Occupant productivity and office indoor environment quality: A review of the literature

Principles of lean office management increasingly call for space to be stripped of extraneous decorations so that it can flexibly accommodate changing numbers of people and different office functions within the same area. Yet this practice is at odds with evidence that office workers' quality of life can be enriched by office landscaping that involves the use of plants that have no formal work-related function. To examine the impact of these competing approaches, 3 field experiments were conducted in large commercial offices in The Netherlands and the U.K. These examined the impact of lean and "green" offices on subjective perceptions of air quality, concentration, and workplace satisfaction as well as objective measures of productivity. Two studies were longitudinal, examining effects of interventions over subsequent weeks and months. In all 3 experiments enhanced outcomes were observed when offices were enriched by plants. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

/pdf/the-relative-benefits-of-green-versus-lean-office-space-51sxizchtl.pdf

The Relative Benefits of Green Versus Lean Office Space: Three Field Experiments

An organization’s workspace, the physical environment an organization provides for its employees to carry out their work activities, constitutes the second largest financial overhead (after human resources) for most organizations (McCoy, 2005). Of the workspace provided, most employees in developed countries work in some form of office environment (Duffy, 1997) and studies of this practice have found that it has a powerful role in shaping a diverse range of psychological and behavioral outcomes, including individual work motivation (e.g., Oldham & Brass, 1979), job satisfaction (e.g., Veitch, Charles, Farley, et al., 2007), and patterns of interactions (e.g., Boyce, 1974; Ives & Ferdinands, 1974; Sundstrom & Sundstrom, 1986). Furthermore, the impact of offices upon their occupants’ personal productivity has been estimated to be somewhere in the region of 20% (e.g., Leaman & Bordass, 2005). Within the organizational literature, offices have been typically described as either traditional (sometimes referred to as enclosed or cellular offices) or open-plan. Traditional offices tend to house one or two individuals in private rooms, enclosed by walls, often containing most of the amenities required for their job (Danielsson & Bodin, 2008). Open-plan offices are characterized by a lack of interior walls, tend to be larger and contain greater numbers of workers, with individual workstations arranged within the office in groups (Brennan, Chugh, & Kline, 2002; Brookes & Kaplan, 1972). Workspace design, however, is currently under organizational scrutiny due to the changing nature of work. It is evident that many organizations are re-evaluating their facilities to ensure

The Physical Environment of the Office: Contemporary and Emerging Issues

Although there is a trend in today's organisations to implement activity-based flexible offices (A-FOs), only a few studies examine consequences of this new office type. Moreover, the underlying mechanisms why A-FOs might lead to different consequences as compared to cellular and open-plan offices are still unclear. This paper introduces a theoretical framework explaining benefits and risks of A-FOs based on theories from work and organisational psychology. After deriving working conditions specific for A-FOs (territoriality, autonomy, privacy, proximity and visibility), differences in working conditions between A-FOs and alternative office types are proposed. Further, we suggest how these differences in working conditions might affect work-related consequences such as well-being, satisfaction, motivation and performance on the individual, the team and the organisational level. Finally, we consider task-related (e.g. task variety), person-related (e.g. personality) and organisational (e.g. leadership) moderators. Based on this model, future research directions as well as practical implications are discussed. Practitioner Summary: Activity-based flexible offices (A-FOs) are popular in today's organisations. This article presents a theoretical model explaining why and when working in an A-FO evokes benefits and risks for individuals, teams and organisations. According to the model, A-FOs are beneficial when management encourages employees to use the environment appropriately and supports teams.

Choosing where to work at work - towards a theoretical model of benefits and risks of activity-based flexible offices.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a validated theoretical framework for the evaluation of office productivity, which includes components to represent both the physical and the behavioural environment It is proposed that by adopting such an approach, insights into the dynamic nature, or connectivity, of office environments can be established The main objective of this paper is to investigate the effects of the office environment on its occupants' perceived productivityDesign/methodology/approach – The study's strength is that it is based on two sizable data sets The data collected consists of data about the physical characteristics of the office environment and data pertaining to the behavioural environmentFindings – Results are analysed for specific work patterns, to establish meaning and relationships In all of the four work patterns evaluated it was found that interaction was perceived to be the component to have the most positive affect on productivity and distraction was perceive

/pdf/an-evaluation-of-the-impact-of-the-office-environment-on-9nfznodkp4.pdf

An evaluation of the impact of the office environment on productivity

The workplace is changing radically, yet the building designs and environmental systems for conventional offices fail to support the more fluid use of space and time practised by these new kinds of office work. Prepared by the team who wrote The Responsible Workplace in 1992, this book is based on a major research project undertaken by DEGW and the BRE. It identifies the key organizational changes, patterns of work, work settings and types of space layouts and it will help specifiers and users of environmental systems understand what products will be suitable for innovative ways of office working.

New environments for working : the re-design of offices and environmental systems for new ways of working

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New environments for working : the re-design of offices and environmental systems for new ways of working