far, typically, in the work studies context) easily overlooked as insignificant. Their 'scars' may be considered crucial individualising features, enabling workers to differentiate between allegedly identical objects and standardised workspaces, and to help them navigate their way through these sanitised spaces. ...
This article lays the workplace under the microscope to examine how scuffs on floors and battered corners on desks – things we define as ‘scarred objects’ – become material autobiographical archives and are made into memory anchors by workers. We explore how these scarred objects, construed as insignificant by some, become integral to workers’ sense of memory and continuity. These scarred objects become time marks (Walsh, 1992) which provide a sense of embeddedness in an otherwise flexible, transient working world. We draw on material culture and sociological literatures, and the work of Burnett and Holmes (2001), to make sense of scarred objects in terms of their significance to workers as well as their construal of work and relationship to organisation mediated through memory. This article is based on empirical, visual data gathered from a 9-month study involving 43 hairdressers working in hair salons. We offer three contributions: first, we develop a new area of material studies, at a micro-level, that extends our understanding of objects in the workplace; second, we demonstrate how scarred objects anchor workers’ sense of memory; and third, we show the importance of scarred objects in the context of greater flexibility and liquidity in contemporary work.
... Workspace personalization has been found to have many additional benefits for employees, such as enhanced levels of job satisfaction, satisfaction with the work environment, psychological well-being, and physical health [2], [4], [7] . And according to [8] personalization is also related to creativity in [9] . The purpose of this study is to find out how the personalization implemented and what is the meaning of the interior of the cubicle workspace for its users. ...
... Tompkins (1987) describes the difference between the two concepts as follows: identification is the substance of the relationship between the organisation and the individual, commitment corresponds to the form. Elements of the form could be, for example, loyalty to the organisation, the willingness to work hard for the employer or the intent to stay with the company (Wells, Thelen & Ruark, 2007). In the same way, Mowday et al. (1979) consider it to be proven that commitment is correlated with a strong intrinsic motivation. ...
This article should contribute to corporate communication theory by considering the mechanisms of distance communication (telecommuting) between mobile teleworkers and their organisation, as well as the role of a functional communication on both; the factual and relationship level in enhancing employee motivation. Despite its importance for organisations and leaders, there is considerable confusion about effects on motivation, associated with distance communication in the context of mobile telework. This article aims to provide a degree of clarity by identifying, analysing and discussing the main linkages to employee motivation found in general and relevant science literature, as well as scientific publications in common databases, to stimulate and provide directions for future research. Corporate communication and motivation literature, as well as scientific papers in this field has not yet adequately considered this concept. This may be due to confusion regarding to the definition of motivation, and to concerns about overlaps with related constructs such as engagement, organisational commitment, organisational identification or affiliation. This article closes the gap with an appropriate model, mirroring the found main concepts and enhancers of employee motivation as well as the associated communication effort on different "integration levels". The article discusses linkages between motivation and distance communication, which suggest research potential in the field of HR-Management and Organisational Development (OD). The study just as well encourages communicators in telework-teams, to consider effects of communication strategies and tactics. The aim of this analysis is also to inspire responsible person and departments to show up the communication needs of employees in mobile telework. This conceptual article provides an overview of motivation and communication theory literature, aiming to identify the main aspects for motivated employees. It suggests motivation as a hierarchical psychological state on different levels, of how strong employees in mobile telework are linked to and integrated into their organisation, against the background of distance communication.
... This lack of consistency in the conceptualisation of well-being complicates the understanding of the actual effects of office landscapes on employee well-being and the comparison of results between cases. Additionally, the assessment of well-being at offices cannot be studied isolated from contextual aspects such as the social work environment and organisational policies (Clements-Croome, 2015;Sjögren-Rönkä et al., 2002;Wells et al., 2007), or employees' activities, needs and preferences (Greene and Myerson, 2011;Mateo-Cecilia et al., 2018;Seddigh et al., 2014). Hence, a more detailed understanding of the well-being construct and its pluridimensional implications in the study of offices seems also necessary. ...
The study of employee well-being in relation to office landscapes has gained greater interest in the recent years, although research on the construct of well-being has been increasingly developing in the field of Positive Psychology since the 1960s. However, the impact of office landscapes on employee well-being has often been addressed from perspectives such as health, satisfaction, happiness, comfort, etc. This has turned well-being into a popular and fuzzy term that numerous office studies use with diverse results, but fewer address it in detail. Furthermore, the prolific research in Positive Psychology lacks consensus on what characterises the construct of well-being and a unified criterion for its operational definition.
In this thesis, a hybrid approach to hedonic and eudaimonic well-being theories has been chosen to study in depth the interrelations between employee well-being and office landscapes. Besides, these interrelations emerge from the use that employees make of their office landscapes to carry out their daily activities. Thus, employee well-being is studied in the context of office landscape use. For this venture, Activity Theory has been chosen as the complementary framework that enables an explanation of the role of office landscapes in mediating employees’ activities and subsequent influences on well-being.
The research presented here comprises two literature reviews and an in-depth case study in which a mixed method research approach with emphasis on qualitative data was adopted. The findings show that spatial attributes of the office landscape influenced employee hedonic and eudaimonic well-being by enabling or hindering uses of the landscape. Likewise, the use, disuse or misuse of spaces was influenced by employee perceptions on what was pleasurable and supportive, or not, for carrying out their daily activities. In this sense, the experiences of use and well-being overlap and are central to explaining the results, but contextual aspects such as former employee experiences at different offices, relocation processes, social environment, and employees’ activity patterns also influenced employees’ insights.
As a result of integrating well-being theories and the principles of Activity Theory in my research, a tentative framework is proposed for the study of employee well-being in relation to office landscapes. In addition, the weight of employee environmental mastery in the overall experience of well-being suggests that further research exploring design opportunities to improve the mastery over office landscapes has a great potential to enhance employee well-being at work.
Keywords: well-being; activity theory; office employee; office landscape; office evaluation; spatial attributes; qualitative study; case study; literature review.
