User:MGMT90018 2015S2 Office space planning/sandbox

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Office layouts are arranged so that staff can work together in departmental and team groupings, providing the best opportunity for efficient work flow, communication and supervision. Modern office buildings have a strong emphasis on urban landscape and its impact on job productivity and job satisfaction. Changes in office layouts can impact businesses in multiple ways, including accessibility, productivity and job satisfaction which all impact individual and organisational behaviours. The layout of an office has been shown to impact the attitude and perception of employees as the environment can impact behaviour.

History of office space layouts

The notion of office space is not a new phenomenon, but rather dates back as far as the 9^th century, with a painting from the era depicting St. Matthew the Apostle doing work at his desk. Illustrations of 15^th century merchants working behind workstations also exist. Evidence of private office work throughout the 18^th and 19^th century is also prevalent, but was not performed on the same large scale as that of the 20^th century. Office work during these two centuries was a prestigious activity performed by educated men who had the capacity to read and write. Such work was performed in private offices, however this office dimension changed in the 20^th century due to economic and technological advances that saw additional modern office designs such as the open, and flexible offices began to take shape.

The start of the 20^th century saw a huge surge in the number of office workers in Europe, with the number of office workers growing from 0.8% in the UK to 7.2% alone between 1851 and 1921. This period was referred to as the ‘administrative revolution’, which was characterised by the concentration of enterprise and finance across Europe and the United States as a result of modern techniques of mass production. Such mass production created large professional organisations, which due to their size required significant administration efforts that resulted in the need for large-scale office work.

American engineer, Frederick Taylor spearheaded the concept of the office environment throughout the U.S in the 1920’s. He was concerned with developing work environments that would maximise efficiency and translated such ambitions into office design characterised by large open floor spaces with rows of desks facing in the same direction towards a supervisor. The openness of the office facilitated the easy flow of work from one desk to another and maximised supervision of staff by managers who could see the activities of the whole office, monitoring them with ease. This was the first wide spread use of the concept that is referred to as open plan offices today.  

It was not until the 1960’s though when Europe came to the forefront in office design and overtook the U.S. In 1963, German consultancy group, the Quickborner Team developed a new office concept. They stressed the need for increased flexibility in office spaces to improve communication and believed the exchange of information didn’t have to take the vertical form from manager to subordinate, but rather along functional lines, thereby ignoring hierarchical barriers. To facilitate free flowing communication, there were no private offices and desks were scattered around the office without pattern that was shared by management and subordinates. This concept was translated into reality and utilised by German publisher, Bertelsmann in 1963 that served as the first flexible office design. Since then, the private, open-plan, and flexible office plans have endured the test of time, and have lead to modified layouts such as the creation of the combi-office in Sweden in the 1980’s.  

Types of office space layouts

There are three categories of office space layouts; open-plan office, private office and flexible office. Within each category are different sub-types, which are defined by both architectural features and functional features. Open-plan offices can come in small, medium or large, whilst private offices can come in single-person room office or shared-room office. Flexible office designs consist of flex-office and combi-office.

Open-plan office

An open-plan office is a common workspace for employees, with no walls between workstations or access to individual windows. 70% of American employees currently work in open plan offices.Open-plan offices are flexible to organisational changes as they can cope with the restructuring of staff easily .

• Small Open-Plan Offices: have work stations for four to nine people per room.

• Medium Open-Plan Offices: have works stations for ten to twenty-four people per room

• Large Open-Plan Offices: have works stations for more than twenty-four people

Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages in having a lack of walls between the work stations promotes communication within teams, which enhances employee job satisfaction. Structural equation modelling has indicated that open plan office employees are more satisfied with their working environment and thus their jobs. Open-plan offices remove internal walls, they increase interaction between co-workers and subsequently increase work performance. They make employees develop a sense of belonging to a community, which enhances their likelihood of wanting to come to work each day. It also allows for lower operating costs as it minimises the amount of office space each worker requires and allows for staffing arrangements to change with minimal desk costs. Open plan offices create a flow of ideas where there are people around to bounce ideas off and simultaneously enhance group problem solving.

Disadvantages occur over an extended period of time whereby open-plan offices can result in a decline of workplace satisfaction. Open-plan offices often have audible speech from colleagues which disturbs and negatively impacts individuals job performance on tasks which require cognitive processing. This loss of job performance/productivity is doubled in open-plan offices in juxtaposition to private offices. The decrease in job performance happens because open-planned office spaces do not separate employees from unwanted sounds and visual observations, resulting in uncontrolled social contact and interruptions resulting in over-stimulation leading to negative impacts on work performed. Individuals in large open-plan offices experience high levels of dissatisfaction in terms of noise, specifically there is minimal small areas for private conversations in all office types apart from cell-offices (77-86% compared to 8% for the latter).

Organisations and Companies

Twitter, The BBC, BHP, Virgin and Facebook all use open plan offices. These large companies all use open plan offices to enhance communication, community and problem solving while at work.

