A review of research in activity-based working over the last ten years: lessons for the post-COVID workplace

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.

Implementation of Activity-Based Workplaces (ABW)-The Importance of Participation in Process Activities

Relocation to new office solutions such as activity-based workplaces (ABW) has increased but satisfaction with the ABW among employees varies, and the importance of participation in the relocation process is unclear. This study aimed to examine the association between employees' extent of participation in the implementation process activities and satisfaction with the relocation to ABW. Data were collected from 699 employees in a Swedish governmental agency 3-months prior to, 3-months and 9-months after relocation to the ABW. Questionnaires were used to assess participation in process activities and perceived satisfaction with knowledge about working in ABW, office rules, and information and support during the process. Participation in activities was significantly associated with higher overall satisfaction with knowledge, office rules, information and support, and effects were generally more pronounced as the number of attended activities increased. Satisfaction also increased among non-participants, although without reaching the same levels as participants. Our results show the importance to offer and facilitate a high participation in the relocation process activities to obtain satisfaction with a relocation to ABW.

Changing the Office Design to Activity-Based Flexible Offices: A Longitudinal Study of How Managers' Leadership Behaviours Are Perceived

This longitudinal study examines the impact of office type on employees' perception of managers' leadership behaviours, which is an unexplored area. The expanding research related to activity-based flexible offices (AFOs) has mainly focused on employees' working conditions and health outcomes, not on the changes in leadership behaviours when moving from traditional offices to AFOs. Office workers (n = 261) from five office sites within a large Swedish government agency were included in a controlled study of a natural intervention. At four sites, traditional offices were replaced by AFOs, while workers at one site with no relocation acted as the control. The same employees rated different leadership behaviours in a web-based questionnaire at baseline and at one follow-up. The analyses showed that relocations from cell and open-plan offices to AFOs were clearly related to a decrease in the perception of relation-oriented leadership behaviours. However, coming from open-plan offices to AFOs also decreased the perception of the other leadership dimensions. As expected, the control group was stable over time in their perceptions. This emphasises the need for organisations to provide managers with prerequisites so they can keep up with behaviours that support employees' performance and health when office designs and ways of working are changed.