... Indeed, there is evidence that the majority of workers exert significant effort in personalizing their workplaces (Byron & Laurence, 2015;Sundstrom & Sundstrom, 1986;Wells & Thelen, 2002), even in hot-desking situations (Brunia & Hartjes-Gosselink, 2009). There is also evidence that such personalization may increase workers' sense of control at work, and even help them to cope with work-related stress (Wells, Thelen, & Ruark, 2007). Although the empirical literature described here is mostly concerned with the local implications of desk decorations, it is possible that such space-crafting could have broader implications for cultural change within the organization. ...
... Numerous studies support the positive impact of personalization of work spaces and furniture arrangement as well as personal control over the environment on job commitment, motivation, engagement, job satisfaction, and performance. Personalization is a critical mechanism for employees to express their emotions, manage stress, and control their workspaces [74]. This tends to be more important to women as women personalize their spaces more than man and more frequently rearrange their workspaces [75]. ...
... Thus, applicants may perceive a work environment as either high-or low-value. Accordingly, we define workspace value as applicants' perceptions of the quality and valence of a firm's workspace design (see also Wells, Thelen, & Ruark, 2007). We expect that this perceived value of a work environment (high value vs. low value) will evoke differing associations. ...
... People generally personalize the places they live in and objects around them. There are studies in literature about how people personalize their offices (Brunia & Hartjes-Gosselink, 2009;Wells, Thelen & Ruark, 2007;Wells, 2000), isolated areas such as the stations in poles (Evans & Carrere, 1994), dormitory rooms (Vinsel, Brown, Altman, & Carolyn, 1980) and hospital rooms (Holahan & Saegert, 1973). Electronic devices such as mobile phones, computers that surround us involve personalization as well and researches about this subject increasingly continue. ...
The overall aim of this chapter is to determine the personalizable online learning environments and learner participation in these environments, learner satisfaction in using them, and the effect of the environment on learners' course performance in terms of learning. With this purpose in mind, the researchers have tried to determine the learners' personalization preferences of content order and appearance in online learning environments offered and personalization-related satisfaction and performances. In data collection and analysis processes, both quantitative and qualitative methods were used and the study is designed as mixed model. In conclusion, more than half of the students carried out the personalization procedure and females customized the appearance of their environment in a high frequency rate compared to males. The study indicated that, in general, learners are satisfied with the personalization procedure and there is a significant difference in performances of students who fulfilled the procedure compared to those who did not.
... Kaarlela-Tuomaala et al. (2009) found that female office occupants reported more noise disturbance than their male counterparts. Other studies have also found gender differences in the office environment around a lack of social coherence (Peterson and Beard, 2004) and the ability to personalise the workstation (Wells, 2000;Wells et al., 2007) caused by intermittent and flexible work patterns which are often held by female workers. ...
Winner of Outstanding paper 2018.
Free access to paper
https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/JCRE-11-2016-0037
Purpose
Open-plan office environments are considered to offer workplace productivity benefits because of the opportunities that they create for interaction and knowledge exchange, but more recent research has highlighted noise, distraction and loss of privacy as significant productivity penalties with this office layout. This study aims to investigate if the purported productivity benefits of open plan outweigh the potential productivity penalties.
Design/methodology/approach
Previous research suggests that office environments are experienced differently according to the gender and age of the occupier across both open-plan and enclosed configurations. Empirical research undertaken with office occupiers in the Middle East (N = 220) led to evaluations to establish the impact different offices had on perceived productivity. Factor analysis was used to establish five underlying components of office productivity. The five factors are subsequently used as the basis for comparison between office occupiers based on age, gender and office type.
Findings
This research shows that benefits and penalties to workplace productivity are experienced equally across open-plan and enclosed office environments. The greatest impact on perceived workplace productivity however was availability of a variety of physical layouts, control over interaction and the “downtime” offered by social interaction points. Male occupiers and those from younger generations were also found to consider the office environment to have more of a negative impact on their perceived workplace productivity compared to female and older occupiers.
Originality/value
The originality of this paper is that it develops the concept of profiling office occupiers with the aim of better matching office provision. This paper aims to establish different occupier profiles based on age, gender and office type. Data analysis techniques such as factor analysis and t-test analysis identify the need for different spaces so that occupiers can choose the most appropriate space to best undertake a particular work task. In addition, it emphasises the value that occupiers place on “downtime” leading to the need for appropriate social space.
... There are some studies in the literature which explain how people personalize their offices (Brunia & Hartjes-Gosselink, 2009;Wells, Thelen, & Ruark, 2007;Wells, 2000), their isolated areas like the ones in the poles (Evans & Carrere, 1994), their dormitory rooms (Vinsel, Brown, Altman, & Carolyn, 1980), and patient rooms (Holahan & Saegert, 1973). Similarly, personalization on mobile phones that surround our lives, computers, and electronic products are taking place, and research articles on personalization of learning environment continue to increase day by day. ...
... Offices Corporate structure (Vischer, 2007) Corporate/management culture (Kato et al., 2009;Wells et al., 2007) Facilities Management (Bordass et al., 2004) Office culture (Brown et al., 2010;Brown and Cole, 2009;Brown and Cole, 2008) Academic workspaces Institutional management (Reisz, 2010) Institutional norms (Pinder et al., 2009) Work practices (Parkin et al., 2006) Schools School climate (Uline and Tschannen-Moran, 2008) Learning climate (Uline et al., 2009) Building function (Roberts, 2009) Care homes Management culture & norms (Torrington, 2007) Service sector ...
Existing post-occupancy research rarely considers the importance of the sociality of the building user community and its building user group dynamics. A social value agenda is proposed to promote user-centred design within the built environment, by looking beyond physical design to consider the dynamic interactions that exist between people and their built environment within the social context that mediates them. A social impact valuation methodology, Social Return on Investment (SROI), is trialled in three nonclinical case buildings of varying levels of user-centred design and different build types, representing applied social value research. A qualitative comparison of the “social value” of the case buildings considers the physical design, as well as their varying briefing and design processes, organisational set-ups and building management, and the experiences of the building users. However, the financial SROI data is inconsistent with the qualitative narratives, leading to concern over the effectiveness of SROI at capturing the implications of the sociality of the building user community.
... Many people spend most of their working life at the workplace. According to Wells et al. (2007), personalization offers many benefits to the worker and the organization, as it can enhance job satisfaction and well being and improve morale. ...
