Office relocation: changes in privacy fit, satisfaction and fatigue

The importance of employee attitude in activity-based work environments and the potential role of personality

In studies of activity-based work environments, employees' prior attitude towards activity-based work environments has been identified as a potentially essential antecedent to how they perceive the new work environment. Using longitudinal data-collected once before and three times after moving to an activity-based office-we seek to reaffirm the moderating effect of this prior attitude on employee perceptions of privacy and psychological ownership in a sample from two smaller organisations (n = 38 combined). We also explore if employee attitude towards an activity-based work environment is related to personality dimensions. The findings support that prior employee attitude to an activity-based work environment moderates subsequent perceptions of privacy and psychological ownership. Only conscientiousness is significant when examining the association of personality and employee attitude towards an activity-based work environment. Implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Practitioner summary: Questions remain about activity-based work environments. The data shows employee perceptions of privacy and psychological ownership are lower after moving to an activity-based office, but only for employees with less favourable attitudes towards activity-based environments beforehand. Conscientiousness is positively associated with employees' attitude towards activity-based environments before the move.

Balancing privacy and communication in activity-based workspaces: a longitudinal study

Purpose

The aim of this study is to investigate whether activity-based workspaces (ABWs) are able to solve the privacy-communication trade-off known from fixed-desk offices. In fixed-desk offices, employees work in private or open-plan offices (or in combi-offices) with fixed workstations, which support either privacy or communication, respectively. However, both dimensions are essential to effective employee performance, which creates the dilemma known as the privacy-communication trade-off. In activity-based workspaces, flexible workstations and the availability of different spaces may solve this dilemma, but clear empirical evidence on the matter is unavailable.

Design/methodology/approach

To address this knowledge gap, the authors surveyed knowledge workers (N = 363) at a medium-sized German company at three time points (T1–T3) over a one-year period during the company’s move from a fixed-desk combi-office (a combination of private and open-plan offices with fixed workplaces) to an ABW. Using a quantitative survey, the authors evaluated the employees’ perceived privacy and perceived communication in the old (T1) and the new work environments (T2 and T3).

Findings

The longitudinal study revealed a significant increase in employees’ perceived privacy and perceived communication in the ABW. These increases remained stable in the long term, which implies that ABWs have a lasting positive impact on employees.

Originality/value

As the privacy and communication dimensions were previously considered mutually exclusive in a single workplace, the results confirm that ABWs can balance privacy and communication, providing optimal conditions for enhanced employee performance.

Future Teleworking Inclinations Post-COVID-19: Examining the Role of Teleworking Conditions and Perceived Productivity

Organisations have implemented intensive home-based teleworking in response to global COVID-19 lockdowns and other pandemic-related restrictions. Financial pressures are driving organisations to continue intensive teleworking after the pandemic. Understanding employees' teleworking inclinations post COVID-19, and how these inclinations are influenced by different factors, is important to ensure any future, more permanent changes to teleworking policies are sustainable for both employees and organisations. This study, therefore, investigated the relationships between the context of home-based teleworking during the pandemic (pandemic-teleworking conditions), productivity perceptions during home-based teleworking, and employees' future teleworking inclinations (FTI) beyond the pandemic. Specifically, the study examined whether pandemic-teleworking conditions related to the job, and the physical and social environments at home, influenced employees' FTI, and if perceptions of improved or reduced productivity mediated these relationships. Data were collected during April and May 2020 with a cross-sectional online survey of teleworkers (n = 184) in Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and other countries during the first COVID-19 lockdowns. Reported FTI were mixed. Most participants (61%) reported wanting to telework more post-pandemic compared to before the pandemic; however, 18% wanted to telework less. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that some teleworking conditions (job demands and work privacy fit) were positively associated with FTI. Other teleworking conditions (specifically, job change, job control, home office adequacy, and childcare) were not associated with FTI. Perceived changes in productivity mediated the relationship between work privacy fit and FTI. Findings highlight the role of work privacy fit and job demands in influencing pandemic productivity perceptions and teleworking inclinations post-pandemic. Results raise questions about the suitability and sustainability of home-based teleworking for all staff. As organisations plan to increase the proportion of teleworking post-pandemic, this study suggests there is a need to support employees who perceived their productivity to be poor while home-working during the pandemic.

Eine explorative Untersuchung der Einflüsse von ABW-Büromerkmalen auf die Wahrnehmung der Organisationskultur

Dieser Beitrag der Zeitschrift Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. (GIO) untersucht, wie Designmerkmale aktivitätsorientierter Arbeitsumgebungen (activity-based working, ABW) Einfluss auf die Wahrnehmung von Clan-Organisationskulturen nehmen können. Bisherige Forschungsarbeiten haben Designmerkmale selten isoliert von anderen Eigenschaften der physischen Umgebung betrachtet und in Zusammenhang mit Organisationskulturen gestellt. Es wurden halbstrukturierte Interviews mit acht Teilnehmenden aus verschiedenen Organisationen geführt, die eine ABW-Umgestaltung mit Ziel einer hierarchisch flachen Clan-Kulturentwicklung miterlebt haben. Die Mehrheit zuvor berichteter funktionaler und assoziativer Einflüsse auf Clan-Kultur-Indikatoren wie Kommunikation, Zusammenarbeit, Beziehungen, Zugehörigkeit und kollegial-beratende Führungskultur wurden identifiziert. Besonders Unterthemen, wie z. B. dynamische Atmosphäre, fokussierter Austausch, Offenheit und Firmenidentifikation wurden bestätigt oder neu identifiziert. Querschnittsthemen, die funktionale und assoziative Einflussmechanismen vertiefen, waren Zugänglichkeit, Serendipität, psychologische Distanz und Territorialprinzipien. Die Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass die Bürogestaltungsmerkmale auf komplexe Weise mit der Organisationskultur zusammenhängen; die Bürogestaltung scheint die Organisationskultur unterstützen zu können.