the workplace office space
design of low-status office has also remained essentially unchanged for over a century as the two photographs in Figure 1 illustrate. The fact that the core philosophy of
Lean has been recycled from those of older approaches might not matter if it worked. However, survey and experimental research that we have conducted over the past six years has shown Lean to be the worst method of space management. For when this philosophy is used to inform office space management, well-being, job satisfaction and productivity are generally all found to be significantly lower than they are under other regimes (eg, those in which space is enriched either by managers or workers themselves). Indeed, in one typical study the introduction of lean design led to a 24% fall in productivity (Knight & Haslam, 2010b).
Benevolent space
So why use Lean? Well the clue may lie in the application of other sub-optimal methods. Consider an outwardly benevolent space, where workers are encouraged to have fun. To promote this, Baldry (2010) describes how some organisations employ ‘funsultants’. But just like Lean, ‘fun’ is imposed in prescribed form by management to suit
the goals and the organisational identity which it has dictated. In his own research, Baldry describes
Are the
people there really the main asset, as your organisation’s literature will almost certainly claim, or is it the infrastructure within which people work that actually matters?
how employees generally ‘play the game’. They neither shun fun practices altogether – which would attract the unwelcome attention of their managers – nor adopt the chosen methods wholesale – which would incur the displeasure of their colleagues. In sum, then, their response is lukewarm and half-hearted. This is a finding supported by our own studies. Typically, we have found that a space enriched for workers but not by workers was still 14% less productive than optimal space. So results indicate that companies are
Figure 1: An open- plan office in (a) 1906 and (b) 2010.
correct in claiming that a space enriched by design is better than a lean space. But design itself cannot maximize either satisfaction or productivity. Nevertheless, the fact that the major guiding principles of modern space management — whether lean, fun, six sigma or enriched — either don’t work or are sub-optimal often seems immaterial to businesses. These systems can be made to appear logical and valuable through a catalogue of case studies. But as any good business book will tell you (eg, Peters & Waterman, 1988), it is not hard to select case studies to support whatever message it is that you want to promote. It is for precisely this reason that our own research has been based on dual methodologies of representative survey and controlled experimentation. Just as in their homes, senior managers
realise their identity by shaping their business’s workspace in their own way. In short, identity realisation is the key to their success. However, for these same managers, the identity-based needs of those who work further down the organisational hierarchy are often seen to be irrelevant. Just as with irresponsible infants, these workers are often seen as unqualified to have input into decisions about the management of the space in which they work. Instead, they must have their rooms decorated and managed for them. For these workers, then, identity is imposed not realised. Yet our research strongly indicates that
if all workers can realise something of their identities in the space in which they work this is good for everyone. Consistently, throughout the course of our research, allowing participants to have a say in how their own work space looks was associated with enhanced well-being, job satisfaction and, crucially, productivity. Indeed, in a study we conducted in a London office, when workers were given the opportunity to decorate their own office their productivity was 32% higher than in Lean conditions.
20 l Property Management Select l september 2010 l
www.pm-select.co.uk The message is simple. If managers
want their organisation to thrive, then the way it is managed needs to engage with, and reflect, the identity of all those who work there. This has clear implications for the
corporate colour scheme, for consistent aesthetic and repeating space plans, and so it should. Corporate appearance currently reflects the identity of the very few who impose their concepts on everybody else. It is time to widen decisional involvement to include rather than disempower the majority of workers — so that the organisation, and its physical presence, is seen as an embodiment of ‘us’, not ‘them’. There is now a veritable wealth of evidence that suggests that this is the sure-fire recipe for healthy business.
Psychological playdough
We began thinking about your home. Now consider your workspace in the light of this article. Are the people there really the main asset, as your organisation’s literature will almost certainly claim, or is it the infrastructure within which people work that actually matters? In many of the organisations that we (and others) study it is apparent that the vast majority of employees’ workspaces are treated merely as psychological playdough that needs to be moulded to today’s pet management theory and to the space that that goes with it — whether, lean, green or ‘fun’. If this is the case, then we should not kid ourselves that it’s the people there that count, and we should not be surprised when, at the end of the day, the order books are not as full as they should be.
Further reading
Baldry C and Hallier J (2010) ‘Welcome to the House of Fun: Work Space and Social Identity’, Economic and Industrial Democracy 31; 15-172. Knight, C.P., & Haslam, S.A. (2010a). The relative merits of lean enriched and empowered offices: An experimental examination of workspace management strategies on well-being and productivity. Journal of Experimental Psychology — Applied, 2, 158-172. Knight, C.P., & Haslam, S.A. (2010b). Your place or mine? Organizational identification and comfort as mediators between the managerial control of workspace and employees’ satisfaction and well-being. British Journal of Management – in press and on-line. Tapping, D., & Dunn, A. (2006). Lean office demystified. Chelsea: MCS Media.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68