The aim of this ongoing study is to help designers' to create opportunities for the users to express their emotions through place making or creation of meaningful spaces for individuals and groups. In my early field work, I used a participatory design approach with mock-ups to investigate the main methods and to explore design opportunities in developing new office environments. The early findings revealed that meaningful workplaces can be achieved in different ways and for different reasons according to different needs. People use variety of ways to make the environment familiar and comfortable for them and mark their identity in the organization. Respondents tend to reshape their workplace referring to their home or previous office and environmental experiences.
This review examines the effect of physical work environments—the dedicated, tangible spaces where employees carry out their professional tasks—on organizational processes and outcomes. We synthesize decades of research across various disciplines using a conceptual framework that defines physical work environments along three key dimensions: ambience, spatial configuration, and aesthetics. These dimensions are analyzed for their effects on both internal stakeholders, such as employees, and external stakeholders, including clients, suppliers, and investors. Our analysis reveals two major themes in prior research: (1) task accomplishment, which focuses on how physical work environments influence physical and mental health, motivation and attitudes, as well as work processes; and (2) resource position, which explores how these environments impact a firm’s tangible resource position, its ability to attract and retain human resources, as well as shape intangible assets such as organizational culture and reputation. The study also highlights contradictory findings and methodological limitations in existing research and proposes future research agendas. By providing theoretical insights and practical guidelines, this work seeks to guide both scholars and managers in understanding how physical workspaces can be designed to improve organizational outcomes, particularly as firms adapt to evolving work arrangements following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Purpose
This study aims to examine if and how an activity-based work environment affects employee workspace satisfaction – an attitude linked to important employee outcomes. By comparing perceptions before and after implementation, the research draws attention to factors that may help explain the impact of an activity-based work environment. Specifically, prior attitudes toward activity-based work environments and gender are tested.
Design/methodology/approach
The present study uses a longitudinal design to explore how implementing an activity-based work environment impacts employees’ workspace satisfaction (e.g. privacy, air quality, lighting, temperature, etc.). A sample of 100 employees in a government organization implementing an activity-based working environment was investigated using a longitudinal design, with employees being surveyed thrice – once before and twice after implementation.
Findings
The results indicate that when workspace satisfaction is impacted by implementing an activity-based work environment, this effect seems primarily based on employees’ prior attitude toward such work environments. In addition, employee gender emerges as a potentially important factor in workspace satisfaction, though not exclusive to the activity-based work environment.
Originality/value
Using a longitudinal approach – which allows for observing potential changes over time – and robust statistical methods, this study supports the importance of employees’ initial attitude toward an activity-based work environment concerning workspace satisfaction. This finding has practical implications for organizations and advances the understanding of why an activity-based work environment may positively affect workspace satisfaction for some employees while negatively affecting others.
Háttér és célkitűzések: A tanulmányunkban közölt feltáró környezetpszichológiai esettanulmány egy nyugat-magyarországi nagyvállalat irodai munkavállalói körében készült terepvizsgálat része. A vállalat a klasszikus, nyitott terű, saját munkaállomásos irodai rendszerről részlegesen shared desk elrendezésre váltott. Feltételezésünk szerint (1) a térszervezés átalakulása kapcsán a korábbi rendszer alacsony hely-használó illeszkedései fellazulnak, és helyettük új, nagyobb mértékű illeszkedések alakulnak ki, illetve (2) a szervezeten belül a shared desk használatának elterjedésével a térhasználat is differenciálódik. Módszer: Fél éven át, longitudinális dizájnban vizsgáltuk az átállást online kérdőíves módszerrel: a résztvevőknek a munkavégzésükhöz kapcsolódó aktivitásokat, illetve érzelmi viszonyulásokat kellett párosítaniuk helyszínekhez . 3 mérési időpontban összesen 235 kérdőívet elemeztünk, a tevékenységek és érzelmi viszonyulások lokalizációjának időbeli változását kereszttábla-elemzéssel vizsgáltuk. Eredmények: A szervezeten belül a legjellemzőbb feladattípusnak számító egyedüli, koncentrált munkavégzés lokalizációjában kaptuk a legmarkánsabb változást, szignifikáns átrendeződést tapasztaltunk továbbá a fontos szakmai telefonhívás elintézése, valamint az egyedül inspirálódás tevékenységek lokalizációjában is. Az érzések tekintetében a biztonság és bizonytalanság lokalizációjában tapasztaltunk szignifikáns átrendeződést. Következtetések : Az eredmények mentén elmondható, hogy a legalacsonyabb illeszkedésű feladatok spontán relokalizálódtak a shared desk bevezetésével, és a térhasználat is differenciálódott. Ez a markáns változás kezdetben bizonytalanságot is generált, ami a 6 hónapos mérés idejére rendeződni tudott, a biztonságosnak tartott helyek sora azonban átrendeződött.
Background:
The high prevalence of mental illnesses has a serious impact on productive life and there is an urgent need to intervene using a variety of active and effective measures.
Objective:
The concept of playfulness in space is introduced into the design of work spaces oriented towards active health interventions, creating a close interaction between the body and the space through play, thus developing a positive effect on the promotion of the physical and mental health of the staff.
Methods:
With the help of the spatial order theory, the analysis of the interaction between body and space is attempted to explore the form, structure and scene of space in order to optimize the body's perception, cognition and behavior in the space, thus creating an indoor workspace model with positive intervention effects on human health.
Results:
Based on the idea of spatial playful participation in active health interventions, this study explores the interaction between the body and the architectural space to enhance the perception and cognitive guidance of the space for the individual and to have a pleasant spiritual experience in the interaction to relieve work stress and enhance mental health.
Conclusion:
This series of discussions on the relationship between architectural space and the human body is of great relevance in improving the public health of occupational groups.