Private office

Private offices are enclosed offices characterised by small rooms separated from the rest of the office space. The single-person room office is designed for a single person and is used by organisations where work requires high concentration or strong confidentiality. A shared-room office on the other hand is designed to be shared by two to three people and is used by organisations where team-based work and co-worker interaction is required.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Increased enclosure within a private office is associated with higher rates of privacy and in turn, higher workplace satisfaction. This association can be attributed to the notion that a lack of privacy in the likes of open-office layouts can lead employees to become over stimulated because of the close proximity they are seated in relation to colleagues, thereby resulting in a more difficult environment to concentrate in. Another advantage of private offices are the higher levels of concentration due to a higher degree of privacy. Disadvantages of a private office is that it gives employees the feeling of having less control, since it makes ambient noise harder to predict, which in turn affects their job satisfaction and productivity.

Flexible office

The flex-office design is an open-plan layout where employees do not have their own personal workstation. Workstations are shared with co-workers, and this is commonly referred to as hot desking. Organisations that would use this design include any that have call centers, for example National Australia Bank's customer service call centre. Combi-office design consists of a combination of both open-plan and private offices, and is used by organisations whom require more flexibility in changing work environments.

Advantages and Disadvantages

By having a flexible office design, the main advantage is being able to utilise the strengths of both open-plan offices and private offices, as well as provide more flexibility in changing work environments.

Organisations and Companies

Macquarie Bank, Microsoft, Jones Lang LaSalle, GPT Group, Commonwealth Bank, Ernst & Young and NAB have all implemented flexible office spaces, including hot desking. KMPG have taken the flexible office to a deeper level creating an "agile" work space, where it has all the same properties of a flexible office space but if you do not want to be disturbed you go to the "focus" area, if you want interaction you go to the "collaborate" zones and if you want some inspiration and people to build ideas off you go to the "spark" area. This enables managers and employees to find a desk in an area that best suits the project they are working on.

Psychological theory and office space design

Personality theory

Theories on personality psychology provide insight into preferred working styles of employees and have been shown to impact the working environment. A central psychological theory to personality is Han Eysenck's theory of 'Extraversion–Introversion', in which particular individuals work better in social gatherings while conversely others work more efficiently in solitude. Eysenck’s theory highlights the importance of tailoring office design to reflect personality types, with closed rooms and open spaces to accommodate for the occupants personalities. Rotter’s personality theory on 'Locus of control' refers to how individuals interpret the underlying causes of an event. Those with an 'external' locus of control believe that events are influenced by outside factors, while those with 'internal' locus of control believe that events are fashioned after their own actions and behaviours. Rotter's theory suggest that ‘externals’ will require more supervision in the work space while ‘internals’ would be better suited to an more freedom within the workplace. This would suggest that ‘internals’ would favour a flexi type office, while ‘externals’ require a more rigid and structured working environment.

Motivational theory

Psychological theories on Motivation offer considerations into office space design and its effect on workers psychology. Yerkes–Dodson law advocates that to maximise performance of office workers a office space must offer the optimum amount of stimulating. Factors that increase stimulation include vibrate colours, music and noise, and a best suited for simple task completion. While more calming environments maybe better suited for those undertaking complex work tasks. In addition Herberg’s Motivation-hygiene theory can be used to demonstrate that higher levels of hygiene increase motivation within the workplace, and should be a factor of office space design. DeMarco and Lister noted that distraction disrupts the flow of concentration, which takes around 15 minutes to establish. This theory when applied to office space design highlights some of the impractical implications of open plan offices. As such care must be taken to “contain” noisy teammates; “displace” distraction by providing segregated areas for communal meetings; “reduce” detraction with regulated furniture design and etiquettes; and “avoid” distraction though defined workspace areas.

Environmental theory

Behavior settings, a band of environmental psychology, explains that the physical appearance of a (office) space will effect its use. Individuals will have different motivations, experiences and expectations within the same 'space' - this will result in differing psychological responses.. When translating into office design, ‘behaviour settings’ theory focuses primarily on distance and privacy. The theory takes to account details such as seating arrangements to minimise negative behaviours; appropriate desk width; and the need for a comfortable and attractive breakout room to encourage positive behaviours. Environmental psychology explains that the use of smaller ‘touchdown’ desks, used by itinerant workers, can cause higher levels of noise and distraction amongst workers as these layouts impinge on employees need for privacy . While Altman theories on personal space, territory and crowding highlight that too little privacy can heighten stress and discomfort amongst individuals. Further that people will engage in coping strategies to mediate these negative feelings, primarily through the use of territories. Open plan offices make it particularly hard for workers to overcome inadequate levels of privacy; as such it is important to mediate this with the use of ‘breakout spaces’ or areas of restricted access.

Evolutionary theory

Evolutionary psychology is concerned with the interaction individuals have with life and more specifically the natural environment. This can be expressed through gathering in social groups to share food and stories, or feeling relaxed after sitting in a natural environment. The implications of evolutionary psychology on office space design are providing a space that has natural lighting, natural ventilation and connections to the natural environment, for example office plants. More specifically, Adaptive Comfort Theory indicates that individuals will adapt to the climate, and when possible adapt the climate to better suit themselves. The implication of this in office space design is that offices should aim to control temperature settings to better reflect natural weather patterns. For example, increasing office temperature in summer to better reflect natural weather patterns . In addition, Dunbar’s number, which specifies the natural size of social groups peaks at 150 “friends”, discusses the importance of maintaining an appropriate social group size. A key implication of Dunbar’s number in office space design is to avoid over-crowding, though space efficient, over crowding may lead to workers feeling overwhelmed in the work place.   

References

Category:Property management