https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/new-harvard-study-you-open-plan-office-is-making-your-team-less-collaborative.html
When you are deciding on an office
layout for your organization, aesthetics can outweigh more practical
considerations. The size of a space, the physical barriers, the furniture, the
lighting, the access to space, the outdoor views, and the noise level can all contribute
to whether the space allows for effective communication between employees.
For the past few decades, traditional open-plan layouts have been adopted by
corporate organizations as the ideal layout since the late
1970s. The popularity of open-plan offices has not been confined to the
United States but has spread across the globe. It quickly became apparent to
researchers and employees that traditional open-plan office had issues. Over
time, employees began to express dissatisfaction with lack of privacy and loud
noise levels. Even corporate giants like Google
have come to realize that their transition to a traditional open-plan layout
has had negative effects on their employees. Studies focused on all sizes of
organizations have begun to show that many groups of employees dislike
open-plan offices spaces more than traditional walled-in offices.
Researchers who
study open-plan offices have found that noise
level and lack
of privacy are two of the key factors that make open-plan offices a detriment
to employee communication. The ability to effectively communicate is essential
for the productivity and the well-being of an organization. However, the
research on open-plan offices suggests that they can be more
conducive to employee communication when coupled with quiet spaces. In
addition, when these offices contain private spaces employee satisfaction and
communication improves even more.
Although open-plan
offices can have negative effects on employees, they do have a few positive aspects that are not found in traditional private offices. Open
plan offices offer many positive advantages such as group cohesion and flexibility
of the workspace. In order to make open plan office layouts effective, it is
imperative to create quiet spaces in order to benefit both the employees and
the organization.
What are some ways to add quiet spaces to different types of offices? Are partitions enough, or is another smaller room necessary? I think this post summarizes your findings nicely, but I might also have liked some different visual examples to show how open-plan spaces look in different buildings, or how these smaller private spaces might be incorporated into them.
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ReplyDeleteChristian, I love the structure of your post. It was short and concise and to the point! I personally am a big fan of open layouts for my personal and professional life, but I can understand why there would be disagreement with an open layout. My question is, how to certain careers interact with an open environment? For example, because you brought up Google, perhaps the IT department would function better with offices, where the marketing and design departments would function better in an engaging, open layout? It's the idea of connecting degrees and brain area processing to literal engagement levels in the office. Interesting.
ReplyDeleteChristian, it is so interesting to see how space plays a role in our communication! After hearing your presentation, and reading this blog post, I have been more conscious about the office layouts that I work in. It is interesting to see the process of designing these, and how originally open floor plans were supposed to enable more productivity. One question I have would be, do you think open floor plans are more beneficial in a class room setting? Would that communication change if there were smaller sections in classrooms for more individualized work?
ReplyDeleteI liked this project because I do not think the layout of the office is considered by many people on how it will effect productivity so drastically or other factors and this opened my eyes to the idea. Something that I thought about while reading this, is that the layout of the office could be used as a recruiting technique so that they are hiring the type of individual that they are looking for. This research is applicable to a lot of different ideas and could be used by just about anyone with a job, great project.
ReplyDeleteI like that you include that quiet spaces are a necessity to combat the aggressive openness of these types of offices. It would be interesting to see how those who actually utilize these private areas more often than others are viewed by their peers and their managers. This seems like an area where bosses might think that people are more committed or hard-working if they work the way that seems "normal" for the company. I think this was well written and was simple enough that anyone could easily pick it up and understand the concept -- pun intended.
ReplyDeleteI think you did a nice job of looking at the connection of open space offices matched with quiet places. I feel like this is a necessary component that is needed and often forgotten about. I appreciated the background in understanding how important space is towards work, such as productivity and collaboration, but wish you added more examples to provide further context. I think this would be a nice add-in to help others visualize, because MarCom is one example that is quite different from some other open-office plans.
ReplyDeleteNice job Christian! I also love open plan layouts, I think it really depends on peoples personalities. I feel like most people who are hired at places with open planned layouts have the personalities for them. I am not sure if this is a problem or not because this would be more of a person-organization fit, which isn't always a bad thing. what do you think?
ReplyDeleteAmazing work! Personally, I am all for open-office layouts, but I am also a very extroverted person, so that would fit me well. For introverts, the open-layout would be extremely difficult to focus in, potentially leading to less quality work and unhappiness. Do you think that certain organizations need specific layouts for their company needs versus their employee needs?
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job of giving us the information of your research in an easy and concise way. Im curious though as to what constitutes as open versus closed office space. Are cubicles considered open or do they give just enough privacy? Does it have to have a walls and a door to be considered a closed office space?
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