Information about the users' work activity patterns is essential for office space planning and the design of organizations. However, it is not clear yet what factors can be used for predicting work activities, especially at the group level. In this study, we found that work activity patterns of groups are associated with the workgroup's job function and their location in the organizational collaboration networks. Two hypotheses were tested through a survey conducted on a sample of 188 managers from an Italian utility company. The participants were asked about (1) the percentage of time different groups (based on job function and demographic composition) spent doing individual, collaborative, and mobile work; and (2) how network connectivity affected individual versus group work. The results showed that workgroups with different job functions spent different percentages of time on individual, mobile, and teamwork. Communication network connectivity is not significantly correlated with the amount of time spent on individual work, but statistical evidence confirmed that it plays an essential role for the assessment of the amount of work time spent on teamwork, even more than job functions. By investigating the factors affecting collaborations between groups, we advanced the research on work activity in large companies in order to complement existing studies that mostly addressed work activity patterns at the individual level. How information about collaboration networks can be utilized for space planning and flexible work arrangement policy‐making is also discussed, in light of the changes that the COVID‐19 pandemic has triggered.
In two studies, we investigate how users choose virtual backgrounds and how these backgrounds influence viewers' impressions. In Study 1, we created a web prototype allowing users to apply different virtual backgrounds to their camera views and asked users to select backgrounds that they believed would change viewers' perceptions of their personality traits. In Study 2, we then applied virtual backgrounds picked by participants in Study 1 to a subset of videos drawn from the First Impression Dataset. We then ran a series of three online experiments on Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) to compare participants' personality trait ratings for subjects (1) with the selected virtual backgrounds, (2) with the original video backgrounds, and (3) with a gray screen as a background. The selected virtual backgrounds did not change the personality trait ratings in the intended direction. Instead, virtual background use of any kind results in a consistent "muting effect"that mitigates very high or low ratings (i.e., compressing ratings to the mean level) compared to the ratings of the video with the original background.
The role of the working environment on the wellbeing of employees and on companies’ performances has been analysed and studied. It is noticed that a good workplace could actively support employees to be active, motivated and collaborative. But, how to shape the workplace through balancing the needs from employees and the company still remains open. Is there an approach that could guide this explorative investigation? Nowadays, companies are increasingly applying design (thinking), as an effective problem-solving method, to dealing with internal and external issues, and studies in this realm have started to pay attention to the employee’s engagement in organisational change and development. Therefore, considering the workplace as an touchpoint of the organisation, this paper aims at understanding the relations between workplace and design thinking practice in organisations: how they interact with each other and how employees could benefit from their interplay? From interviewing companies from different sectors, the research has identified four initial findings, illustrating the workplace and design thinking implementations could collaboratively foster an innovation culture in the organisation.
Desain Interior bertugas merancang suatu ruang hunian agar sesuai dengan individu yang menghuni dan menggunakannya. Tujuan utama perancangannya jelas, yaitu untuk meningkatkan kualitas hidup pemakai ruang. Desain interior, sebagai bidang seni terapan, memiliki sifat interdisipliner. Ia memerlukan pengetahuan bidang ilmu lain untuk berkembang. Hubungan keduanya, antara desain interior dengan ilmu pengetahuan memiliki pola cyclical. Proses perancangan interior memerlukan seni dan ilmu pengetahuan untuk menghasilkan produk desain interior. Hasil produk desain memberikan peluang untuk diteliti dengan metode penelitian ilmiah. Temuan-temuan dari penelitian itulah yang menjadi dasar bagi perancangan interior selanjutnya. Pola cyclical tersebut mendorong bidang desain interior menjadi semakin berkembang.
This paper has investigated a design method for furniture designers in
Malaysia to allow users to express their needs and aspirations through place making or creation of meaningful office workspaces. During the field work, we discovered that there were problems in getting the users to explain their ideas through verbal explanations. They did not have the proper techniques and tools to express their ideas. From there we started to use mock-ups as tools to communicate and engage with the respondents in our investigation. In the research, we have identified a promising participatory design approach, roleplay with mock-ups. The study revealed that, by using role-play with mockups directly with the users, allowed the designers to quickly become aware of arising issues without the need to do a potentially time-consuming, normative and tedious observational study. This research approach is primarily leads
to new understanding about practice and described as “practice-led”
approach to research. This project had investigated, demonstrated and
opened the possibility that these approaches could be turned into a practical participatory process toward design and place making in furniture industry practice in Malaysia.
In this study, the aim is to analyse the relationship between teachers’ perception of organizational justice and their organizational commitments using the meta-analysis method. In this study, research scope included studies that were conducted on teachers working in public schools in Turkey during 2007-2017 and that contained values such as number of samples and correlation coefficient between organizational justice and organizational commitment variables. Studies within the scope of this research were reached through scanning HEC thesis database and Internet search on two different dates. As a result of the scan, 12 studies were reached that fulfilled identified criteria and in which the relationship between organizational justice and organizational commitment was analysed. In the research, obtained data was analysed using Meta Win 2.1 and Comprehensive Meta Analysis (CMA) software. “Fisher z” value was used in calculation of effect size value in the study. Effect direction and general effect of studies within the scope of this research were calculated according to the random effect model. As a result of analysis, it was determined that organizational justice had a strong level of relational effect on organizational commitment. In addition, it was observed that average effect size was higher in secondary education than it was in primary education. It was understood that effect coefficients calculated for primary and secondary education were positive oriented and their effect size was at a strong level. This finding of the study can be interpreted that organizational justice in secondary schools have higher level of effect on organizational commitment. Considering the results of the research, it can be said that there is a need for new studies that will be conducted towards high level of effect of organizational justice on organizational commitment in secondary schools.
ZET Bu araştırmada, öğretmenlerin örgütsel adalet algısı ile örgütsel bağlılıkları arasındaki ilişkinin meta analiz yöntemi kullanılarak incelenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Araştırma; 2007-2017 yılları arasında Türkiye'deki devlet okullarında çalışan öğretmenler üzerinde yapılmış ve örgütsel adalet ile örgütsel bağlılık değişkenleri arasındaki korelasyon katsayısı ve örneklem sayısı değerlerini içeren araştırmalar çalışma kapsamına alınmıştır. Araştırma kapsamındaki çalışmalara, YÖK Ulusal Tez Merkezi ile ULAKBİM, Google Akademik, ERIC, EBSCO ve Dergipark veri tabanları iki farklı tarihte taranarak ulaşılmıştır. Yapılan tarama sonucunda araştırmada belirlenen ölçütleri taşıyan, örgütsel adalet ve örgütsel bağlılık arasındaki ilişkinin incelendiği 12 çalışmaya ulaşılmıştır. Araştırmada, elde edilen veriler Meta Win 2.1 ve Comprehensive Meta Analysis (CMA) programları aracılığıyla analiz edilmiştir. Araştırmada etki büyüklüğü değerlerinin hesaplanmasında "Fisher z" değeri kullanılmıştır. Araştırma kapsamındaki çalışmaların etki yönü ve genel etkisi rastgele etki modeline göre hesaplanmıştır. Analiz sonucunda; örgütsel adaletin örgütsel bağlılık üzerinde güçlü düzeyde ilişki etkisine sahip olduğu belirlenmiştir. Ayrıca, ortalama etki büyüklüğünün ortaöğretimde ilköğretimden daha yüksek olduğu görülmüştür. İlköğretim ve ortaöğretim için hesaplanan etki katsayılarının pozitif yönlü olduğu ve etki büyüklüğünün güçlü derecede olduğu anlaşılmıştır. Araştırmanın bu bulgusu, ortaöğretim okullarında örgütsel adaletin örgütsel bağlılık üzerinde daha yüksek etkiye sahip olduğu şeklinde yorumlanabilir. Araştırmanın sonuçları göz önünde bulundurulduğunda, örgütsel adaletin örgütsel bağlılığa etkisinin ortaöğretim okullarında neden yüksek çıktığı ile ilgili yapılacak yeni araştırmalara ihtiyaç duyulduğu söylenebilir. * Çalışmanın özeti 26. Uluslararası Eğitim Bilimleri Kongresi'nde (ICES UEBK) sözlü bildiri olarak sunulmuştur. ABSTRACT In this study, the aim is to analyse the relationship between teachers' perception of organizational justice and their organizational commitments using the meta-analysis method. In this study, research scope included studies that were conducted on teachers working in public schools in Turkey during 2007-2017 and that contained values such as number of samples and correlation coefficient between organizational justice and organizational commitment variables. Studies within the scope of this research were reached through scanning YÖK National Dissertation Center, ULAKBİM, Google Scholar, ERIC, EBSCO and Dergipark database two different dates. As a result of the scan, 12 studies were reached that fulfilled identified criteria and in which the relationship between organizational justice and organizational commitment was analysed. In the research, obtained data was analysed using Meta Win 2.1 and Comprehensive Meta Analysis (CMA) software. "Fisher z" value was used in calculation of effect size value in the study. Effect direction and general effect of studies within the scope of this research were calculated according to the random effect model. As a result of analysis, it was determined that organizational justice had a strong level of relational effect on organizational commitment. In addition, it was observed that average effect size was higher in secondary education than it was in primary education. It was understood that effect coefficients calculated for primary and secondary education were positive oriented and their effect size was at a strong level. This finding of the study can be interpreted that organizational justice in secondary schools have higher level of effect on organizational commitment. Considering the results of the research, it can be said that there is a need for new studies that will be conducted towards high level of effect of organizational justice on organizational commitment in secondary schools.
Despite the inherent need to own and widespread prevalence of owning and claiming in organizations, very little is known about the impact of psychological ownership and territoriality. Using a field survey across several organizations, we find that feelings of ownership and territorial behavior are directly related to positive feelings towards the object and that these feelings may also extend beyond the target object to feelings of commitment to the organization. On the downside, however, the impact of these claims also may affect coworker's perceptions of the territorial individual. The findings are consistent with past theorizing suggesting that territorial behavior may have positive psychological consequences but this same behavior may not be understood or may be viewed negatively by others. Specifically, we find that territorial behavior is negatively related to an individual's perceived power and performance. Thus, the benefits for the individual may be offset by other's negative perceptions of the people who are territorial. Implications of these findings and future research directions are discussed.
Development of ergonomic sofa design is a design process includes the basic framework specification, type of material, consideration of sofa features and sofa production methods that is applied on the sofa design. One of the methods that can be used in developing most appropriate design is by applying the process of upgrading existing sofa furniture through structural development that are based on user and manufacturer perception. Therefore, the goal of the paper is to develop a conceptual design for ergonomic sofa based on the user and manufacturer perception. To achieve this goal, a survey involving 30 respondents of sofa makers and sofa consumers was conducted to obtain feedback regarding the conceptual design of ergonomic sofa. The questionnaire survey had emphasize on the concept of sofa, general features of sofa, basic materials of sofa, basic color scheme and price range based on consumer perception and also focused on the basic specifications and material dimensions of sofa materials used. The results of data analysis show that the size of basic dimensions and materials is essential in designing an ergonomic sofa and user preferences have been identified. The survey is very important to find out the basic specifications in the development of ergonomic design through perception of sofa maker and consumers. The future stage of the research will focus on the incorporation of anthropometric data in order to address the innovative criterion of the development.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the phenomenon of activity-based working (ABW), an office design and management system that has emerged in the past 20 years. It investigates its manifest and underlying agendas with a view to determining its degree of cost management focus and scientific management foundations.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses historical and website analysis methodologies for investigating historical office management philosophies and practices, as well as contemporary office design and management philosophies and related ABW practices and discourse. These are examined through the theoretical lenses of governmentality and impression management theories.
Findings
Despite a rhetoric of staff empowerment, ABW’s dominant agenda is overhead cost reduction and operating cost management. This reflects scientific management principles of early twentieth-century office design and management. Cost efficiencies and productivity emerge as key ABW output foci. While ABW adopters and advocates present ABW as a desirable staff satisfaction and operations facilitator, the cost agenda nonetheless commands centre stage.
Research limitations/implications
Accounting research into the office and its processes is much needed. This has been largely neglected in favour of line management and factory floor costing and accountability systems. In a world dominated by service industries, the office as a centre of organisational and economic activity merits researchers’ greater attention.
Practical implications
Contemporary office design and functioning developments merit greater recourse to and acknowledgement of their historic roots. Then, practitioners can better design and implement systems that build on past knowledge and learnings. While such innovations as ABW may carry potential for improved organisational performance, care is needed with respect to their balancing of agendas and suitability for their institutional and cultural environments.
Social implications
Organisational work has become a dominant part of social life in most economies today. Such innovations as ABW must be considered in terms of the societal culture into which they are introduced: how they reflect and adapt to that culture and what impacts they may also have on the culture itself. This includes dimensions such as organisational and self-control, as well as personal and organisational accountability.
Originality/value
This study presents itself as one of the very few refereed research studies of ABW currently available in the accounting, management or property research literatures. It also represents one of the very few studies of the office in the accounting research literature internationally.
Drawing on semi-structured interviews and cognitive mapping with 14 craftspeople, this paper analyzes the socio-technical arrangements of people and tools in the context of workspaces and productivity. Using actor-network theory and the concept of companionability, both of which emphasize the role of human and non-human actants in the socio-technical fabrics of everyday life, I analyze the relationships between people, productivity and technology through the following themes: embodiment, provenance, insecurity, flow and companionability. The discussion section develops these themes further through comparison with rhetoric surrounding the Internet of Things (IoT). By putting the experiences of craftspeople in conversation with IoT rhetoric, I suggest several policy interventions for understanding connectivity and inter-device operability as material, flexible and respectful of human agency.
This paper reports on a case study that aimed to provide a more holistic understanding of the relationships between people and their work environment. Using grounded theory methodology, the study focused on the experiences of a group of employees as they understood them in relation to their work performance within a nomadic, non-territorial environment. In this paper, these experiences are described and interpreted in relation to the perceived 'fit' between employees and their physical and social work environment highlighting several interdependent human factors understood to impact or have the potential to impact in various ways on sustainable performance. One of the qualities of the study as outlined in the paper is its consideration of psychological and social aspects of the person and their work as ergonomic-related issues in addition to and integrally connected with physical aspects. Central to this quality is the core concept of 'control'. The study found for example that the ability to control one's work space and process is impacted by poor flexibility of furniture and facilities impacting on body support, movement and access. This is exacerbated by insufficient work desk surface area and storage space creating further confusion and added insecurity. On the whole the study compliments and extends previous studies in workplace design in the process producing a new conceptual framework for categorising user experiences described as: the environment (E); the system of operation (Workplace System, WPS); the spatial layout of the office (Spatial Characteristics, SPC); and the artefacts accommodated in and by the environment including furniture, facilities, equipment (ART).
The changes taking place in the residential environment have raised a very acute question: How to give due consideration to the distinctive features of the particular human being and the laws and patterns of his activity and social intercourse; how to include the "human element" in the ever more complicated mechanism of environmental planning as the man-made world, from the apartment to urban agglomerations, is shaped and transformed? Quests for an answer to this question over the past fifteen to twenty years have produced a new area of psychological investigation, most commonly referred to as "environmental psychology."
This study examined the effects of organisational culture and leadership styles on job satisfaction and organisational commitment in samples of Hong Kong and Australian managers. Statistically significant differences between the two samples were found for measures of innovative and supportive organizational cultures, job satisfaction and organizational commitment, with the Australian sample having higher mean scores on all these variables. However, differences between the two samples for job satisfaction and commitment were removed after statistically controlling for organizational culture, leadership and respondents' demographic characteristics. For the combined samples, innovative and supportive cultures, and a consideration leadership style, had positive effects on both job satisfaction and commitment, with the effects of an innovative culture on satisfaction and commitment, and the effect of a consideration leadership style on commitment, being stronger in the Australian sample. Also, an “initiating Structure” leadership style had a negative effect on job satisfaction for the combined sample. Participants' level of education was found to have a slight negative effect on satisfaction, and a slight positive effect on commitment. National culture was found to moderate the effect of respondents' age on satisfaction, with the effect being more positive amongst Hong Kong managers.
Examined privacy regulation in terms of (a) mechanisms used by college students to make themselves more or less accessible to one another; (b) dormitory room decorations; and (c) the relationships between privacy regulation, personal displays, and short- and long-term adjustment to a university setting. 102 freshmen completed a questionnaire that assessed privacy mechanisms, satisfaction with the university, and other topics. Content analyses of photos of room decorations were also completed. Results at follow-up, over 1 yr later, show that Ss who had dropped out of the university had fewer and less effective privacy mechanisms, were less satisfied with university life, and were less active in various campus events. Although dropouts tended to decorate their rooms more than did Ss who were still enrolled, their decorations showed less diversity and less commitment to the university setting. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
It has been suggested that personalization of one's space may enhance well-being, though this relationship has not been empirically studied. Other research points to gender differences in personalization. To determine whether office personalization is associated with employee well-being and to determine the effect of gender on this relationship, a survey of 338 office workers at 20 companies was conducted in Orange County, California. In addition, 23 of the participants were interviewed and their workspaces observed. Results revealed an indirect relationship between personalization and employee well-being with satisfaction with the physical work environment and job satisfaction as intervening variables. Further, an association was also found between the company's personalization policy and organizational well-being. There were also gender differences in personalization: women personalized more than men, and men and women personalized with different items and for different reasons. Moreover, the interview data suggested that personalization is more integral to the well-being of women than to that of men, although the survey data did not confirm this finding.
In this article, we summarize previous empirical studies that examined antecedents, correlates, and/or consequences of organizational commitment using meta-analysis. In total, 48 meta-analyses were conducted, including 26 variables classified as antecedents, 8 as consequences, and 14 as correlates. Statistical artifacts were found to account for the variance between studies in only one meta-analysis that used attendance. Type of organizational commitment (attitudinal vs. calculative) was proposed as a moderator variable and was found to account for significant between-study variance in 9 of 18 comparisons. Theoretical and methodological issues pertaining to the measurement of various forms of organizational commitment, its interrelations with other forms of attachments, and its role in causal models of behavior in organizations are reviewed. Directions for future research are highlighted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved)
In this article, we summarize previous empirical studies that examined antecedents, correlates, and/or consequences of organizational commitment using meta-analysis. In total, 48 meta-analyses were conducted, including 26 variables classified as antecedents, 8 as consequences, and 14 as correlates. Statistical artifacts were found to account for the variance between studies in only one meta-analysis that used attendance. Type of organizational commitment (attitudinal vs. calculative) was proposed as a moderator variable and was found to account for significant between-study variance in 9 of 18 comparisons. Theoretical and methodological issues pertaining to the measurement of various forms of organizational commitment, its interrelations with other forms of attachments, and its role in causal models of behavior in organizations are reviewed. Directions for future research are highlighted.
The isolated and confined environment (ICE) is an area of environmental stress that has received very little attention by U.S. investigators. Understanding the physical and psychological components of ICEs is important because many people are exposed to these settings. Naval submarines routinely go on 60-day patrols where outside communication is extremely limited. Oil companies employ professional divers who are required to remain in hyperbaric chambers for a month at a time. Research and business require the maintenance of isolated stations in both polar regions that can be isolated for 6 to 9 months at a time. The space station proposed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration will confine and isolate its inhabitants for extended periods, as well.
Work, Employment and Society is the second journal to be published by the British Sociological Association. It appears for the first time almost exactly twenty years after the publication of the first issue of Sociology. At that time Banks pointed out that part of the impetus for the establishment of the Association's own journal was the recognition that it 'could be an instrument for the propagation of satisfactory scholarly standards in the discipline'. As such it reflected and reinforced the changes which took place in sociology in Britain during the 1960s as it became more 'professional' and more widely accepted, but as a specialism within rather than as 'a synthesis of the social sciences' (Banks 1967: 5-6). Though there remain areas and issues in contention, by and large sociology is now established as one of the essential social science disciplines, and sociological research is accepted as making an important contribution to the understanding and explanation of many issues of public and academic concern. The case for launching this new journal is rather different from the reasons which led to the establishment of Sociology; it is that there is now so much research and writing in one of the areas with which sociologists have always been most preoccupied, and such a large number of interested readers, not all of whom are sociologists or academics, that such an initiative is both desirable and viable. Sociologists have always been concerned with questions relating to the nature of work and to the social relations surrounding employment and production (see, for example, Carter 1968). Though the terms in which the problems are to be investigated have changed over the years, they have seen this area of study as providing an essential key to the understanding of social relations in any society. The journal therefore represents a continuation of and contribution to a long and strong tradition. There have, however, been some very important developments in the study of work and employment during the last fifteen to twenty years. These changes have taken place partly in response to major changes in the British and world economies, and partly as a result of intellectual developments within sociology and other social science disciplines. This is not the place to attempt a comprehen sive account of what has occurred, but a brief discussion will indicate something of how those responsible for Work, Employment and Society define its scope and purpose. It is important to note, too, that in establishing a journal which we hope will act as a focus for research and scholarship in this important field, we wish to provide a forum for all those concerned to understand the changing patterns of
Approximately 70% of American workers personalize their workspaces. However, some employees personalize more than others, such as managers and employees with enclosed offices. Studies examining personality traits suggest that employees who personalize the most tend to be creative and have a high need for affiliation and a low need for privacy. However, major personality factors have not been examined. This study examines the relationships between workspace personalization and the Big Five personality factors by surveying 234 employees from 33 companies. Results indicate that personality is only indirectly related to personalization through employee characteristics such as status and type of workspace. Personalization is primarily predicted by the company’s personalization policy and an employee’s status and workspace.
The present study examines design elements that influence the habitability of an isolated and confined environment (ICE) of a research station in Antarctica during an austral winter season. Self-report measures and video records are used to examine the patterns of use of the ICE, the modifications to the habitat by the winter crew, the residents' perceptions of the ICE, and their feedback about design elements that are critical to long-term stays in ICEs. Four basic trends in the data emerged. First, people chose to spend considerable time alone. The ability to regulate the level of social interaction engaged in was a highly valued design element. Second, the physical setting of an ICE must be flexible enough to accommodate a range of work and leisure activities. Rooms at the station that were flexible were preferred by station residents. Third, personalization of the station to reflect both individual's as well as the collective team's identity was prevalent. Finally, evaluation of the station's environmental qualifies remained neutral over the course of the winter.
This study examined personalization of college dormitory rooms. Walls in college dormitories were photographed on two occasions, at the beginning and end of the first quarter in which new students were in residence. Decorations were content analyzed in terms of the following categories: personal relationships, values, abstract, reference, entertainment, and personal interest materials. The results indicated that most people decorated early in the quarter, decorating increased over time, and students differentially personalized their rooms in terms of the preceding categories. In addition, exploratory analyses were undertaken of modeling among roommates and relationships of decorating to dropout rates from the university.
A survey of 529 office workers from three government and three private sector organizations explored the environmental characteristics that demarcate status in the office, the extent to which these characteristics are related to a sense of status support, and the association of status support with workspace and job satisfaction. Four types of environmental characteristics (the nature of workspace furnishings, amount of space, capacity for personalization, and the ability to control access by others) discriminated between supervisory (high-status) and nonsupervisory (lowstatus) respondents. Furthermore, each of the four sets of physical environment properties were related to perceptions of appropriate status support, which was in turn predictive of job satisfaction and satisfaction with workspace. Private versus public sector differences and supervisory versus nonsupervisory differences were explored The implications for space planning and evaluation are considered.
Most businesses routinely face the difficult situation of assimilating new employees into the organization. While this process may be smooth and productive, it is often a source of frustration for employee and organization alike. This article conceptualizes organizational assimilation in terms of the culture metaphor and proposes that this paradigm can lead to many suggestions for improving the transition of newcomers from outsider to insider. First, a paradigm employing the cultural metaphor is presented (including a model of the assimilation process). Then, research is reviewed in light of the cultural paradigm and suggestions for application are provided. Suggestions are intended to help newcomers feel greater satisfaction and work more productively.
The majority of research on offices focuses on the physical aspects of those environments. While this has led to important discoveries, within Environmental Psychology there has generally been a neglect of the critical management and organizational processes that shape the use of office environments. This paper examines the beliefs and practices of facilities managers. The research adopts a qualitative, in-depth case study design. Approximately 40 people were interviewed from each organization at three points in time. Interviews lasted between one and three hours. Analysis of the interviews revealed a set of beliefs held by facilities management teams that shaped their decision making about the office. These beliefs resulted in them being less responsive to the dynamic and organic qualities of the organization and worker's requirements.
Explains how social scientists can evaluate the reliability and validity of empirical measurements, discussing the three basic types of validity: criterion related, content, and construct. In addition, the paper shows how reliability is assessed by the retest method, alternative-forms procedure, split-halves approach, and internal consistency method.
This study of hospital nurses (n = 154) examined the influence of dimensions of work satisfaction on types of organizational commitment. Significant results were found for the two affective commitment types tested but not for the instrumental type evaluated. The results indicate that satisfaction with professional status was a significant predictor of moral commitment. Dissatisfaction with organizational policies, autonomy, and professional status were significant predictors of alienative commitment. None of the dimensions of work satisfaction were predictors of calculative commitment. The results of this study suggest that understanding how various factors impact the nature and the form of an individual’s organizational commitment is worth the effort. If managers do not know what causes an attitude to take on a particular form, they cannot accurately predict what behavior might follow.
Data from the 1991 General Social Survey and National Organizations Survey are used to assess how organizational commitment is structured by one “demand side,” organizational-based factor, firm internal labor markets, and one “supply side,” individual-based factor, the values/preferences of workers. Findings indicate that organizational commitment is best explained by the joint influence of these two factors rather than by their independent effects. Specifically, firms with internal labor markets are conducive to the development of high levels of organizational commitment to the extent that what they offer, namely, opportunities for career-status and long-term employment “fit” what workers desire: job security and possibilities for promotion with their current employer. We offer directions for future research that may shed additional light on the manner in which internal labor markets and the values/preferences of workers may structure organizational commitment.
Argues that the concept of the total workplace goes beyond physical facilities to take account of the whole network of social, organisational, and design elements that constitute the context in which we spend our working lives. Uses the Steelcase Corporate Development Centre, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as an example of a total workplace, and to show the effectiveness of teamwork and the critical need for communication in advanced work culture. Discusses a number of key social process areas that represent an integral part of the workplace. Finally, considers the application of the total workplace concept to other organisations and contexts.
In "Workplace by Design," Franklin Becker and Fritz Steele address the missing link for a successfully reengineered organization: the reengineered office. With graphic illustrations and examples from Levi Strauss, Chrysler Corporation, Steelcase, Chiat/Day and others, the authors show how to plan, design, and manage a total workplace in which space is a tool for achieving business goals, not a drain on profits. They demonstrate how managers, executives, human resource specialists, and design consultants can keep the physical work setting from undermining the success of workplace initiatives—such as teamwork, telecommuting, and cross-functional collaboration—that encourage high performance.
[This book] shows how diverse companies have implemented a total workplace strategy to effectively involve designers, consultants, and internal staff in diagnosing and solving space problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Explores the importance of expressing emotions in the workplace through personalization of work space. Understanding the ramifications of such symbolic and communicative behaviors is beneficial for the organization and the employee. Two work units from a university are examined, and implications for managers are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Two studies were designed to explore differences between human territoriality and privacy. Study I was designed to determine whether subjects would distinguish between settings offering (1) privacy, (2) territory, (3) both, or (4) neither, and whether they would be prepared to sacrifice privacy for territory (or vice versag in choosing settings for certain specified activities. Results showed that subjects did make these distinctions. Study II was a laboratory experiment designed to explore the separate psychological effects of territory and privacy. In it, subjects first territorialized individual experimental rooms then half completed dependent measures (focusing on attribution) in their new territories, while half worked in comparable rooms they had not seen before. Subjects were also divided so that half had privacy while completing the measures, while half had none. Results indicated that privacy led subjects to attribute their behavior less to the influence of others, and, independently, subjects working on their own territories attributed their behavior more to own personality. Private environments were also reported as being more stimulating and free, and subjects were more creative there.
Diversity in the conceptualization and measurement of organizational commitment has made it difficult to interpret the results of an accumulating body of research. In this article, we go beyond the existing distinction between attitudinal and behavioral commitment and argue that commitment, as a psychological state, has at least three separable components reflecting (a) a desire (affective commitment), (b) a need (continuance commitment), and (c) an obligation (normative commitment) to maintain employment in an organization. Each component is considered to develop as a function of different antecedents and to have different implications for on-the-job behavior. The aim of this reconceptualization is to aid in the synthesis of existing research and to serve as a framework for future research.
In this study, the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire and self-report measures of work experiences were completed by newly hired university graduates 1, 6 and 11 months after starting employment. The time-lagged influence of work experiences on commitment, and of commitment on work experiences, was examined using structural regression analyses. The results revealed effects of work experiences in the first month of employment on commitment measured after 6 and 11 months. The strongest and most consistent effects were obtained for confirmation of pre-entry expectations and the opportunity for self-expression. Some, albeit weaker, evidence was also provided for time-lagged effects of commitment on perceived work experiences, particularly in the 6-11-month lag. Implications for theory and research concerning the development of commitment are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Occupational Psychology is the property of British Psychological Society and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
This paper summarizes a stream of research aimed at developing and validating a measure of employee commitment to work organizations. The instrument, developed by Porter and his colleagues, is called the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ). Based on a series of studies among 2563 employees in nine divergent organizations, satisfactory test-retest reliabilities and internal consistency reliabilities were found. In addition, cross-validated evidence of acceptable levels of predictive, convergent, and discriminant validity emerged for the instrument. Norms for males and females are presented based on the available sample. Possible instrument limitations and future research needs on the measurement and study of organizational commitment are reviewed
Thesis (Ph. D. in Architecture)--University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee, 2000. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 269-294). Vita. Microfiche copy: University Microfilms No. 99-64950.
Within the past few years, several studies have used the Affective, Continuance, and Normative Commitment Scales (Allen & Meyer, 1990; Meyer & Allen, 1984, 1991) to assess organizational commitment. The purpose of this paper is to review and evaluate the body of evidence relevant to the construct validity of these measures. Although some empirical questions remain at issue, the overall results strongly support the continued use of the scales in substantive research. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.
The total workplace: Facilities management and the elastic organization
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Now offices, no offices, new offices: Wild times in the world of office work
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Diagnosing and changing organizational culture: Based on the competing values framework
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Environmental personalization in institutional settings
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Places for a work ethic: An appraisal of American workplace design and research
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Work places: The psychology of the physical environment in offices and factories
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PhD, is an environmental psychologist whose research interests focus on work environments, specifically workspace personalization and the ultimate form of workspace personalization-pets in the workplace
- Meredith M Wells
Meredith M. Wells, PhD, is an environmental psychologist whose research interests focus on
work environments, specifically workspace personalization and the ultimate form of workspace personalization-pets in the workplace.